Becoming Ghost: Poetry

"In 1976, the author’s parents, then Vietnam War survivors living in a refugee camp in the Philippines, were able to earn relatively good wages by becoming extras in Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. They mostly played civilian casualties or Vietcong snipers who were background scenery or “ghosts” in the director’s operatic but ultimately hollow Vietnam parable. Cathy Linh Che restructures lines in Coppola’s filmscript to create dramatic monologues that lend texture and corporeality to her parents’ cinema-worthy history. Her approach is both poignant and humble. While wishing to rectify the past by serving as a vessel for her parents’ voices, Che is fully aware that such an attempt at capturing their elusive narratives is still a scripted effort. The collection was a finalist for the National Book Award."