Ma and Me

This must-read debut memoir by journalist Reang stands at the crossroads between upholding familial and cultural obligation and navigating the challenges of transculturalism in American society. Reminiscent of Memoirs of a Geisha with its lyricism, parables, and honest nature, Reang’s writing tracks the interconnected lives of a mother and daughter who escape the Cambodian genocide but live with guilt for having survived. Reang writes, “I had lived a life a slave to sang khun, but I could never repay my mother.” “Sang khun,” the debt a child owes to their parents for having created them, is the lingering tie between Reang and her mother. This tie is tested when Reang comes out as a lesbian to her mother; it’s truly severed decades later, when she tells her mother she’s marrying a woman. The chapter entitled “Afghanistan” is notable for its abrupt shift from first-person to second-person narration, which purposefully disrupts the flow of the story, adopting an urgent tone to enmesh the reader in wartime Afghanistan.