I do love reading all the lovely and thoughtful cookbooks that are on my shelf, but I have a special place in my heart for a memoir or a fiction story that centers food in the lives of the characters or the author. I am so grateful for the stories that people share about their lives and how food -- or the lack of food -- changes their lives and their relationships.
In Slow Noodles, Chantha Nguon tells of her life in Cambodia and Vietnam during some of the most turbulent and violent times in human history. Born in 1961, she lived through the years that the Khmer Rouge took everything from her and from millions of Cambodians. She was able to escape to Vietnam with her mother and sister and then through the reunification of Vietnam and the "withdrawal" of the American military from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) after the Vietnamese War. After trying to build a life there, she and her partner decide to return to Cambodia and apply for refugee status to relocate to Europe or the United States. After 10 years in the refugee camps, they finally accept that relocation is not going to happen and begin working to rebuilding their lives and their country.
That summary just doesn't do justice to the incredible stories shared in this book! The loss, the celebrations and learning to appreciate just being alive some days -- even if you only eat a couple of scoops of rice every week. If you can listen to this in audiobook format, I highly recommend that! It is read by Clara Kim and allows you to enter Chantha's life on a very deeply personal journey.
I've included links in the above paragraphs for background on the kinds of terrible events that shaped Chantha's life and experiences - I'm pretty sure that unless you dive into a history major in college, this is not covered in most social studies courses in the United States. Reading books like this reminds me how incredible privileged I am to have lived the life I have and to take the time to understand just how very different the lives of the other billion or so people in the world are.
Clara Kim, Nguon' s daughter shares more information about Slow Noodles:
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