CAMBODIAN WITNESS: The Autobiography of Someth May

by Someth May ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1986

One of the first behind-he-scenes reports from 1970's Cambodia by one who survived the ""killing fields."" May's story starts out in a gentle manner, as he describes his early years, the child of a traditional Cambodian family in simpler times. But with the coming of the Khmer Rouge regime, the story takes on a tone of horror as May recounts how he was forced to leave his family and endure sights and indignities that would lead most Westerners to thoughts of suicide. One of the greatest horrors he recounts is the terrible manner in which Poi Pot's thugs delighted in killing those judged to be dangerous (a status that could include such crimes as being from an educated family, or being a doctor). Ripping open a live man's abdomen, the soldiers would apply foot pressure there to get the man's liver to pop out. Only then would they finish off the victim by slashing his throat. Nearly starved to death, May tells of his terror in being caught stealing from a cassava field at night and how he was consequently led to a killing field, forced to dig what he assumed to be his own grave, then being forced to watch another acquaintance, murdered, being rolled into that grave as a lesson. Most books about this gruesome period have come to us from Western journalists, such as Elizabeth Becker and Gail Sheehy. This is our first opportunity, short of the movie, to witness the horrors through the eyes of one who experienced them.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION