Tracy Vo

It has to be said that Tracy Vo takes a while to hit her stride with this book. The early account of her family's life in Vietnam is disjointed, building on the recollections of her mother and father's generation (she was born after her parents fled Vietnam). There's tantalising glimpses of a lost world, but for the most part it's apparent that the accounts she relates are coloured by bitter experience (and the author's sympathy for them), and include large gaps, which the author acknowledges was due to the reluctance of some of the family to talk about what had happened.

But just as I despaired of her writing style and perspective she broke the mold. It is in her account of her parents escape by sea from Vietnam, doing everything that these days brands a person an 'illegal immigrant' and earns them excoriation and incarceration. Tracy Vo is too polite to make the point, but she makes it all the same, in every step of her parents journey, and in the story of her parents welcome in Australia. The contrast to current attitudes and policies is stunning.

The latter part of the book, written from her own experience carries forward the story of acceptance, assimilation and contribution. There's only a hint of a troubled life in her teenage years, but for the most part it's a story of hard work, and gradual acceptance into some of the highest levels of the Australian Media industry as a reporter and news reader. For the most part this is an extended 'thank you' to all of the people who she admired, and who helped her unstintingly. It's perhaps a little indulgent, but it makes the point again - devastatingly for those who choose to see it. That the child of a couple who we'd these days call 'illegal' (and never admitted here) rose to such a position where she was acclaimed and was able to contribute so much to this country.… (mere)