Never Fall Down

McCormick, Patricia. Never Fall Down. 2012. 216p. ISBN 9780061730931. Available at FIC MCC on the library shelves.

Arn Chorn-Pond is a young orphan boy who lives with his aunt and his many siblings in Cambodia. The war in Vietnam has recently wrapped up, and the United States has abandoned the area. Despite hard living conditions and the lack of money, Arn leads a good life in his small village, and hopes to one day meet the Cambodian princess.

When the Khmer Rouge come to his village, however, life changes for the worse. Arn doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to be an unwilling victim in the largest genocide since the Holocaust. The Khmer Rouge hope to rebuild an equal society without class, educational, or cultural distinctions, based on a robust peasant lifestyle. Everyone, from intellectuals and members of the former regime to bystanders who look the wrong way become victims, assassinated by a cold-blooded killing machine. Even the Khmer Rouge feed on each other, with leaders appearing and disappearing as quickly. Their broken and bankrupt ideology eventually causes over two million victims in a country of roughly 8 million people.

Arn and his family are escorted out of the village based on Khmer Rouge rumors that it will be bombed by the Americans. In three days, the Khmer Rouge say, we will be returning. But no one returns. People are forced to work on the land. At night, the enemies of the Khmer are massacred. Arn’s aunt tells him a piece of advice that saves his life: “Bend like the grass.”

Separated from his family, assigned to work in a camp where the conditions are terrible, Arn knows he has to lose himself in order to survive. The Khmer Rouge play tricks. They offer things, but if you accept them you are a negative influence and you are eliminated. But when a soldier asks the children at the camp if anyone plays music, Arn, who has never played music, volunteers. This decision saves his life.

Set in one of the worse time periods in history, Arn’s story of survival and courage under the most withering conditions is a testament that humanity can be beat down, but never killed. Fans of Holocaust fictions will appreciate this book and the positive message it ultimately carries. For a similar story in a different media, take a look at Jacob's story of a child soldier serving in the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group in Uganda, in War Brothers.