Prisoner of the word : a memoir of the Vietnamese reeducation camps /

An appalling if slow-footed account of five years in Vietnamese reeducation camps from former South Vietnamese army officer Tri. When Tri first reported for his reeducation after the victory of Communist forces in Vietnam, he figured it would be a 10-day pain in the neck. He would be lectured on the evil ways of the Old Regime and get on with his civilian life. But 10 days turned into weeks, then months. There were continual rumors that that release would soon be coming, but nothing came of them. In the meantime, Tri gathered thatch and firewood, gardened, sang revolutionary songs, and partook of the nightly self-criticism sessions. Recounting his story here in a detailed, plain-speaking monotone, he describes how it gradually dawned on him and his fellow prisoners that the cadre and guards were feeding them lies to keep them working: progressive men would be sent home, the rest would keep working until they learned their lessons. Few, in fact, ever left. Hunger set in for an extended stay, and beriberi along with it. Work quotas increased. The guards took on good cop/bad cop roles, either kindling the hope of freedom or instilling a pervasive fear. Prisoners were dragged off into the night, as more rumors spread. Tri learned to live by his wits and foiled attempts to trap him into shirking work details. He trapped mice for food, stole the scraps left out for the pigs. Some men were executed and others publicly beaten. Although he never abandoned his faith that he would be released, Tri’s reeducation days stretched on and on, and the horrid, muffled sameness of his everyday existence is caught unerringly by his unadorned writing. Crude but moving.