UNDETERRED

A young Vietnamese boy flees war-torn Vietnam for the United States and struggles to achieve independence in this novelistic debut biography.

Carlin, an executive in the health care and retail industries, tells the story of his colleague Long and Long’s older brother, Duc, who grew up in Vietnam during the war without parents in a village where this was common; many were the abandoned children of local sex workers and American soldiers. When the North Vietnamese forces overwhelmed Saigon in 1975, the brothers were rescued by U.S. soldiers and flown to America, where they received temporary shelter at Camp Pendleton in California. They were then moved to a series of foster homes, typically families only interested in financial compensation; they were denied affection or hospitality and often made to work like servants; at one point, Long ran away, but he soon returned out of concern for his sibling. Long also experienced sexual abuse in one home, Carlin writes. After Duc died in a car accident, his brother devoted himself to the goal of financial independence, working indefatigably, living frugally, and learning how to invest. The author chronicles Long’s triumph over adversity with clarity. However, the prose lacks style, and it often has a cloying earnestness, as when he describes Long’s astonished reaction to racism in the United States: “Long wondered, why is there hate based on skin color? People are people. Like the fighting years ago in Vietnam, it made no sense to Long.” Long’s life is cinematically eventful; the obstacles he had to overcome as a child were daunting, and the account of his later success is extraordinary; indeed, it’s impossible to read this biography and not be inspired by his perseverance. Nevertheless, the featureless prose in this account isn’t likely to sustain the interest of an audience beyond Long’s family members and friends.

A story of one man’s impressive success that may struggle to find a broad audience.