Official Review: The Chance by Bruce M Baker
Posted: 13 Apr 2021, 10:06
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Chance" by Bruce M Baker.]
Muoi Quan was only nine years old when the North Vietnamese army attacked and defeated the South Vietnamese forces in December 1974. Muoi didn’t know it yet back then, but life as she knew it would forever change. The Chance by Bruce M Baker and Lisa Cheng is a true story of a twelve-year-old girl’s escape from Vietnam in 1979. In this book, we read about Muoi’s life before, during, and after her journey to freedom.
After the Communists from the North took over the South, life in Cho Lon, a Chinese bubble in the South, gradually began going downhill. If they were at least eighteen years of age, men were forcibly taken from their homes to fight in the ongoing war. At school, children were being manipulated into admitting that their parents were conspiring against or hiding wealth from the government by saying that “Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh) wants all of his children to be happy and well-fed. He can’t do that if your parents are keeping things from him. Would you help?” I can’t fully express how terrified I was when I read this.
Life got extremely difficult. At some point, the Quan family even had to completely cut out meat from their diet due to its price. It didn’t help that the family was of Chinese descent, making them more desirable targets for the new government. Muoi’s father knew that the family would have to escape the country eventually. Using almost all of the family’s life savings, he bought his first son, Hung, a spot on a boat that would take escapees to Malaysia in 1979. However, what he and his wife did not expect was that Muoi would wound up boarding the ship as well. How did this happen? Will Hung and Muoi make it? Will the rest of the family escape as well? You’ll have to read the book to find out the answers to these questions.
Before reading The Chance, I knew nothing about Vietnam’s history. Reading this book not only gave me insights into the events in Vietnam in 1975, but I also learned a lot about Chinese culture. Muoi’s outgoing, stubborn, and adventurous personality made this book an enjoyable read for me. I also loved reading about Muoi’s family and their way of life. While Muoi’s escape doesn’t happen until a few chapters into the book, I didn’t feel bored reading about her experiences in the town of Cho Lon. Additionally, it isn’t difficult to keep track of the characters in the story.
I found nothing to dislike about this book. It was easy to read, and the story’s events were easy to follow. There were times when I got emotional when reading it, and I have to admit that I cried more than a few times while reading this book. It’s easy to get lost in the story and imagine it as fiction. After all, the effects of war and the experiences of those who are affected by it are so cruel that you find yourself wishing it wasn’t real. But the reality is that this story is true, and it’s only one of many stories out there about people having to flee their homes.
While there were a few errors in this book, this didn’t affect my reading experience. Much to my delight, the number of errors present isn’t large enough to warrant a deduction to the book’s overall rating. Therefore, I gladly award The Chance a perfect rating of 4 out of 4 stars. I recommend this book to those who are interested in reading a refugee’s journey to freedom. However, I do not recommend it to those who are squeamish as the book contains some graphic scenes that involve blood and death.
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The Chance
View: on Bookshelves
Muoi Quan was only nine years old when the North Vietnamese army attacked and defeated the South Vietnamese forces in December 1974. Muoi didn’t know it yet back then, but life as she knew it would forever change. The Chance by Bruce M Baker and Lisa Cheng is a true story of a twelve-year-old girl’s escape from Vietnam in 1979. In this book, we read about Muoi’s life before, during, and after her journey to freedom.
After the Communists from the North took over the South, life in Cho Lon, a Chinese bubble in the South, gradually began going downhill. If they were at least eighteen years of age, men were forcibly taken from their homes to fight in the ongoing war. At school, children were being manipulated into admitting that their parents were conspiring against or hiding wealth from the government by saying that “Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh) wants all of his children to be happy and well-fed. He can’t do that if your parents are keeping things from him. Would you help?” I can’t fully express how terrified I was when I read this.
Life got extremely difficult. At some point, the Quan family even had to completely cut out meat from their diet due to its price. It didn’t help that the family was of Chinese descent, making them more desirable targets for the new government. Muoi’s father knew that the family would have to escape the country eventually. Using almost all of the family’s life savings, he bought his first son, Hung, a spot on a boat that would take escapees to Malaysia in 1979. However, what he and his wife did not expect was that Muoi would wound up boarding the ship as well. How did this happen? Will Hung and Muoi make it? Will the rest of the family escape as well? You’ll have to read the book to find out the answers to these questions.
Before reading The Chance, I knew nothing about Vietnam’s history. Reading this book not only gave me insights into the events in Vietnam in 1975, but I also learned a lot about Chinese culture. Muoi’s outgoing, stubborn, and adventurous personality made this book an enjoyable read for me. I also loved reading about Muoi’s family and their way of life. While Muoi’s escape doesn’t happen until a few chapters into the book, I didn’t feel bored reading about her experiences in the town of Cho Lon. Additionally, it isn’t difficult to keep track of the characters in the story.
I found nothing to dislike about this book. It was easy to read, and the story’s events were easy to follow. There were times when I got emotional when reading it, and I have to admit that I cried more than a few times while reading this book. It’s easy to get lost in the story and imagine it as fiction. After all, the effects of war and the experiences of those who are affected by it are so cruel that you find yourself wishing it wasn’t real. But the reality is that this story is true, and it’s only one of many stories out there about people having to flee their homes.
While there were a few errors in this book, this didn’t affect my reading experience. Much to my delight, the number of errors present isn’t large enough to warrant a deduction to the book’s overall rating. Therefore, I gladly award The Chance a perfect rating of 4 out of 4 stars. I recommend this book to those who are interested in reading a refugee’s journey to freedom. However, I do not recommend it to those who are squeamish as the book contains some graphic scenes that involve blood and death.
******
The Chance
View: on Bookshelves
