The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Published 2017 · 320 pages · 25,000 words · about 2 hours at an average pace · Memoir & Autobiography, Graphic Novel, History
How hard is The Best We Could Do to read?
The Best We Could Do scores 39 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 28 out of 100
- Bui writes in plain, clear captions and dialogue. Historical terms for Vietnamese politics appear but are explained as they come up, much like the direct voice of The Diary of a Young Girl.
- Sentence structure: 26 out of 100
- Sentences are short and conversational, and the images carry much of the content. Captions rarely nest clauses.
- Abstraction: 38 out of 100
- The book grounds ideas about displacement and parenthood in concrete family scenes. Reflections on inheritance and memory stay tied to specific moments.
- Information density: 45 out of 100
- Panels pack history, family detail and image together, and the Vietnamese political background adds a lot to track. It stays more manageable than a dense graphic work like Watchmen.
- Narrative indirection: 45 out of 100
- Bui states most of her feelings outright, but what her parents never say must be inferred from silence and gesture. The reader assembles the emotional picture from scenes across time.
- Symbolic density: 40 out of 100
- The recurring motifs of birth, the boat and the single ink tone carry meaning, but they are plainly signposted. The symbolism is lighter than in a novel like The Great Gatsby.
- Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
- The voice is earnest and personal, with little gap between what Bui says and means. It is close to the sincere witness of The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
- Resolution withholding: 40 out of 100
- Bui reaches an emotional understanding of her parents, but the legacy of war and loss stays unresolved. The ending closes the frame without settling every wound.
- Structural complexity: 58 out of 100
- Bui moves between her present as a new mother and her parents' histories across decades, mixing maps, memory and portrait. The jumps in time are more demanding than a linear diary but still clear.
How The Best We Could Do is regarded
The Best We Could Do holds a literary regard score of 61 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.