Review: Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing Ngor

A Wonderful Account of a Terrible Era

I don't want to spoil this wonderful book by Haing Ngor, who played the part of Dith Pran in the Killing Fields and won an Academy Award for his acting. But it has several points that make it a must-read for anyone who is interested in Cambodia, or even anyone who is interested in international affairs in general.

• It's written by someone who was a grown man at the time of the Khmer Rouge takeover. A lot of survivor's stories are written by people who were then children who did not understand the implications of what was going on. Children may have also suffered less personally, although, given that the genocide affected every family, most survivors did have their family brutally ripped from them.
• Haing Ngor, being a person of intelligence and consequence, has an engaging viewpoint and a wonderful tone. I would read a fictional account in his narrative voice, because he is a completely believable character. Even though terrible events swirl around him, he still has human faults. The writer he worked with has a foreword at the end of the book in which he describes working with Ngor. Their artistic vision and narration blend seamlessly.
• Haing Ngor continued to be a person of consequence for Cambodia, in ways both good and bad, after the Khmer Rouge years. Therefore his later life is as interesting as the earlier portions.
• The connections that Ngor has to his family, and the events which transpire around them, are comical, frustrating, tragic, and inspiring. It's pretty clear that the autobiography was not exaggerated for dramatic effect--it didn't need to be. I was engaged by Ngor's familial relationships and haunted by what he was haunted by, even if I didn't always agree with his actions or opinions.
• Ngor's descriptions of the suffering he endured were tasteful and honest. I did not feel that they were written because of catharsis, which is the case for many survivor stories. They also did not intend to shock the audience--in fact, Ngor always warns before the scenes in which he describes very unpleasant things. I don't know why someone would read a book about a survivor's experience and skip over these scenes, but I appreciated his warnings so that I could steel myself for what I knew would happen next.
• At the end of the book, Ngor describes his experiences filming the Killing Fields. This gives him and his audience a triumphal experience to relish after his suffering in Cambodia, and lends another aspect to the book. However, Ngor does a fantastic job of letting his readers know how his life experiences informed his acting. Thus it doesn't feel like a chintzy interlude, but a logical consequence of his earlier suffering.

All in all, it's the best survivor account I've ever read. It holds together as a literary work, and it involves a deeply flawed but very sympathetic hero. Go read it.