Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick : a mini review

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I picked up this book after visiting El Museo de Memoria y Tolerancia (the Musuem of Memory and Tolerance) in Mexico City; a museum that teaches about genocide and describes the unimaginable horrors of this crime against humanity, and encourages tolerance amongst human beings. Of course, the Killing Fields of Cambodia featured in the museum, the same subject of this novel and for that reason, this book shocked, saddened and inspired me even more than if I had read it without any prior knowledge.

That's definitely not to say that this book wouldn't have hit home, it's a truly harrowing, real life story of how a young Cambodian survives the tortuous regime of the Khemer Rouge in the 1970s for four years. The story is narrated by Arn, who is eleven years old when his whole world is turned upside down when the Khemer Rouge (the communist movement, led by Pol Pot) comes into his town and marches everyone into the rice field to work as slaves and provide for the Angka.  Men, women, and children are all murdered during this regime, either in cold blood or they waste away and die of starvation or illness. The fact we see the se horrors unfolding through Arn's initial child eyes, for me, makes it extra disturbing. Arn quickly has to grow up in the most awful of ways, he encounters horrors on a day to day basis that most of us cannot, and will never be able to, understand. His innocence and youth are ripped away from him; his story had a profound effect on me. 

The book is written in patois but it is not difficult to understand, you quickly get used to Arn's Cambodian English. This dialect allows you to be transported into Arn's shoes and really captures his voice and the setting. McCormick states in her authors notes that she tried to impose grammatical rules and structure onto Arn's story but it lost a lot of his personality, and retaining the patois makes the book even richer and the story even more realistic, drawing you in. 

The book, understandably, contains a lot of violent imagery. At times, it's not easy to read and the violence and death of the times is portrayed crystal clear through the pages. Again, though it may make for uncomfortable reading, it's important that these facts and ordeals are preserved in plain, violence language in the same way they were committed, for both the story and humanity.  Arn found himself in situations that fortunately, the majority of us will never have to deal with, and McCormick does great justice to his story with her telling.  She is able to artfully and respectfully pad out Arn's story where his memory is vague and the story flows, heartbreakingly along. 

There has been a lot of discussion whether this book is indeed situable for the young adult audience to which it is aimed. I think it could potentially be a difficult read for an early teen, not so much becaus of the language, but because of the content. However, I would encourage any young adult to give it a try, after all, the Khemer Rouge regime was real, thousands of people, children included, lost their lives during the genocide and it would be disrespectful to downplay their story and lives. This subject matter should be difficult to read, thought provoking and challenging. 

Overall, I couldn't put this book down and I read it in two short sittings. Once again, I did find it incredibly difficult to digest at times and heartbreakingly sad, but with glimmers of hope through various 'characters' in the book. Arn is truly a testament to the strength of human spirit. An incredible, reflective journey through an harrowing era of our World's history.