The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

Soon after his father’s death, war comes to the village. At first, the family is still able to work the land and harvest crops, even as their village becomes an American “military-prisoner site” (31), and soldiers force them to work. Two of Bee’s older brothers are forced to carry packs across the mountains for the military, an experience his brothers describe as “the most humiliating experience of their lives” (36).

By the time Bee is five years old, the family is unable to farm near their homes, and they decide to farm in the lowlands, which requires more intense labor than farming in the mountainous surroundings of their village. Bee falls ill with malaria, and he remembers the time as being lost in the dark. He’s unable to rest because of his mother’s incessant cries for him to “return […] to the world of the living” (37). However, as Bee begins to envision “a place of sunlight, sweet-smelling flowers, and the sound of a gurgling mountain stream” (37), his mother’s voice grows dim.

Bee’s mother refuses to give up, and eventually, Bee regains consciousness. Although Bee’s body gets stronger, he is never the same. He can’t remember things well and has trouble focusing.