Emotional, uplifting but without too much sugar coating, Eddie Jaku is somebody with a lot to teach about gratitude, kindness, never forgetting but forgiving. Amazing man. Amazing, emotional story.
The Happiest Man on Earth
Every now and then along comes a book which just restores your faith in life. Anh Do's THE HAPPIEST REFUGEE is one such book. Mind you, it will make you feel good, it will make you cry in a few places, it will really make you think about what it is to be a "refugee" and how we treat / react to current day boat people. Mostly though, this was a book that restores a bit of your faith in humanity.
Anh and his family escaped war torn Vietnam as boat people. They took a dangerous and harrowing journey including multiple raids by pirates (including death threats), dehydration, deaths on the boat and extreme circumstances before finally making it to Australia. They were grateful for their lives, and grateful for the kindness of people when they settled here (including the gift of clothes, even though Anh's brother Khoa spent time dressed as a little girl (and a very pretty little girl he made too). The book talks about the struggle to make a life and get ahead in a country that was so substantially different from where they came, a struggle complicated further by the breakdown in Anh's parents marriage. What really shines through in this book though is the sense of family and the care for family, extended family and friends that all members of Anh's circle showed for each other. Behind his family's generosity to others there's the ongoing struggle to survive with only his mother's work in a home based sewing job to support them.
What also shines through is the indomitable spirit, kindness, good humour and basic goodness of Anh himself. This is just a genuinely nice bloke, a quintessentially Aussie sort of a bloke in the end, that looks after his mother and his brother and sister, loves his wife and kids and has made a life in a country that took him in as a child refugee.
Anh's story means so very very much in these troubling times, when demonising and degrading refugees seems to be our default setting. Anh's emotional, uplifting, funny and very very touching memoir reminds us that doing the right thing can pay off in spades.
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