2018 School Spending Survey Report
Never Fall Down
224p. HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray. May 2012. Tr $17.99. ISBN 978-0-06-173093-1; ebook $9.99. ISBN 978-0-06-211442-6; PLB $18.89. ISBN 978-0-06-173094-8.
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Gr 8 Up—With unflinching candor, an authentic voice, and an indomitable will to survive, Cambodian human-rights activist Arn Chorn Pond narrates the remarkable story of his survival during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror and genocide. McCormick has blended his personal recollections with extensive interviews, historical research, and her own imagination to create a powerful, intimate novel. In 1975, 11-year-old Arn lives an impoverished but inventive life with his aunt and siblings. His father has died and his mother can no longer run the family-owned opera house. After the Khmer Rouge soldiers arrive in his town, everyone is ordered to agricultural labor camps. Separated from his family, Arn witnesses the brutality and sadism of the "black pajama" soldiers, the exhaustion and starvation of his companions, and the horrific Killing Fields massacres. When the soldiers ask for musicians, Arn volunteers. Although he has never played, his natural talent quickly emerges and he becomes a popular khim player, ensuring his survival. With the 1979 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, the Khmer soldiers abandon his camp and he flees with thousands across the border into Thailand. Rescued by peace activist Peter L. Pond, Arn and other orphans come to America where Arn eventually channels his traumatic past into helping other refugees and preserving traditional Cambodian arts and music. Once again, McCormick has delivered a heartrending exposé of human tragedy. The natural syntax and grammar of Arn's narration imbues his story with a stunning simplicity and clarity against a backdrop of political chaos, terror, and death. This compelling story will awaken compassion and activism in secondary readers.—Gerry Larson, Durham School of the Arts, Durham, NCMcCormick's novel draws on hundreds of hours of interviews with Arn Chorn-Pond, who was eleven in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge gained control of Cambodia. Written in realistically halting English, the narrative might be unreadable if not for Arn's brash, resilient personality. McCormick creates an unflinching, riveting portrait of genocide as seen through a boy's eyes.
Arn knows that if he ever falls down, he will be killed -- shot, bayoneted, struck with an ax, or taken "someplace [he] can rest" by the Khmer Rouge. He’s watched soldiers lead away countless others in the work camp, and they never return. "But the dirt pile, it get bigger all the time. Bigger and worse smell. Like rot…That pile, now it’s like mountain." Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with Arn Chorn-Pond, who was eleven in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge gained control of Cambodia, McCormick creates an unflinching, riveting portrait of genocide as seen through a boy’s eyes. Written in realistically halting English, the narrative might be unreadable if not for Arn’s brash, resilient personality. Even before the regime change, he is scrappy, cutting school to sell ice cream on the streets and then using his earnings to gamble. His cheekiness and shrewd survival skills keep him from succumbing to despair in the camps. What’s more, he becomes a motivating force for fellow prisoners such as Mek, the music teacher enlisted to teach the boys how to play patriotic songs on traditional instruments. Having watched his wife and children die, Mek wants to die, too, but Arn won’t let him. "I hit this guy with my fist. ‘Okay if you die!’ I say. ‘But what about us? You don’t teach us to play, we die too. Us kid. Like your kid die, we will die also.’" The "happy ending" -- adoption by an American family after the war -- is compromised until he can figure out how to deal with the hate in his heart: "Hate for the people who kill my family, hate for the people who kill my friend, hate for myself." And so he tells his story. And so McCormick’s novel is one that needs to be read. christine m. heppermann
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