Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness

by Loung Ung

Overview

Concluding the trilogy that started with the bestselling memoir First They Killed My Father, Loung Ung describes her college experience and her first steps into adulthood, revealing her struggle to reconcile with her past while moving forward towards happiness. After the violence of the Khmer Rouge and the difficult assimilation experience of a refugee, Loung’s daily struggle to keep darkness, anger, and depression at bay will finally find two unexpected allies: the empowering call of activism, and the redemptive power of love. Lulu in the Sky is the story of Loung’s journey to a Cambodian village to reconnect with her mother’s spirit; to a vocation that will literally allow her to heal the landscape of her birth; and to the transformative influence of a supportive marriage to a loving man.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062091918
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/17/2012
Series:	P.S. Series
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	300,116
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Loung Ung was the National Spokesperson for the “Campaign for a Landmine Free World,” a program of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for co-founding the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Ung lectures extensively, appears regularly in the media, and has made more than thirty trips back to Cambodia. She is also the author of Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind and LuLu in the Sky.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Prologue: Amah Chiem La Aw (Grandmother Who Possessed Good Blood) Kompong Speu, Cambodia, January 2000 1

Part 1 Love

1 Born of Kambu Cambodia, 1975-1979 13

2 Crush Burlington, Vermont, August 1990 29

3 Fish Sauce and Prahok Colchester, September 1990 39

4 A Good Aunt Essex, Autumn 1990 51

5 To Speak or Not to Speak? Winooski Park, Equinox 1990 65

6 Of Worms and Walls Battery Park, October 1990 77

7 No Rapunzel Shelburne, November 1990 87

8 Klutz and Misdirection Manchester, December 1990 97

9 Lulu in the Sky Champlain Mill, April 1991 105

10 A Message in Ma Po Tofu Chapel of Saint Michael's, Spring 1991 117

11 Cupid's Evil Twin Fort Ethan Allen, May 1991 125

Part 2 Healing

12 The Long and Winding Road Vermont, Maine, and Washington, D.C., 1993-1997 133

13 The Girl in the Mirror Washington, D.C., May 1997 149

14 Birthdays Capitol Hill, June 1997 159

15 A New Path Dupont Circle, D.C. July 1997 167'

16 Cow Teats and Five Hundred High School Boys Washington, D.C., September 1997 181

17 Never Silent Scott Circle, D.C., April 1998 199

18 Lifelines Washington, B.C., May 1998 209

19 Exorcist of the Writing Kind D.C. and Cambodia, June 1998-February 1999 217

20 Millennium Orlando, Florida, December 1999 225

Part 3 Double Happiness

21 Srok Khmer Kompong Speu, January 2000 233

22 Khsae Family Line Kompong Speu, January 2000 241

23 Fear of Landing Kompong Speu, January 2000 249

24 Khmer Inheritance Oudong, February 2000 259

25 Somewhere in Time Kompong Speu, February 2000 269

26 The Hills of the Poisonous Trees Phnom Penh, February 2000 277

27 A White Giant Barang in the Village Phnom Penh, March 2000 287

28 A Gathering to Heal Lost Souls Siem Reap, March 2000 307

29 Double Happiness Vermont, August 2002 313

Acknowledgments 323

Bibliography and Sources 327

Editorial Reviews

Loung Ung makes Lulu in the Sky shimmer with renewal after the Cambodian killing fields

Cleveland Plain Dealer

You can’t help liking and admiring this young woman. . . . [A] lively, humorous account . . . when you arrive at the hard-earned happy ending, it’s with a sigh of deep relief.

Washington Post

You can’t help liking and admiring this young woman. . . . [A] lively, humorous account . . . when you arrive at the hard-earned happy ending, it’s with a sigh of deep relief.

Washington Post

A refugee from Cambodia's killing fields, Ung concludes the heartrending trilogy begun with First They Killed My Father, a 2001 American Library Association Asian/Pacific American Award winner, with this account of her move into adulthood. You'll be hearing more about her; she's contributed her story to 10×10, a documentary film conceived and directed by Academy Award-nominated director Richard E. Robbins that chronicles the lives of ten girls from ten countries.

Library Journal

The third memoir in a trilogy about processing and moving past the trauma of surviving the Cambodian genocide. Activist Ung (Lucky Child, 2006, etc.) wrote two previous well-received chronicles of her stint as a child soldier serving the Khmer Rouge. She lost most of her family to the killing fields, built a new life as a refugee in Vermont and reunited with a sister who was abandoned in Cambodia. This book chronicles the next chapter of her life, the decade that began with her time in college. At age 20 she fell in love with Mark, a wholesome, optimistic Midwesterner. The author gives a significant amount of attention to their courtship and eventual successful marriage. Even the magic of their romance, however, couldn't negate her almost-daily struggles with depression and residual post-traumatic stress. Mark's sunniness, which originally drew her to him, became a source of resentment, but she ultimately recognized as positive her husband's capacity to love without fear. The title is a combination of Ung's nickname, Lulu, and the Beatles' song, and its implicit optimism reflects a theme running through the author's life. "People will always die," an aunt told her, "but we have to continue to live. Live, eat, and love." After college, she and Mark moved to Washington, D.C., where she began her lifelong work as an activist. The book closes with another return trip to Cambodia in 2000. Ung's writing is clear-headed, honest and compelling; much of what she describes, from the brutalities she and her family endured to the ways it steered her adult life, is deeply affecting.

Kirkus Reviews

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