As the first in what will be fortnightly updates of this, I started my super cheap ass ploy of going into Waterstone's and reading a book in their reference section this week. And again, as I'm incredibly predictable, I went and read the first book in the travel section, which coincidentally was genocide related. Madness. So a quick capsule review is what will follow.
'To the End of Hell' is the publication of Denise Affonco's memoirs, spanning the 4 years spent in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime, that led to the systematic wiping out of almost 2million people. That should pretty much make it clear what you are in for with this book. It certainly isn't a cheery read, although the end is surprisingly optimistic. That however, could just be because the previous 150 pages are the story of things getting progressively worse. Intimately documenting the early stages of the revolution and the confusion of being forcefully evacuated from the capital city to the country, all the way through to liberation by Vietnamese soldiers, this is a bloody tough read, and one that isn't for anyone with a particularly weak constitution. The slow starvation suffered by her daughter, Jeannie, is one aspect of the book that was particularly difficult to take. In a phrase that is repeated a number of times throughout, Affonco speaks of the feeling of sheer helplessness whilst watching her children slowly waste away. How she and her son managed to survive is entirely beyond me.
Despite the misery, it was a damn fine read, and a very important one for anyone who has no idea what happened in Cambodia during the late 70s. Whilst these days its just another stop on the drunken middle class gap year travel trail, it is a place of rich, deep history, and an extremely violent and disturbing recent past. Affonco's will to live is genuinely inspiring at times, and it certainly made me, the token comfortable westerner, feel ever so slightly redundant in my complaints. A fine, if difficult read.
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