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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Brilliant writing that plumbs the depths of the horrors of war. I didn't know much about how awful the Vietnam war was for everyone, and now I certainly do, even though this is a fictionalised account of the author's and other's experiences.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Lieutenant Kitty McCully is a military nurse serving in Vietnam and facing severe burnout from the endless workload, the sexism on base, and the treatment of the patients in her ward--mostly Vietnamese civilians. One of her patients seems to have a calming effect on the others though, and Kitty learns that he's considered a kind of spiritual doctor, and that his amulet gives him the power to heal others. When an attempt to help a dismissed patient lands Kitty in trouble, she just might need that amulet's power, if it's something she can rely on.
I enjoyed the early chapters of this book quite a bit. It's such a different view on a familiar subject matter, with an interesting protagonist with very believable struggles, put into a situation that would break just about anyone. It's easy to root for her, it's easy to get invested in the wellbeing of her patients. And then the story takes a turn, unfortunately, into too many of the tropes you already know about associated with this war, and at that point it stops feeling like a story in which Kitty is an active player, and more like a series of events that happens to her, and that never quite works for me. And while I understand the thematic drive behind the magic amulet, it's an element that doesn't fit into the more real-world-plausible framework of the rest of the novel, and doesn't carry itself off as well, or as meaningfully, as I think the author intended.
Overall Grade: B-. There's still a lot to like here, and Scarborough is a gifted writer, but I don't think her talents are well on display here.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I found this novel pretty difficult. Kitty is a nurse in Vietnam during the war who is given an amulet, by a Vitnamese civilian in her care, that allows her to see auras and read the emotions and intentions of those around her.
It felt like a historical war fiction novel with just a touch of fantasy. Like other Vietnam War novels I've read, it's really about the atrocities committed by both sides during that war. The violence and racism are pretty intense.
It makes me wonder if it's impossible to write a novel that takes place during the Vietnam War without the characters, including the protagonist using every conceivable racist epithet for the Vietnamese.
It felt like a historical war fiction novel with just a touch of fantasy. Like other Vietnam War novels I've read, it's really about the atrocities committed by both sides during that war. The violence and racism are pretty intense.
It makes me wonder if it's impossible to write a novel that takes place during the Vietnam War without the characters, including the protagonist using every conceivable racist epithet for the Vietnamese.
For a perspective of the Vietname War written in 1989, it has aged remarkably well. There is good character evolution. The war scenes were brutal as expected. It was pretty gripping and a great palate cleanser.
The cover of the book had a review from the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "A Brutal and Beautiful Book", which certainly does a good job describing it. The author draws heavily on her own reflections and knowledge from the Vietnam War, as well as those of other veterans. Although the protagonist tells the story from a US military perspective, it is the moral conflicts and gruelling descriptions of the Vietnamese civilian experience that stand out. As she said in her afterword, it isn't a story with "white and black hats" or "sides". It reminded me a lot of David Drake's book "Redliners" (an excellent SciFi War novel), which he used to deal with his own Vietnam experience. Characters and images from this novel will stay with me for a very long time.
More war memoir than fantasy novel, but with a very engaging main character and a lot of real nuance to the war and the characters. Some tough material in here, but also very worth the time and effort.
Only passingly "fantasy" - the main character, Kitty, is a young Army nurse serving at the medical facility at China Beach during the Viet Nam war (the story is based on Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's own experiences.) In places Scarborough's descriptions of injuries and some soldiers' behavior are grim nearly to the point of horror, but her depiction of the experience, particular that of being female in a wholly male-dominated environment, rings utterly true.
The fantasy element has to do with an elderly Vietnamese man who is being treated in the hospital, who is revered as a holy man and healer by the other Vietnamese on the ward and on staff; he possesses an amulet that allows him (and later Kitty) to perceive the auras of the people around him and direct energy to healing them. An afterword by Scarborough explains that she employed this device as a way of allowing the character more interaction with the interior lives of the Vietnamese villagers.
The fantasy element has to do with an elderly Vietnamese man who is being treated in the hospital, who is revered as a holy man and healer by the other Vietnamese on the ward and on staff; he possesses an amulet that allows him (and later Kitty) to perceive the auras of the people around him and direct energy to healing them. An afterword by Scarborough explains that she employed this device as a way of allowing the character more interaction with the interior lives of the Vietnamese villagers.