The Vietnam War has been taught in classrooms and history textbooks for decades—from the years it was fought, the lives lost, the immense heroism, to the widespread antiwar protests. But as with most wars, there is a gap between the romanticized, patriotic war myth and the rougher, harder truth of what really happened.
In these five historical novels, we travel across America and Vietnam to take a closer look at the dark reality of war. Some of these books are written by authors who experienced it themselves – bringing the effects of war into the present. Even though these stories are fictionalized, they do not shy away from the truth of history, no matter how painful.
The Women of Kristen Hannah
Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s family instilled in her her entire life that there is no greater sacrifice than to serve your country. At 21, fresh out of nursing school, Frankie enlists in the military as a nurse in Vietnam, believing she can make a difference in the war effort. Assigned to a small mobile surgical hospital, Frankie encounters soldiers with missing limbs, young boys on the brink of death or emotionally destroyed by the horrors of war, all while enduring relentless monsoons, scorching heat and constant bombing raids.
Back home, Frankie discovers a different America than the one she left behind – she is spat upon, shamed and ignored by the country whose freedom she swore to protect. The country is politically divided by the war and protests for civil rights and equality for women. Vietnam veterans are viewed as pariahs and she finds no support for the physical or emotional scars left by the war. Kristen Hannah focuses on the invisible women of the Vietnam War and sheds light on the mistreatment of heroic veterans by their fellow Americans and a warmongering government.
(Read the review on BookTrib)
The War You Always Wanted by Mike McLaughlin
Pat Dolan grew up idolizing his father, who came back from World War II with medals, pictures and memories that made it all seem like a great adventure to his son. But when Dolan joins the Army and goes to Vietnam – where he eventually becomes a military correspondent – Dolan finds that this war is somehow very different from what he expected.
At first, the job of an Army correspondent is more boring than dangerous – he writes countless articles and reports on one event after another for his military superiors, without ever seeing serious combat or even firing his rifle. Soon, his fear of dying in Vietnam before his service ends is no longer so terrifying and he finds a comfortable rhythm in doing his job. And suddenly, in a dazzling twist of fate, everything changes as Pat Dolan learns the true horror of war and the pain and death it inflicts on everyone involved.
(Read the review and watch this interview with the author.)
“The Mountains Sing” by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
This beautifully told story is a thorough and honest look into the tragedy of war and its impact on a close-knit community. From communism to the division of North and South Vietnam to the Vietnam War and land reform, we follow four generations of a Vietnamese family through the eyes of a grandmother and her granddaughter.
Twelve-year-old Young Huong lives with her grandmother in Hanoi. Her father was in the war four years ago and never returned. Her mother, a doctor, went looking for him. While the family hides in the mountains from the bombings, the grandmother tells stories of her childhood, traditions and customs. Huong and her grandmother return to Hanoi to find their house destroyed. The endless, painful wait for relatives to return from the war becomes a way of life. Huong’s mother returns home without her husband, full of grief and in an urgent need to heal the unimaginable trauma she has gone through.
The author says in an interview“Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the novel takes readers through 20th-century Vietnamese history… American involvement in the Vietnam War is evident in this book, but from the perspective of Vietnamese women.”
The first door is the last exit by Timothy Kenneth O’Neil
Winston, a 19-year-old musician with absolutely no desire to fight or kill, is drafted and must answer his country’s call. His first wake-up call is the cheers of the soldiers upon his arrival in Vietnam. But they are not cheering for the new recruits; they are ready to take their seats on the plane home to America. “From then on, there will only be memories and nightmares.”
At home, Veronica is overcome by loneliness and fear of losing the man she loves. She writes letters to Winston, but she is living her own purgatory, waiting for his return.
Meanwhile, the reality of war catches up with us. Author Timothy O’Neil, himself a veteran, recalls the friends blown to pieces, the blood seeping into the ground, the last words he gasped, the horror of the silence and the darkness. Soldiers open claymore mines to dig out the plastic explosives and warm up their rations, rummage through the pockets of the dead for treasures and souvenirs, scream in their sleep, and vacillate between heroism and cowardice. This is a disturbing and powerful love story wrapped in the truth of the Vietnam War.
(Read the review on BookTrib)
A Bend in the River by Libby Fischer Hellman
The childhoods of two young South Vietnamese sisters are changed forever when U.S. soldiers storm their small village one morning in March 1968 to hunt down the Viet Cong. 17-year-old Trang Tâm is about to graduate and worries about how she will continue her studies at university, while 14-year-old Linh Mai hopes for an arranged marriage with the handsome son of a wealthy sampan builder. Mai becomes a hostess at the Stardust Lounge and Tâm goes into the jungle to train and fight with the Viet Cong. For the next ten years, neither sister knows if the other is still alive as they fight to survive in a war that splits their country in half. As in a civil war, no one trusts the other side, and even two sisters who love each other wonder if one can trust the other.
The Vietnam War is portrayed very differently than in American retellings, as it is told from the very personal perspective of the Vietnamese people. This thought-provoking read offers interesting nuances and added depth to a war we thought we knew about, but perhaps didn’t fully understand.
(Read the review on BookTrib)
