How does the author choose to tell his story and how does that inform you about the act of remembering war?

Viet Thanh Nguyen tells his story through the eyes of various characters with a variety of lived experiences; this method of storytelling shows how the act of remembering war can be one that is fragmented and faceted.
The stories that the author relates mostly take place after the Communist regime takes over Vietnam—but they're stories of people who were heavily affected by the events that took place during the war or people influenced by family still under the thumb of the regime. Each story has a different perspective because they're being told by different people with different experiences. For example, the woman in the first story saw her brother die when he tried to protect her from soldiers. The man in the second story can't relate to his Vietnamese family when they write him censored letters to America to avoid being in trouble with the regime.
This way of writing shows how varied the effects of a war can be. It's a fragmented experience that can't always be shared or understood even by people who both lived through it. Only by approaching it from different perspectives can the author really relate a more inclusive version of what it was like to be affected by the Communist regime in Vietnam and how those effects echo into the present.

The author chooses to tell the story The Refugees by using short stories with various immigrant Vietnamese characters who go through different experiences, all influenced by the fact they are not natives of their country of residence. Examples include Liem in "The Other Man"; he is a Vietnamese immigrant sponsored by a Parish to go live in the United States after fleeing the communist regime back home. While living in the US, he realizes his sexuality and feels relieved that his new home can allow him to be himself. Another example is found in "War Years," where an American child born of Vietnamese immigrant parents struggles to balance his home culture and the American culture. Both stories inform the reader about the act of remembering war through the recollections of the characters. Liem receives letters from his parents in Vietnam telling him about the warlike conditions and the repressive regime. The narrator's parents in "War Years" had to bribe government officials to escape the country and avoid taking part in the war—especially the dad. They both remember the incident, but don't like to talk about it.