IN COUNTRY (1985) followed Bobbie Ann Mason's amazing story collection SHILOH AND OTHER STORIES. It is one of the novels I still can remember today, practically in its entirety. That is rare for me. Sam Hughes is a young girl living in western Kentucky. Her father never came home from Vietnam and that loss has haunted her family ever since. Those left behind feel both guilty and punished. Sam thinks of all the events her father has missed: the walk on the moon, Watergate...
The book looks at their small town life in great detail and it also details their pilgrimage to DC to visit the War Memorial. Mason is so adept at capturing every nuance of a place and her characters. When I visited the War Memorial, it was with this novel under my belt. I felt like I was looking for Sam's father's name as well of ones of my own.
One of the great novels about war. Those left behind have their own hard stories to tell.
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9 comments:
I agree, Patti. Terrific book. There was a movie version with Bruce Willis and Emily Lloyd.
Jeff M.
Patti, I have just posted a review of "The Dark Side of the Island" by Jack Higgins. Thank you for the link to my ode to the Hardy Boys.
I haven't read it but it sounds like I should.
Am just putting up mine now...a brief take on the four anthologies of the recently late Kirby McCauley.
I've had a copy of IN COUNTRY and have been meaning to read it for a couple of decades, now...perhaps the unholy conflation of parental names (Camilla Ann and Robert Mason) has played some small role in the dilation...
IN COUNTRY was assigned reading when I was a college freshman or sophomore, '89-'91.
Thanks, Patti, as ever, for including my stuff. I always do love the variety of posts there are in this feature.
Bobbie Ann Mason has a book about Nancy Drew, and I was struck by how IN COUNTRY is an updated homage to that girl detective genre.
Weird. I think my comment was eaten. I'm sure it was the most clever thing I've ever concocted, as it always feels that way when something I wrote disappears!
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