The book is written as a series of semi-autobiographical vignettes.  I think that, perhaps because of the brevity of the work, Thúy's words carry more weight than they would were this written as a standard plot-driven novel.  We don't get pages upon pages of details that add up to create an image of a character; instead, we get little bits and pieces, small parts of a much larger whole.  But it doesn't matter.  The characters' experiences should still affect us because of how poignant and universal they are.

The current refugee situations across the globe made this book more painful for me to read.  The work isn't totally a biography, but it's not exactly fiction either.  To think that there are people going through similar experiences right now is both depressing and infuriating, and there are more than a few people I can name whom I would want to read this book, even though I know they wouldn't.  Books like these should be required reading in schools.  They are also the kinds of books that would be challenged, which is all the more reason for them to be more widely read.