The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

“The Best We Could Do” by Thi Bui is a memoir in graphic novel form. It recounts her parents’ experiences and recollections escaping from Vietnam to America, as well as their childhood and life in Vietnam. Thi Bui’s parents fled from Vietnam after South Vietnam lost the war against the Communist North. Her parents left almost everything behind to find safety for their children: their families, loved ones, and homeland, but still carried the indelible memories of their old life. Thi Bui took these memories and stories, forming them into this remarkable, emotional, and heartfelt graphic novel.

Throughout the book, Thi Bui thinks about her parents and her siblings. She thinks about the fact that she is going to be a parent. She thinks about her parents’ radically different childhoods. She thinks about all the things that her parents gave up for her and her siblings. She also thinks about her own childhood, and how her parents could have done better, but she also knows how difficult moving to the United States was for them. She thinks about how her childhood was probably very different from most people. And in the end, she knows that her parents were doing the best they could do (I just thought of this while trying to end the paragraph nicely. I never actually realized while reading the book. BOOM. Mind blown).

I read this book twice before I wrote this to make sure that I was really understanding all the information and emotions that Bui was giving, and I feel like I could read this book a third time and still not fully understand. There’s so many details and events from decades and decades of memories covered in just 300 beautiful pages. There’s a lot of things to keep track of while reading the book; sometimes, it even felt a little like a puzzle trying to keep track and piece together all of the parts.

This book is absolutely stunning. It takes you through a rollercoaster of emotions, ranging from hope to confusion to despair. The illustrations only accentuate the sentiments, making the novel even more intense. From peoples’ expressions to the coloring, they all helped to pass emotions to the reader. Even though it’s a graphic novel, it’s definitely a YA graphic novel and it’s incredibly serious and deep.