Baguette Pissant Independence

<p>Ngoc Mai writes of Vietnamese history from the perspective of a common person. As a child she unwittingly aided her father to undermine French colonial rule. He did not survive. She tells of her life as the elder sister caring for siblings and later as a young mother of six. She was run down in the street and left abandoned by an allied soldier a life-changing event. She lived a life of dignified poverty eking out a living selling food charcoal and used clothing. After the fall of Saigon she departed with her children by boat on a perilous voyage to safety.   </p>