''The Best We Could Do'' is a 2017 illustrated memoir written by

Thi Bui Thi Bui (born 1975) is a Vietnam-born American graphic novelist and illustrator. She is most known for her illustrated memoir, ''The Best We Could Do''. Biography Thi Bui was born in what was then Saigon, Vietnam three months prior to the Fall ...

. It chronicles Thi Bui's parents' life before and during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, their escape from

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

when Bui was a child, and their eventual migration to the United States as refugees. The novel was published on March 7, 2017.

Background

The idea for the novel began when Bui was working on her

Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

and conducted

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

interviews with her parents. According to Bui, under the umbrella of academic work and oral history, she began having long and difficult conversations with her parents about topics that were uncomfortable for them to share. Bui shared her family's history in the thesis project, but that work was ultimately only available to her family and her graduate school advisor and peers. She wanted to share her work on a larger scale. For the next ten years, she trained herself to draw

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

and developed the novel. Bui claims she was inspired by other autobiographical graphic novels like Art Spiegelman's ''

Maus ''Maus'' is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, serialized from 1980 to 1991. It depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. The work employs postmodern technique ...

'' and Marjane Satrapi's '' Persepolis''.

Themes

The novel touches on many themes, including family, parenthood, belonging, the meaning of home, and the importance of education. It also touches on important themes such as historical memory and narrative. In telling her parents' story, Bui offers a different narrative about the

from the one usually seen in American films and textbooks. Bui also focuses on how members of her family will remember the same events differently, and the differences can be based on the person's gender, class, politics, life experiences, etc. Bui has publicly stated that it is important to her and her family that the novel be "good for the Vietnamese people," and that motivated her parents to reveal their hardships in the novel. The novel is an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

and a

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

story, and in interviews Bui has expressed her thoughts on contemporary immigration issues in the United States and how important narrative and

storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural pre ...

is to humanize immigrants.

Reception

''The Best We Could Do'' has earned starred reviews.

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

says, "Bui transmutes the base metal of war into gold...", and the ''

Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...

'' cautions readers, "Be prepared to take your heart on an emotional roller-coaster..." It has also earned positive reviews in other journalistic sources. Abraham Riesman, writing for news site ''Vulture,'' praises Bui's prose and claims, “I set out to dog-ear every brilliant piece of compact phrasing; my book is now twice as thick on the top as it is on the bottom.” ''The Best We Could Do'' is on lists like ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''s "The 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2017" and ''The Cut''s "6 Graphic Novels to Make You Cry," and

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

' "5 Amazing Books I Read This Year." ''The Best We Could Do'' won the

American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

and was nominated for the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award in the autobiography genre. It made it to the top 30 finalists in the latter. The novel also received an

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

nomination. The book has also been well received by universities across the United States. It was the 2017-2018 Common Book at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and the 2018-2019 Common Book at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. ''The Best We Could Do'' has been so well received Bui has even had offers for film rights, but she has declined all of them. Bui does not trust a movie to represent her family's Vietnamese-American experience, because there are "too many bad Vietnam War movies out there".

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

would have to hire more Vietnamese actors and change the ways it represents Asian and Vietnamese people before she would consider selling the film rights.

Awards

2017 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist 2018 American Library Association Notable Books Selection 2018 American Book Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Best We Could Do American memoirs 2017 graphic novels Abrams Books books Graphic novels set in Asia Graphic novels set in the United States Graphic novels set in the 1970s Graphic novels about war