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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
I was most pleased by this book. I have read a few of Scarborough's collaborations with Anne McCaffrey over the years and, while liking the storyline ideas, have always found them substandard. Reading some information about Scarborough, however, after my last little foray into the collaboration (as part of a must-read-all-my-McCaffreys-before-I-make-some-room-on-my-bookshelves) I saw that she got a Nebula Award for this novel. I was extremely curious to read it and see if I could revise my opinion of her.
Scarborough was herself a nurse in the Vietnam War, so she brings personal experience to this novel and no doubt models her characters on various people she met there. I've read plenty of factual accounts so there was nothing new in what she revealed, but she put it together in a well-told tale that had me drawn into it. I liked the tone of it, I liked the voice of Kitty, who told her story as an account of how she got where she was now and an attempt to 'face her fears'. I liked the way she brought in the 'magical' healing and the way she described people's auras. Some very nasty characters and situations are described without illusions, but there is often an element of hope even so.
A good read.
Scarborough was herself a nurse in the Vietnam War, so she brings personal experience to this novel and no doubt models her characters on various people she met there. I've read plenty of factual accounts so there was nothing new in what she revealed, but she put it together in a well-told tale that had me drawn into it. I liked the tone of it, I liked the voice of Kitty, who told her story as an account of how she got where she was now and an attempt to 'face her fears'. I liked the way she brought in the 'magical' healing and the way she described people's auras. Some very nasty characters and situations are described without illusions, but there is often an element of hope even so.
A good read.
I got The Healer's War as part of a Humble Book Bundle. I wasn't really sure what it entailed - fantasy, historical fiction, action? Well, yes. Kitty is an Army Nurse stationed in Vietnam, and the story has elements of all three genres. Scarborough was a nurse in Vietnam, and the book benefits from her obviously vivid recollection of that time. The fantasy elements are important but not overplayed, and the action is harrowing and believable. Definitely recommend!
3.5 stars
This is a good war novel, but not quite a great war novel. I liked the fantasy aspect of it and the contrapuntality it very consciously worked for, but it never moved me quite as deeply as I wanted it to.
I do think it might be interesting to re-read and teach this together with Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" (and especially "How To Tell a True War Story") so I'm definitely keeping it in mind for that.
This is a good war novel, but not quite a great war novel. I liked the fantasy aspect of it and the contrapuntality it very consciously worked for, but it never moved me quite as deeply as I wanted it to.
I do think it might be interesting to re-read and teach this together with Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" (and especially "How To Tell a True War Story") so I'm definitely keeping it in mind for that.
I was constantly embarrassed for the author while reading this book.
starts off great- a hard core 'nam book...and ends decently...but the fantasy part was an afterthought and really marginal.
I had been seeing this book crop up in various book clubs I belonged to, and discussed by people I follow, but I had never gotten around to reading it. Because it is narrated by the incredible Robin Miles, I picked it up to give it a try. While I found the novel interesting, I didn't really latch onto it very well.
Kitty is our main character and the story is told through her eyes. She's a nurse in Vietnam, during the war, just trying to survive and have what life she can. Along the way, she gets an amulet from an older, dying shaman-like Vietnamese man and learns to see, read, and heal through auras.
Eventually bad things happen, she is captured, and then transferred back to the States.
The author did a phenomenal job, I though, of transporting the reader to the Vietnam war and the proverbial hell of war is well represented. All of the "bad" and "good" guys were all very grey, so there were no evil vs good comparisons - one could understand the motivations of any of the characters, even the bat-shit crazy ones.
Kitty, herself, was amazing in that she was not. She was a regular nurse, essentially tricked into the joke of a war, and she was trying to learn how to survive with what skills she had in that kind of atmosphere. I found her trials of dealing with being captured and then further trials of returning to civilization very well done. It could have been a lot darker (and maybe should have, but then I would have probably not finished), but I'm glad it was not. I think it gave a great look into PTSD and the loss of self for a soldier without being incredibly dark.
