When Heaven Fell (review)

Set in a contemporary Vietnamese village, Marsden's latest novel explores the cultural conflict experienced by the family of nine-year-old Binh when an American relative comes to visit. Binh has only just learned that her grandmother Ba Ngoai had another daughter before her own mother was born; this first daughter, Thao, was fathered by an American GI and, for her safety, given up for adoption to an American family in the mid-seventies. When Thao contacts her birth mother about plans to visit Vietnam, Binh's family is sent into a whirlwind of hopes for the riches and wealth that Thao will bring to them (Binh herself hopes Thao will bring her back to live in a glamorous American city like she has seen in the movies). Binh and the rest of her extended family are disappointed when Thao arrives, but with the gentle guidance of her American auntie, Binh works through her confusion about what it means to be American; meanwhile Thao, with Binh's assistance, comes to realize what she can do to best help her Vietnamese family. While the narrative is occasionally punctuated by Thao's deeply felt memories of the war and Ba Ngoai's lingering guilt over having sent her daughter away, the story is mostly unemotionally straightforward, lacking the lyrical descriptions of other Marsden novels. The true success of this short novel lies in its portrayal of the Vietnamese villagers' misconstrued perceptions of what it means to be American and in the resolution of those misperceptions through Thao's visit. This would work well in conjunction with a unit on the Vietnam War, especially if paired with a nonfiction story of war orphans such as Warren's Escape from Saigon (BCCB 10/04). A glossary and pronunciation guide are included.