A white woman reflects on her time in Vietnam in the 1960s.
It’s been a while since I finished this book by Alice McDermott, so I was hoping that, by now, I would have an idea of how I feel about it, but nope. I still don’t know what I think or how I feel about it.
Let me start by saying it’s beautifully written. And the audiobook narrator did a fantastic job, so it’s definitely worth checking out if this kind of thing is up your alley. I’m just not sure it’s my cup of tea.
I also think there’s a lot I’m missing here. Obviously, I have the benefit of decades of hindsight to know we never should have been in Vietnam, and I did catch one man’s optimistic comment that JFK would be pulling them out soon. We all know how that worked out.
While all of that is playing out in the background, none of it seems to be the focus of this book. The main character, Tricia, is a newlywed American woman whose husband is an oil engineer “on loan” to the U.S. Navy, hence their temporary placement in Saigon.
They don’t speak Vietnamese, although it seemed like Tricia learned at least a little French so she should use that to communicate with the locals who didn’t speak English. They’re provided with a house and staff, the latter of which requires some adjustment on Tricia’s end because she comes from middle-class America in the ’40s and ’50s when staff were only supposed to be for the wealthy.
But, as with anything, she gets used to it pretty quick. Then she starts socializing with the wives of the other Navy officers stationed in Saigon, because who else is she going to hang out with?
But fitting into a new group is always challenging. I don’t think Tricia ever really fits in with this group, but she doesn’t exactly stick out like a sore thumb either. She’s just kind of drifting.
Charlene loves a drifter because she can easily grab them and recruit them to her Cause of the Week.
Charlene is one of the other Navy wives with a truly impressive case of White Savior Syndrome.
One of Tricia’s first interactions with her involves Charlene recruiting a member of her staff to sew little Barbie costumes she can then sell to all the American wives and their friends and family back in America. Those funds then go to providing relief for orphans in a local hospital.
Shortly after that, Tricia is going to the hospital with Charlene to deliver baskets of toys and candy. That progresses to Charlene taking Tricia to a leper colony to provide relief to the lepers there.
That last one doesn’t sound intense when stated bluntly, but there are a combination of factors that build to make this the climax of the book. For starters, Tricia’s husband doesn’t want her visiting the leper colony and both Tricia and Charlene know this, but Charlene manages to talk her friend into it anyway because apparently she can talk anyone into anything.
Second, they have to travel a significant distance to get to the leper colony, and this is a war zone. If the wrong people find them out in the jungle, even Charlene would be hard-pressed to talk her way out of that. That means Tricia and Charlene have to dress up like soldiers for the trip.
Then there’s the revelation that Charlene is apparently having an affair with one of the men escorting them to and from the colony. I thought that was pretty weird, because the book is written as a series of letters from Tricia to Charlene’s daughter and back. Why would you tell someone you saw their mom making out with someone? Who wants to hear that story.
I can’t actually remember what Charlene’s daughter was saying to Tricia in her letters. I know that, as an adult, she ran into one of the men who had been with them in Saigon, although he didn’t recognize her all grown up.
I don’t remember much else. Mostly I just remember Charlene, and that seems to be the point of the book: Charlene overshadows and bulldozes over everyone else. I guess she’s supposed to represent the U.S.
T.W.: There’s a pretty intense miscarriage scene, so if that’s not something you want to read, don’t read this book.