Escaping the Tiger by Laura Manivong

Escaping the Tiger by Laura Manivong. HarperCollins, 2010. 210 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 12-14

Recommended for: Ages 15-18

Bottom line: The experience of southeast Asian refugees escaping Communism in the 1980s comes to life in this historical novel for middle grades.

After the fall of South Vietnam, the domino theory played itself out with a vengeance, one southeast-Asian nation after another falling to communism’s iron grip.  In April of 1982, 12-year old Vonlai Sirivong escapes communist Laos across the Mekong River with his parents and older sister, only to be stranded in mosquito-limbo in a Thai refugee camp.  For four years.  To make the time pass, Vonlai teases his big sister, trades insults with his best friend, and darts into a soccer game whenever he can.  This comes naturally, but he must also make some conscious choices.  His most significant choice is that of a mentor, the prematurely-aged “Colonel” who teaches him wood-carving, giving him a skill and a creative outlet.

One of the purposes of fiction, we’re often told, is to expand the experience of the reader by taking him places he will likely never go, into times already passed.  A further advantage of Escaping the Tiger is to channel the reader into narrow circumstances, where he’s forced to ask himself, “What would I do?”  What would I do if my home became a single room with no furniture except a bed to be shared with the rest of the family?  What would I do if I were at the mercy of bored, restless guards, barely subsisting on a diet of rice, old vegetables, and a stringy chicken once a week?  What would I do if I saw my parents sink into listless or angry resignation as the weeks turn to months with no assurance that anything will ever change?I like that his coming-of-age isn’t easy and he has to overcome some real temptations, and that everyone in his family has their moments of strength as well as weakness.  I also like that America is seen as a promised land without irony, and communism as a soul-devouring false promise.  Some of the situations depicted are intense (e.g., the attempted rape of Vonlai’s sister by a prison guard), and there’s some boy-type off-color humor, but it’s an inspiring story overall.

Cautions: Vulgarity (off-color jokes among the boys), Violence (attempted rape of Vonlai’s sister), Worldview (Buddhism)

Overall value: 3.75

• Worldview/moral value: 3.75
• Artistic value: 3.5

*Discussion Questions:

• Literary element: The author based this story on the experiences of her husband, who escaped Laos with his family in the early eighties.  See what you can find out from her website about their story.
• Thematic element: How would you respond differently than Vonlai to the some of the challenges he faced in camp?
• Worldview element: How does the Colonel’s Buddhist faith help him deal with life in prison?  How would Christian faith do the same?

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