Customer Reviews

Absolution

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3 star:		(1)
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"Absolution" is superb. It's a wonderful and unusual combination of compelling story and character analysis that is extremely deep and thought provoking. I knew at a certain point I'd have to keep reading to finish it, no matter how late at night, and that's what happened.

The book captures so well the epistemological and ethical limits in which we humans inevitably live, whether in the wartime of Vietnam or the United States of today.

This is brilliant, wonderful writing. The book is superb.

Miriam Herin's "Absolution" is rich in everything that makes a novel a gripping, good read. Herin skillfully weaves a mystery that centers on a widow's struggle to find the truth behind her husband's violent death. It's a journey of the mind, winding its way through her husband's devastating past in Vietnam, the anti-war movement in the United States, and the swirling intricacies of lives steeped in both. Herin's characters are intriguing, her insight into grief and mending comfortingly real.

This book had me hooked from the very start. Many novels that attempt to weave in different parts of time seem to struggle to do it well, but the past and present connected seamlessly in this one. I love all of the contrasts...the protagonist's past and current selves, her pacifism and her husband's military history, and particularly the husband she thought she knew well and the husband who had secrets. There were some unexpected twists that were well explained, but the author never comes across as pedantic. Overall, I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an engrossing story.

"Absolution" is a great story and interesting on so many levels including the era, the setting and the spiritual and psychological undertones. It is one of those books that makes me sad when I come to the end, because I want the story to continue. A must read for anyone who came of age in the 60s or who wants to understand the era.

Absolution is an interesting novel which reads almost like a detective story, and it sometimes rises above that characterization. Its depiction of a couple active in the peace movement during the Viet Nam era, living in a modest apartment with little privacy, and then the subsequent jailing of the woman is first rate. Its account of the background to a Viet Nam war incident was unlike any other account I have read of that war.

Unfortunately, for the most part I was not very involved with Maggie, the protagonist; nor did I emotionally engage with Richard's tragedy. For a woman who rebelled against her upbringing, and was willing to violate her marriage vows, Maggie is inordinately sensitive to what other people will think. For a man who plays such a major role in the plot, Ev receives very little real attention. Finally, there was an awful lot of plot concentrated in the last few pages.

Absolution is the best baby boomer book I've read in a long time. Miriam Herin has captured the internal turmoil our generation went through during the Vietnam war era and still live with all these years later.

The novel opens with the killing of Richard Delaney by Anh Dung "Billy" Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant, in what appears to be a botched robbery of a drug store. There is no question about Billy's identity. The case is turned over to Adam Borstein, an assistant district attorney. The prosecution seems straight forward until Ev Quincy, a high profile defense attorney, is brought in.

Maggie Delaney, Richard's wife, learns there are some facts about the killing that don't seem right, especially given what she knew about her husband. She starts her own investigation into Richard's experience in Vietnam. A great deal of the story takes place in flashbacks to the war and protests against the war. There is an especially moving and graphic description of a short time Maggie spent in prison after participating in one of the protests. Maggie and Richard had an unusual marriage because their political beliefs, especially concerning the war, were extreme opposites. Richard was a lieutenant in the special forces while Maggie was active in the anti-war movement.

Herin's picture of the sexual revolution is an accurate telling of what was considered personal empowerment at the time. In one scene Maggie walks into her apartment to find a man who, against her wishes, has been crashing at her place. The man and a woman she's never met before are in her living room. They are naked and have obviously just had sex. The smell of pot is throughout her home. Yet there was also a beautiful scene of Maggie's own first experience.

I was in college from 1968 through 1972, which was the height of the war protests. I opposed the war and still feel that was the right decision. But I based that decision on a limited amount of knowledge. I didn't even know who the Montagnards were until years later. This book was thoroughly researched and presents a complete picture of what was happening at that time. It also presents a good perspective on war in general. It's available in Kindle format for $.99.

Steve Lindahl author of Motherless Soul

I liked this book. The story is well written and full of enough suspense to keep you wanting to read on to find out what will happen next. I didn't want to put the book down once I had started to read it. It reveals some of the difficulties of the Vietnam War and the way it changed lives. It shows how we sometimes don't know each other as well as we think we do.