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Mekong Delta
The large port city in northern Việt Nam where Bố grows up. His family moves to Hải Phòng after their village, which is nearby, gets attacked by French colonial forces.
Hải Phòng Quotes in The Best We Could Do
The The Best We Could Do quotes below are all either spoken by Hải Phòng or refer to Hải Phòng. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
Every casualty in war is someone’s grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, brother, sister, child, lover.
In the decade of the First Indochina War, while my parents were still children learning their place in the world…
…an estimated 94,000 French soldiers died trying to reclaim France’s colony.
Three to four times as many Vietnamese died fighting them or running away from them.
This was the human cost of ending France’s colonial rule in Southeast Asia…
…and winning Việt Nam’s independence.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Hải Phòng Term Timeline in The Best We Could Do
The timeline below shows where the term Hải Phòng appears in The Best We Could Do. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: Blood and Rice
Bố’s first story takes place in 1951 in Việt Nam’s northern port city of Hải Phòng , where Bố’s grandfather and great uncle construct an entire street of houses. They dig...
(full context)
All of Bố’s other stories have “the same ending.” One day, in a village near Hải Phòng , “a dapper gentleman” arrives and manages to find a job and seduce the village...
(full context)
...retaliate by attacking the chief, Bố’s great-grandfather, and he leads his family—including seven-year-old Bố—away to Hải Phòng .
(full context)
Chapter 5: Either, Or
Thi turns to Bố’s life after his move to Hải Phòng . His grandmother and grandfather open stores and he becomes “citified.” Thi draws all the...
(full context)
...soon as she gets out. Bố and his grandfather board a large American ship in Hải Phòng , and arrive in Hạ Long Bay many hours later.
(full context)
