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grayjay's review against another edition
1.0
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.
spikeanderson1's review against another edition
3.0
starts off great- a hard core 'nam book...and ends decently...but the fantasy part was an afterthought and really marginal.
tani's review against another edition
4.0
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.
suzemo's review against another edition
3.0
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.
wychwoodnz's review against another edition
3.0
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.
rachelhelps's review against another edition
3.0
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.
halfbird's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
slanderoid's review against another edition
5.0
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.
ambermarshall's review against another edition
4.0
Despite the magical elements (restricted to aura-reading and healing with the help of an amulet), the focus in the novel was something rare and new to me: the Vietnam war from the perspective of a nurse. After eating up accounts from the male grunts' POV in novels like The Things They Carried, it was so interesting to get the perspective of a woman and a medical professional on base.
oleksandr's review
4.0
This is a memoir of an American nurse during the war in Vietnam with slight fantasy elements. I read is as a part of monthly reading for December 2020 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. The book won Nebula for the Best novel in 1989.
This is a story of Lt. Kitty McCulley, a young woman, who joined the US war effort “One reason I hadn’t minded coming to Nam so much at first was that I had already talked to a lot of bewildered boys my age who didn’t want to go but saw no other choice. It seemed unfair that they had to serve, just because they were men of the right age. Like discrimination.” Coming to the hospital, which cared for moth the US soldiers and local population, she saw all the injustice of this war, with amputees in pain, locals disregarded or even sent to their likely death to local hospital… among patients she met an old Vietnamese, who is rumored to be some kind of healer/saint with supernatural powers (which haven’t saved him from losing feet to shrapnel). He sees in her a kindred spirit and gives an item of power…
While there is a kind of fantasy, it can actually explained away in magic realism innuendos, and the main power of the book is as a fictional memoir. The author was in ‘Nam and it is partially based on her own experiences, even if some adventures are clearly fictionalized to make a story more dynamic.
I planned to read something about that war for a long time and this book is exactly what I wanted – not a military history, but a civil US witness of it. Recommended if you have similar plans. It is not an easy read, but worth it.
This is a story of Lt. Kitty McCulley, a young woman, who joined the US war effort “One reason I hadn’t minded coming to Nam so much at first was that I had already talked to a lot of bewildered boys my age who didn’t want to go but saw no other choice. It seemed unfair that they had to serve, just because they were men of the right age. Like discrimination.” Coming to the hospital, which cared for moth the US soldiers and local population, she saw all the injustice of this war, with amputees in pain, locals disregarded or even sent to their likely death to local hospital… among patients she met an old Vietnamese, who is rumored to be some kind of healer/saint with supernatural powers (which haven’t saved him from losing feet to shrapnel). He sees in her a kindred spirit and gives an item of power…
While there is a kind of fantasy, it can actually explained away in magic realism innuendos, and the main power of the book is as a fictional memoir. The author was in ‘Nam and it is partially based on her own experiences, even if some adventures are clearly fictionalized to make a story more dynamic.
I planned to read something about that war for a long time and this book is exactly what I wanted – not a military history, but a civil US witness of it. Recommended if you have similar plans. It is not an easy read, but worth it.