Was it worth the read? Absolutely. Did I like it? Absolutely not. It was a fine book, and I think that someone like me, a Gen-Xer who has never seen the war, but has absolutely been tangentially exposed to the brutality, betrayal, and horror that was the Vietnam war would absolutely appreciate it, but it's not necessarily a trip I want to take too often.
Kitty is our main character and the story is told through her eyes. She's a nurse in Vietnam, during the war, just trying to survive and have what life she can. Along the way, she gets an amulet from an older, dying shaman-like Vietnamese man and learns to see, read, and heal through auras.
Eventually bad things happen, she is captured, and then transferred back to the States.
The author did a phenomenal job, I though, of transporting the reader to the Vietnam war and the proverbial hell of war is well represented. All of the "bad" and "good" guys were all very grey, so there were no evil vs good comparisons - one could understand the motivations of any of the characters, even the bat-shit crazy ones.
Kitty, herself, was amazing in that she was not. She was a regular nurse, essentially tricked into the joke of a war, and she was trying to learn how to survive with what skills she had in that kind of atmosphere. I found her trials of dealing with being captured and then further trials of returning to civilization very well done. It could have been a lot darker (and maybe should have, but then I would have probably not finished), but I'm glad it was not. I think it gave a great look into PTSD and the loss of self for a soldier without being incredibly dark.
Was it worth the read? Absolutely. Did I like it? Absolutely not. It was a fine book, and I think that someone like me, a Gen-Xer who has never seen the war, but has absolutely been tangentially exposed to the brutality, betrayal, and horror that was the Vietnam war would absolutely appreciate it, but it's not necessarily a trip I want to take too often.
This was a very evocative novel, and what it lacked in plot (I wouldn't have expected to be describing the first 50% of a book about an American nurse in the Vietnam War as uneventful, but here we are) it definitely made up for in descriptive prose. I wouldn't ordinarily have picked up a war novel but as this was told from a woman's perspective by one who was actually in Vietnam it was more attractive and relatable to me as reader. The book also includes an essay with more information about the author's process in bringing forth the novel and this was a good read too.
I don't think I would have normally read this book, but it came in a bundle I bought. It's actually about the Vietnam war, with a little aura-healing fantasy thrown in. It actually kind of threw me off, because I know people who really believe in auras, so to see auras come up in a book that was calling itself fantasy was kind of weird (kind of like if someone wrote a book where essential oils actually killed viruses, and then told everyone to shelve it in fantasy. Accurate, but kind of weird). Once I got over that I kind of liked how brutally realistic it was. I'm so sick of reading about epic wars in fantasy novels. It was refreshing to read a more realistic portrayal of war, complete with overrun hospitals and annoying coworkers. I also found it interesting how unhelpful the healing powers ended up being, and how even if one person could heal lots of people, so many more were dying and needed emotional healing as well.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I decided to read this one because I wanted to read something from one of the old bundles I picked up and it stuck out to me. I was very quickly entranced by this book. I don't recall reading anything that would fit under the "magical realism" umbrella before but, if this is what books in that category are like, I'll have to read many more!
This book hit me like a punch in the gut. It's not fun. It's not usually funny. Every other page contains a heartbreaking turn of events. But that is exactly what I needed to read, I guess. Even the ending only hints at the possibility of a brighter future. As I made my way through the book, I worried that the magical healing amulet would make the story a goofy heroe's tale... but that is definitely not the case here.
This made it onto the list of my favorite books of all time before I'd even finished the damned thing. I wholeheartedly recommend it if you've got a strong stomach and you're looking for something that doesn't fit the mold for conflict resolution. War, I hear, is hell and this story captures that sentiment brilliantly.
This book hit me like a punch in the gut. It's not fun. It's not usually funny. Every other page contains a heartbreaking turn of events. But that is exactly what I needed to read, I guess. Even the ending only hints at the possibility of a brighter future. As I made my way through the book, I worried that the magical healing amulet would make the story a goofy heroe's tale... but that is definitely not the case here.
This made it onto the list of my favorite books of all time before I'd even finished the damned thing. I wholeheartedly recommend it if you've got a strong stomach and you're looking for something that doesn't fit the mold for conflict resolution. War, I hear, is hell and this story captures that sentiment brilliantly.