Royal University of Phnom Penh

Institute of Foreign Languages

Department of International Studies

Book Critique
Stay Alive, My Son

IS209

Lecturer: HVC

LIM Chandara
 Stay Alive, My Son is a book written by Mr. Pin Yathai that hold a lot of unforgettable
moments from the true story of his family and the most saddest story that Cambodian people
have ever faced which is the Khmer Rouge Regime. It was the most the most horrible event that
Cambodian people can’t ever forget and never want that to happen again. This book was written
to commemorate and record the events that has happened to Cambodian people and also to pass
the this sour history to newer generation to be aware of the saddest history. The purpose of this
book is also to encourage Cambodian people to keep our hands together to protect our freedom
and independent to never let history repeat. This writing is a brief summary of this book and also
put the book author’s real stories into analysis. This book is consisted of ten chapters that has the
process start from the fall of Lon Nol’s Regime.

The first chapter is Revolution which is about revolution against corrupted regime of Lon
Nol. At that time when Lon Nol was the leader of Cambodia, there too much corruption and
oppression from the government. That is what caused the revolution and led to the war against
Khmer Rouge regime. The war has been going on for several years with The U.S backing Lon
Nol and Vietnam backing Rouge until 17 April 1975 the war ended and that marked the fall of
Lon Nol’s Regime. After that Khmer Rouge took control full control of Phnom Penh city.

The second chapter is Evacuation. When Khmer Rouge had first came to capital city of
Phnom Penh and they try to evacuate people from the whole city insisting that there would be
bombardment by the U.S within three days and also to clean the city. People have to pack up and
go as soon as possible without taking anything valuable, leaving their vehicles and most stuff
behind. After hearing that most people were panic and started to move according as they said
without a sense of suspicious and thinking that there would really be a bombardment. But those
were false claims by Khmer Rouge.

The third chapter is The Liberated Zone. This chapter is about when Khmer Rouge had
full control, they told people that investigated deeply for remaining traces of the previous regime
to make sure nothing remains and for the safety of the people. Most people believed in what
Khmer Rouge and keep thinking that the government did that for their sake. However, it was not
what they think it is. When the city was cleaned, it turned out that it starts Khmer Rouge just
wanted to make people leave the city and start the life of new people in which called Liberated
Zone.
 The fourth chapter is The Beginning of ‘Purification’. That was the start of new lifestyle
with no discrimination. All people tend to live fairly. Khmer Rouge made people work harder
like farming and other stuffs by saying that they would get enough distributions from the
government. Khner Rouge did that to make them trust the government which is called Ang Ka.