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Across the Mekong River
Across the Mekong River
Across the Mekong River
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Across the Mekong River

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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In a California courtroom, seventeen-year-old Nou Lee’s mind reels with what she is about to do. What she must do to survive. She reflects on the splintered path that led to this moment, beginning twelve years ago in 1978, when her Hmong family escaped from Laos after the Communist takeover. The story follows the Lees from a squalid refugee camp in Thailand to a new life in Minnesota and eventually California. Family members struggle to survive in a strange foreign land, haunted by the scars of war and loss of family. Across the Mekong River paints a vivid picture of the Hmong immigrant experience, exploring family love, sacrifice, and the resiliency of the human spirit to overcome tragic circumstances.

“Russell aptly integrates the culture clash...The family’s richly drawn tension culminates in a grueling court case that affects all involved. A multifaceted tale of complex characters finding new lives in their new world.”
-Kirkus Reviews

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 19, 2013
ISBN9781301697243
Across the Mekong River
Author

Elaine Russell

Elaine Russell began writing adult and children's fiction over twenty years ago, finding her true vocation at last. She loves traveling and most of her novels are based in part on places she has visited. She enjoys weaving the culture and history of other countries and people into her stories. Her books have won numerous awards. Her latest adult novel (October 14, 2018), In the Company of Like-Minded Women, explores the complexities of bonds between sisters and family at the start of the 20th century when women struggled to determine their future and the "New Woman" demanded an equal voice. Three sisters are reunited in 1901 Denver following a family rift many years before. Each sister faces critical decisions regarding love, work, and the strength of her convictions. The progressive women leaders of Denver and the suffrage movement provide the background for the story as the tale unfolds. The inspiration for her first adult novel, Across the Mekong River, came from her involvement with the Hmong and Lao immigrant community. She visited Laos many times to research her novel and as a member of the nonprofit organization Legacies of War. She has written and lectured extensively on the history of the civil war in Laos, which resulted in the mass exodus of Hmong and other Laotian refugees, many of whom immigrated to the United States. Across the Mekong River won four independent publishing awards in 2013. Her picture book (ages 8 - 12 years), All About Thailand was published in November 2016 with Tuttle Publishing. Elaine is also the author of the middle grade mystery/adventure series with skateboarding heroes Martin and Isabel: Martin McMillan and The Lost Inca City, Martin McMillan and The Secret of the Ruby Elephant, and Martin McMillan and The Sacred Stones released in January 2016. The books are intended as fun reads appealing to both boys and girls, and are appropriate for reluctant readers. Her young adult novel, Montana in A Minor, stems from a love of music, interest in the complexities of modern family life, and her belief that everyone likes a good love story! For more information on Elaine Russell, visit her webpage: http://www.elainerussell.info/ and her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/erussellwrites/?modal=admin_todo_tour

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Rating: 4.125 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Laura Lee (Ly Nou) vividly remembers the first few weeks of peace after the Americans left war torn Laos. It wasn't long before that family had fled the cruelty of conquerors , losing one family member after another during their escape to a Thailand refugee camp. This fictionalized tale follows seventeen year old Laura from birth to college, covering the bewilderment of a child caught in a war to a young woman seeking balance between the freedom of American teenagers and the cultural expectations in the Hmong culture. Author Elaine Russell uses flashbacks from Nou (Laura), her mother Yer, and father Pao in this fictionalized account of Hmong refugees.It is unusual for an American juvenile to sue for freedom, let alone a refugee from Cambodia. The characters seem stereotyped without much depth or individuality.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A self published that doesn't disappoint. Really glad I took a chance on this one. The scene when Laura is sick was a touch melodramatic for my tastes. I also didn't care for the happily ever after perfect ending but I can see others liking it. I would recommend this to readers of Picoult.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story of and extended family from Laos first escaping to Thailand and later ending up in California. It is told in first person by the father, mother and eldest daughter of the family. Each has a totally unique personality as they struggle first with the initial escape and then trying to adapt to the totally alien American culture. What I really loved was how "real" these people are. You feel they are probably out there living their lives. The ending was especially satisfying as Russell takes a direction that I never expected. I recommend this book without pause. It would be great for a book club.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Except for the fact that Elaine Russell is certainly not a Hmong name, and her pictures show her to be very much a strawberry blonde Caucasian, one would think that this was a memoir written primarily by a Laotian young woman. It narrates the experiences of a family that was caught up in the Secret War—the conflict between American- and Communist-backed backed forces in Laos—their escape to a refugee camp in Thailand, and their eventual emigration to the United States. They were members of the Hmong tribes that sided with the United States and then suffered from reprisals when the communist Pathet Lao won.The subject matter alone makes this a rather interesting story. Despite some quarter million Hmong now living in the U.S., it's a relatively unknown conflict here: Vietnam overshadowed so very much and what attention span was left tended to be grabbed by the atrocities the Khmer Rouge committed in Cambodia.The primary story teller in Across the Mekong River is Ly Nou, later known as Nou Lee and, finally, Laura Lee. Her struggles to come to terms with her parents are prologue and epilogue to the novel and her story is the thread that ties everything together. However, hers is not the only voice; both her father and mother have chapters told from their perspective. At first, this round-robin seemed to break the flow and I found myself impatient to hear Nou/Laura speak again. However, by the end of the book, my opinion had changed. Russell's novel has three distinct parts. The first is the flight from Laos. The second is a glimpse into life in the Thai refugee camps. The third, and largest, is the struggle with assimilation once the family reaches this country and the differences that adults and children have with it. Had we only had Nou/Laura's voice, the parents might have come across as two dimensional: hidebound, rigid and unrealistic. However, by letting us see some of the events from their point of view, we can reach a level of...perhaps not agreement...but understanding.It's for Hmong readers to decide the accuracy of the depictions but, for a non-Hmong reader, the story is interesting and illuminating.

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Across the Mekong River - Elaine Russell

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