Thi Bui's illustrated memoir begins with the author giving birth to her first child, after which "a wave of empathy for my mother washes over me," for Bui's mother gave birth six times, sometimes in harrowing situations.
One of those births--Bui's younger brother's--occurred in a refugee camp in Malaysia. Bui and her family are Vietnam War refugees, boat people who arrived in the U.S. in 1978, when the author was three years old. The Best We Could Do started as an oral history project for Bui "to understand the forces that caused my family... to flee one country and start over in another." The result is much grander in scope: a moving, visually stimulating account of the author's personal story and an insightful look at the refugee experience, juxtaposed against Vietnam's turbulent history.
Bui's decision to render her life story in comics is inspired, making this attractive for a range of readers: young ones who might not be interested otherwise in events that happened long ago in a country far, far away, as well as those who witnessed those times and will recognize the truth in Bui's work. Though her research is meticulous, Bui makes complex historical events easy to understand. The artwork is simple and haunting, stripped down yet evocative while depicting the burdens of war the Bui family carried. Bui's restraint in illustrating horrific scenes gives them emotional heft, leaving readers to fill in what she doesn't have to show. Bui's sad story ends on an optimistic note--the best outcome we can hope for. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd