Run Me to Earth

Last updated
Run Me to Earth
Run Me to Earth (Paul Yoon).png
First edition cover
Author Paul Yoon
Audio read byRamón de Ocampo [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Historical
Set in Laos, France, New York and Spain
Publisher Simon & Schuster
Publication date
January 28, 2020
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback), e-book, audiobook
Pages272
ISBN 978-1-5011-5404-1 (hardcover)
OCLC 1091235516
813/.6
LC Class PS3625.O54 R86 2020

Run Me to Earth is a 2020 novel by Paul Yoon. It is his second novel and was published by Simon & Schuster on January 28, 2020. The novel tells the story of three orphans in Laos during the Laotian Civil War and follows the trajectories of their lives after they are separated. [2] The novel follows multiple characters in a third-person omniscient narrative and is divided into six stories that take place over the course of six decades. [3] [4] [5] It received positive reviews and was longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Contents

Background

Between May 23, 1959 and December 2, 1975, Laos was engaged in a civil war between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government. The Royal Lao Government was supported by the United States, which wanted to stop the spread of communism throughout Southeast Asia. The Central Intelligence Agency's paramilitary operation trained ethnic groups including the Hmong as guerilla fighters against the Pathet Lao. Between 1964–1973, the CIA conducted a massive bombing effort in Laos. 580,000 bombing missions took place over the nine-year campaign, with the US dropping over two million tons of bombs. The bombings totaled more than the amount dropped on both Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan during World War II. However, thirty percent of the bombs did not detonate. The unexploded ordnance that has continued to maim and kill Laotians. [6] In the author's note to Run Me to Earth, Paul Yoon writes: "While Run Me to Earth focuses on this time period and these events, its story—and the characters and the situations depicted—is an act of imagination." [7]

As explained in the novel's acknowledgements, Yoon significantly altered the geography of Laos and the timeline of the civil war to fit the story, in particular changing the timeline of the bombings on the Plain of Jars. He also fictionalized the town of Phonsavan as well as the surrounding area of the Canigou in southern France. [8]

Plot

Run Me to Earth is divided into six stories that extend over the course of six decades, primarily between 1969–1977. [3] [4] [5] The novel begins in 1969 but later jumps to 1974 and 1977, before moving back to 1969 and then finally jumping forward to 1994 and 2018. [9] [10] It takes place mostly in Laos but also in New York, Spain and rural France. [11] [4] [12] [13] [3] The novel employs a third-person omniscient narrative, alternating its focus between the different characters. Stream of consciousness is often used to reveal the characters' inner thoughts.

Alisak (1969)

In 1969 in Laos during the Laotian Civil War, Alisak and brother and sister Prany and Noi are homeless teenage orphans who have been friends since childhood. The three orphans are spotted sleeping by a river by a nurse who recruits them to work for a hospital overlooking the Plain of Jars. It is a makeshift field hospital housed in an abandoned farmhouse that was formerly ran as a tobacco plantation owned by a French tycoon known as the Tobacco Captain, who has since gone missing. The three orphans work as orderlies in the hospital and couriers, delivering medical supplies on motorbikes left by the Tobacco Captain. They driver over hazardous terrain into the town of Phonsavan, risking the threat of aerial bombings and unexploded cluster bombs. They form a friendship with Vang, the French doctor who runs the hospital. They wonder where they will go once the hospital is evacuated, speculating either Thailand or France. The brother of the Tobacco Captain, a country doctor, offers to sponsor the three orphans into France. Vang later announces the return of American planes and the hospital is evacuated. While riding on their motorbikes toward the helicopter, they are separated. Alisak is sent to Perpignan in Southern France. He is driven by a Thai women named Karawek. They arrive at "the Vineyard" where Alisak is greeted by the Tobacco Captain's brother, who he learns is named Yves. He later meets a woman named Marta, who works at "the Vineyard".

Auntie (1974)

Auntie last saw Prany and Vang four years prior in a camp before it was raided and burned. Auntie and Vang were childhood friends growing up in Vientiane, Laos. Prany and Vang were captured by the Pathet Lao four years ago. Touby tells Auntie that Prany and Vang are in a prison in the northeast close to Vietnam, where they share a cell and are tortured by "the interrogator" and two other men. Prany has lost the use of one of his hands. When Vang and Prany came to her camp, they rarely spoke to each other. Auntie remembers when Vang told her that despite pleas from the helicopter, Prany had turned and went back for them. When Vang tried to speak of Noi, he began to weep.

Prany (1977)

Prany and Vang are released after seven years in the reeducation center. When they are released, Prany and Vang plot revenge on "the interrogator" and kill him. Prany later meets Khit, and together they travel to the old farmhouse hospital. Prany takes a doctor's coat and puts it on, finding an old piece of paper with a circle written on it. He puts it back in the pocket, knowing it "belonged only there, in a private memory." He is met by Auntie, who he tells to bring Khit to Thailand instead of himself. Prany gives his envelope of money to Auntie, who believes Prany will be caught for his actions but agrees to take Khit. Prany makes Khit promise to remember the name "Alisak". He takes off the doctor's coat and puts it on Khit. He later realizes he left the piece of paper in the pocket of the coat.

Noi (1969)

Noi remembers working for "the Frenchman"–the Tobacco Captain–in his kitchen and cleaning up after parties in his house. Vang tells Noi that they are leaving that night for France. The four of them–Alisak, Prany, Vang and Noi–ride towards the helicopters on motorbike, with a nurse traveling with Noi on her bike. Noi swerves hard and goes over a bump while riding fast. She searches for Alisak then finds him looking back at her with an expression which Noi views as "the greatest gift, like something wonderful and old, as though, like some unrecognized promise, they had been given a chance, all of them together, to become old." Noi lets go of the handlebars and the nurse leans into her, screaming. For Noi, "it was, just then, in all that sudden, immense quiet, enough."

Khit (1994)

Khit travels to Perpignan, where she meets Marta. She tells Marta that she spent two years in Thailand at Auntie's camp. Auntie convinced a couple to pretend that Khit was their daughter, and they moved to Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City before moving to Poughkeepsie, New York. Khit learns that Prany and Vang were charged with the murder of the interrogator and executed. Marta tells Khit that Alisak may be in Sa Tuna, Spain. Khit travels to Spain, where she meets Isabel. With a seventeen-year-old piece of paper in her pocket, she walks to Alisak's shop and ring's the bell by the door.

Sa Tuna, Spain (2018)

Alisak thinks of Prany and Noi and the hilltop where they built their first successful fire. Alisak, sixty-six years old, is working at a bicycle and moped shop in northeastern Spain. He is going to a birthday party for the father of Isabel, whose uncle Alisak used to work with. He thinks of Khit, who came to his shop years ago and gave him a piece of paper she believed belonged to Prany. As Alisak arrives at the party and looks along the bright seaside towns, he is reminded once again of the hilltop, the sound of animals, the river moving below and the "three children fighting sleep so that they can catch the last moments of a small pocket of fire."

Title

The novel's title is taken from W. S. Merwin's poem "Peire Vidal", [10] which is quoted at the beginning of Run Me to Earth following the author's note:

I have worn the fur of a wolf and the shepherd’s dogs have run me to earth...

Publication and promotion

Run Me to Earth was published by Simon & Schuster on January 28, 2020. [2]

On February 6, 2020, Yoon promoted the novel in an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers . [14] [15]

Reception

At the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the novel received a cumulative "Rave" rating based on 15 reviews: 9 "Rave" reviews and 6 "Positive" reviews. [16]

Kirkus Reviews gave the novel a favorable review, writing, "Yoon's imaginative prose and affection for his characters make the story larger than a look at the ways people survive." [17]

Publishers Weekly called the novel "a finely wrought tale about courage and endurance" and praised Yoon's "eloquent, sensitive character study of Alisak." [11]

In his review for The New York Times , writer Tash Aw called the novel an "intense meditation on the devastating nature of war and displacement." [12]

The novel was longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. [18]

Acknowledgements

In the acknowledgements section of Run Me to Earth, Paul Yoon lists the works he referenced and incorporated into the novel: [8]

Related Research Articles

Kingdom of Laos 1953–1975 constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia

The Kingdom of Laos was a constitutional monarchy that ruled Laos beginning with its independence on 9 November 1953. It survived until December 1975, when its last king, Sisavang Vatthana, surrendered the throne to the Pathet Lao, who abolished the monarchy in favour of a Marxist–Leninist state called the Lao People's Democratic Republic, which has controlled Laos ever since.

Pathet Lao 1950–1975 left-wing national liberation movement of Laos

The Pathet Lao, officially the Lao People's Liberation Army, was a communist political movement and organization in Laos, formed in the mid-20th century. The group was ultimately successful in assuming political power in 1975, after the Laotian Civil War. The Pathet Lao were always closely associated with Vietnamese communists. During the civil war, it was effectively organized, equipped and even led by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). They fought against the anti-communist forces in the Vietnam War. Eventually, the term became the generic name for Laotian communists.

Vang Pao Laotian-American soldier

Vang Pao was a major general in the Royal Lao Army. He was a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States.

Laotian Civil War Civil war in Laos from 1959 to 1975

The Laotian Civil War (1959–1975) was a civil war in Laos which was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. It is associated with the Cambodian Civil War and the Vietnam War, with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. It is called the Secret War among the American CIA Special Activities Center, and Hmong and Mien veterans of the conflict.

The insurgency in Laos was waged primarily by members of the former "Secret Army", Laotian royalists, and rebels from the Hmong and lowland Lao ethnic minorities. These groups have faced reprisals from the Lao People's Army and Vietnam People's Army for their support of the U.S.-led, anti-communist military campaigns in Laos during the Laotian Civil War, which the insurgency is an extension of itself. The North Vietnamese invaded Laos in 1958 and supported the communist Pathet Lao. The Vietnamese communists continued to support the Pathet Lao after the end of the Laotian Civil War and the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Lee Lue Laotian Air Force officer (1935-1969)

Major Lee Lue was a Laotian Hmong fighter bomber pilot notable for flying more combat missions than any other pilot in the Kingdom of Laos. Lee Lue flew continuously, as many as 10 missions a day and averaging 120 combat missions a month to build a total of more than 5,000 sorties. Lee Lue was the leader of the special group of Hmong pilots flying T-28Ds from Long Tieng against the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese positions. The group was funded by the CIA and was part of the regular Royal Lao Air Force, but took orders directly from MR2 Commander Gen. Vang Pao. He was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Muang Soui, then his T-28 plane fell in a mountainous area near Ban Phou Pheung Noi on July 12, 1969. At the time of his death, he had flown more combat missions than any other pilot in history.

Battle of Lima Site 85 Battle waged during the Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War by the North Vietnamese Peoples Army of Vietnam

The Battle of Lima Site 85, also called Battle of Phou Pha Thi, was fought as part of a military campaign waged during the Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Pathet Lao, against airmen of the United States Air Force (USAF)'s 1st Combat Evaluation Group, elements of the Royal Lao Army, Royal Thai Border Patrol Police, and the Central Intelligence Agency-led Hmong Clandestine Army. The battle was fought on Phou Pha Thi mountain in Houaphanh Province, Laos, on 10 March 1968, and derives its name from the mountaintop where it was fought or from the designation of a 700 feet (210 m) landing strip in the valley below, and was the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members during the Vietnam War.

Operation Barrel Roll was a covert U.S. Air Force 2nd Air Division and U.S. Navy Task Force 77, interdiction and close air support campaign conducted in the Kingdom of Laos between 14 December 1964 and 29 March 1973 concurrent with the Vietnam War.

The alleged 2007 Laotian coup d'état plan was a conspiracy allegation by the United States Department of Justice that Lt. Col. Harrison Jack (Ret.) and former Royal Lao Army Major General Vang Pao, among others conspired in June 2007 to obtain large amounts of heavy weapons and ammunition in allegedly planning an attempt to overthrow the Communist government of Laos in violation of the Neutrality Act. The charges were ultimately dropped and the case helped serve to further highlight, instead, major human rights violations by the Lao government against the Hmong ethnic minority, Laotian refugees, and political dissidents.

CIA activities in Laos started in the 1950s. In 1959, U.S. Special Operations Forces began to train some Laotian soldiers in unconventional warfare techniques as early as the fall of 1959 under the code name "Erawan". Under this code name, General Vang Pao, who served the royal Lao family, recruited and trained his Hmong soldiers. The Hmong were targeted as allies after President John F. Kennedy, who refused to send more American soldiers to battle in Southeast Asia, took office. Instead, he called the CIA to use its tribal forces in Laos and "make every possible effort to launch guerrilla operations in North Vietnam with its Asian recruits." General Vang Pao then recruited and trained his Hmong soldiers to ally with the CIA and fight against North Vietnam. The CIA itself claims that the CIA air operations in Laos from 1955-1974 were the "largest paramilitary operations ever undertaken by the CIA."

Vang Pobzeb was a Hmong American dedicated to Lao and Hmong human rights. For over 25 years, he was an outspoken critic of the Marxist governments of the Pathet Lao in Laos and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) and their human rights violations, religious freedom violations, and persecution of the Lao and Hmong people.

Jerrold B. Daniels or Jerry Daniels was a CIA Paramilitary Operations Officer (PMOO) in their Special Activities Center who worked in Laos and Thailand from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. He was known by his self-chosen CIA call-sign of "Hog." In the early 1960s, he was recruited by the CIA as a liaison officer between Hmong General Vang Pao and the CIA. He worked with the Hmong people for the CIA's operation in Laos commonly called the "Secret War" as it was little known at the time. In 1975, as the communist Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese Army advanced on the Hmong base at Long Tieng, Daniels organized the air evacuation of Vang Pao and more than two thousand of his officers, soldiers, and their families to Thailand. Immediately after the departure of Daniels and Vang Pao, thousands more Hmong fled across the Mekong river to Thailand, where they lived in refugee camps. From 1975 to 1982 Daniels worked among Hmong refugees in Thailand facilitating the resettlement of more than 50,000 of them in the United States and other countries.

The Lao Human Rights Council, Inc. (LHRC) is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental (NGO) refugee and human rights organization. It is based nationally, and internationally, with chapters in Colorado, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Lao Human Rights Council, Inc. researches, and provides information and education regarding the plight of Laotian and Hmong people, and refugees persecuted in Laos, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Thailand. It was founded by Dr. Pozbeb Vang, Vang Pobzeb of Greenbay Wisconsin. The Lao Human Rights Council, Inc. is currently headed by Vaughn Vang, an educator, and former political refugee from the Royal Kingdom of Laos, who is a Hmong-American—and who was born, and grew up, in Laos prior to the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos and Marxist takeover in 1975.

Operation Momentum was a guerrilla training program during the Laotian Civil War. This Central Intelligence Agency operation raising a guerrilla force of Hmong hill-tribesmen in northeastern Laos was planned by James William Lair and carried out by the Thai Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit. Begun on 17 January 1961, the three-day Auto Defense Choc course graduated a clandestine guerrilla army of 5,000 warriors by 1 May, and of 9,000 by August. It scored its first success the day after the first ADC company graduated, on 21 January 1961, when 20 ADC troopers ambushed and killed 15 Pathet Lao.

Cherzong Vang was an American community leader from St. Paul, Minnesota. He was an elder of the Hmong people in Laos and the Lao-American community in the Twin Cities of the United States.

Operation Raindance was a military operation of the Laotian Civil War, staged from 17 March to 7 April 1969. It was launched by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in support of Hmong guerrillas raised by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As the guerrillas were being pressured by enemy troops pushing to within ten kilometers of their main bases, the aerial campaign was planned to cause a pullback by the pressing communists.

The Battle of Ban Pa Dong was fought between 31 January and 6 June 1961 in Ban Pa Dong, the Kingdom of Laos. Troops from the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Pathet Lao attacked Hmong recruits being trained as Auto Defense Choc guerrillas via Operation Momentum. Although the Hmong made the tactical error of defending a fixed position, their eventual escape from the communist invaders left their fledgling L'Armee Clandestine intact and able to wage war for the Royal Lao Government. However, they abandoned four howitzers and two mortars to the victorious Vietnamese communists. The partisans had also set a deleterious precedent for themselves with their defense of a fixed position.

