The Sympathizer

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen is a spy novel set around the US war in Vietnam. It has won multiple awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

Nguyen has written an incredible book exploring a fraught time in both Vietnamese and US history. 

Nguyen, Viet Thanh. (2015). The Sympathizer. New York: Grove Press.

Flight of the Intruder (Jake Grafton #1)

Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts is the first book in his Jake Grafton series. Grafton is a US Navy pilot - a character so loved he is in a second series after he retires from the Navy.

At the opening of the series Jake Grafton is a US Navy Lieutenant pilot assigned to the Shiloh aircraft carrier stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam war. He flies the A6-A Intruder. He and his bombardier are sent on many bombing raids into North Vietnam.

While on leave in Hong Kong, Jake meets Callie who works for the State Department. On top of meeting the woman we will spend the rest of his life with, Callie provides Jake with a sounding board for his concerns about the war. The idea that he and his fellow pilots are often risking their lives for patches of jungle that look just like other patches of jungle and the need to find meaning in the death of friends during such flights, causes Jake to circumvent the chain of command - an act that could ultimately put him in military prison.-, if he lives through it.
 
Coonts captures the feel and excitement of flying, the terror of flying in combat and the horror and boredom of war. Fans of airplane fiction like John J Nance will love this series. Grafton is a compelling character. Fans of the new Grafton and Carmellini series will enjoy a look back at Grafton's rise through the ranks of US Navy.

Coonts, Stephen. (1986). Flight of the Intruder. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Shooting the Moon

Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell is a look at war from another angle.

Jaime and her big brother TJ worship their father, a US Army Colonel. The family is stationed in Texas, where each afternoon Jaime and TJ wage major battles with their little green Army men. They live and breathe the Army.

When TJ gets out of high school he enlists in the Army, following his father's footsteps, and volunteers to go to Vietnam with the Medical Corp. His father is not happy about his decision. The Colonel wants TJ to attend medical school first.

When Jaime receives a roll of film from TJ, she is disappointed that it is not a letter. A soldier at the rec center teaches her to develop the film. Every couple of weeks a new roll of film arrives and Jaime starts to get a more realistic picture of war.

Told on a level that can be appreciated by children and adults alike, Dowell has captured the wonder and horror of the war in Vietnam. This is an important book that would be great for young readers in today's world.

Dowell, Frances O'Roark. (2008). Shooting the Moon. New York: Atheneum Books.

Summer's End

Summer's End by Audrey Couloumbis is a look at the Vietnam war and how it affected those who stayed behind.

During the summer of Grace's thirteenth birthday her family has a lot to think about. Her brother Collin has gotten his draft card. And he has burned his draft card. Her father throws Collin out of the house and cancels Grace's birthday.

Grace goes to her grandmother's farm to escape her parents arguments about Collin. There she realizes that this same discussion - whether to fight or object - is being discussed by most of the family. She has one cousin and one uncle in Vietnam and one cousin in Canada.

Couloumbis' look at this tough issue is a fresh approach - not looking at the men who had to make the decision - looking at the family members left behind.

Couloumbis, Audrey. (2005). Summer's End. New York: G.P. Putnam and Sons.

Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow

I am taking a quick detour from the usual fiction books I usually blog about. I guess that US involvement in Vietnam has always been an interest to me because it effected my parent's lives so much. In undergrad I took a course on the subject to better understand what had happened. The main text was this book, Vietnam: A History.

Karnow begins his history of Vietnam with the history of the region when it was called Cochinchina by European explorers. Then through the French war, to finally focus on the United States' involvement with the region. It is a fascinating look at the country and the politics of the time for any of us who did not live through it (or did, but were too young to remember).

This time period was a very educational one in US history. However, my professor would ask, did the US learn anything? There were things learned in WWII and Korea that should have logically lead to much different policy decisions. It was a time of great turmoil in our country and obviously in Vietnam and its surrounding countries.

The book is a valuable read for anyone even remotely interested in our current political climate. It is easy to read with many first-hand accounts from people on both sides of the fighting, people at all levels of the military, and the government.

Karnow, Stanley. (1991). Vietnam: A history (revised & updated). New York: Penguin Books.