Forces Armées Neutralistes was an armed political movement of the Laotian Civil War.

Campaign 139 was a major military offensive of the People's Army of Vietnam, launched against its Royalist enemies during the Laotian Civil War. Larger than previous invading forces, Campaign 139 was also a combined arms expedition containing tanks, artillery, engineers, and Dac Cong sappers. As such, it was a decided escalation in the war. It was also an exceptional rainy season offensive by PAVN, which usually withdrew during the wet season.

Ban Phou Pheung Noi Historic place in Laos

Ban Phou Pheung Noi is a Laotian village located on the mountain peak, Phou pheung, in the Xieng Khouang province, Laos. The height of this mountain is approximately 916 m (3,005 ft). During the Vietnam War, this mountain was a place of combat between the American allies, the Hmong, and their enemies: the Pathet Lao, the Laos Marxist government, and the communist North Vietnamese, the Vietnamese People's Army. The area was mainly mountainous and covered with tropical forests in the late 1960s. This mountain, Phou pheung, runs from East to West. It is south of Muang Soui - Nongtang-Nato, and west of Phou Douk, Muang Phuan, Phonsavan and Plain of Jars. On the east side, about 10 miles from Ban Phou pheung noi is the Num Ngum 4 hydroelectric dam. Down the village of Ban Phou pheung noi were its rocky mountains and the Nam Ngum River. This long river went through the bottom of the mountain of Phou Pheung before continuing west to the Mekong River in the Vientiane province. During the rainy season, navigation between Ban Phou pheung noi's village and its neighbors, located on the other side of the Nam Ngum River, was impossible due to the rocky cliffs. Both sides of the river were walled in by unclimbable rocky mountains. To reach the other side of the river, it was necessary to walk miles of detours on foot, which could only be attempted during the dry season.

References

  1. ↑ Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon; read by Ramón de Ocampo. Simon & Schuster . 28 January 2020. ISBN   9781797101859 . Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  2. 1 2 Yoon, Paul (28 January 2020). Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon. Simon & Schuster . ISBN   9781501154041 . Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 Peschel, Joseph (5 February 2020). "Run Me To Earth". The Brooklyn Rail . Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 Charles, Ron (January 28, 2020). "In Paul Yoon's 'Run Me to Earth,' three orphans struggle to survive in the deadliest place on earth". The Washington Post . Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  5. 1 2 Saysourinho, Nay (February 19, 2020). "The Many Disappearances in Run Me to Earth". Ploughshares . Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  6. ↑ Kurlantzick, Joshua (2017). A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA. Simon & Schuster. ISBN   978-1-4516-6786-8.
  7. ↑ Paul Yoon (January 28, 2020). Run Me to Earth. Simon & Schuster. p. 8. ISBN   978-1-5011-5406-5.
  8. 1 2 Paul Yoon (January 28, 2020). Run Me to Earth. Simon and Schuster. pp. 257–259. ISBN   978-1-5011-5404-1.
  9. ↑ Alam, Rumaan (January 29, 2020). "Laos's Forgotten War". The New Republic . Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  10. 1 2 Martin, Philip (February 2, 2020). "ON BOOKS: "Earth" is a quiet book about extreme things". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette . Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  11. 1 2 "Fiction Book Review: Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon". Publishers Weekly . November 21, 2019. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  12. 1 2 Aw, Tash (January 28, 2020). "Caught in Laos's Civil War, Three Friends Endure Lasting Trauma". The New York Times . Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  13. ↑ Winik, Marion (January 24, 2020). "Review: 'Run Me to Earth,' by Paul Yoon". Star Tribune . Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Elijah Wood; Ben Schwartz; Paul Yoon". Late Night with Seth Meyers. Season 7. Episode 63. February 6, 2020. NBC.
  15. ↑ "Event: Paul Yoon in Conversation with Laura van den Berg". Michener Center for Writers . University of Texas at Austin. February 14, 2020. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  16. ↑ "Book Marks reviews of Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon". Book Marks . Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon". Kirkus Reviews . December 9, 2019. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  18. ↑ "2021 Winners". Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence . 18 October 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
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