Customer Reviews

In Country: a novel

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

People who read for plot only, as have, apparently, some of the previous reviewers, are missing many other elements of the novel, any novel. Bobbie Ann Mason often writes about the Southern female and her transformation through discovery. Exactly what that woman discovers changes from story to story, but Sam is definitely one of Mason's dynamic Southern females. I am sorry, too, that some reviewers don't seem to appreciate Mason's use of contextual details to provide a landscape against which these transformations take place. I just really appreciate her willingness to refer to anything from Pop Tarts to Avon Products. That's the environment within which many of us do experience our lives. And Emmett? He's my uncle ... or my cousin . . . or my brother . . .

"In Country" is several books at once: among them, a chronicle of a significant era in American history, a rumination on the evaporation of American regionalism, and a standard coming of age novel. The story revolves around Samantha Hughes,unusually bright and aware for a teenager growing up in a western Kentucky backwater (probably not unlike Bobbie Ann Mason herself). Born in 1966, Sam's father died in Vietnam before she could meet him. When she turns 18, it occurs to her that no one in the family has ever really told her anything about him -- like American society, which wanted to forget about the dirty little war in southeast Asia, her family had more or less swept him under the rug. But Sam decides to go on her own journey to discover who her dad was, and what that senseless conflict might have been about.On her way, Mason weaves a brilliant tapestry of American culture in the mid-1980s, in which cable television and the proliferation of gigantic shopping malls have flattened out distictions between regions and the peculiar quality of rural existence. At the climax of the story, Sam travels to Washington with her beloved uncle and her paternal grandmother to visit the Vietnam memorial; when she finds her own name inscribed on the wall, it hammers home the message that the Vietnam experience is about all of us. "In Country" may have less impact now than before it was published; subsequently, many works of popular culture (the films "Platoon" and "Casualties of War" as well as the television series "China Beach") have carried similar messages. But few have done so as elegantly and compellingly as this book.

After reading numerous reviews that refer to this book as "boring," I felt I needed to speak up against some of the semi-literate reviewers.

"In Country" is not an action novel. It's not meant to be a moral guide to living as a teenager. It's more than that, a complex, beautiful novel with multiple threads: about growing up, idenitity, place, war, and legacy. Mason is excellent at capturing the time and place of Western Kentucky; even though the town is never named, I'm certain she's writing about Mayfield, near where my husband grew up.

If you can't pass high school English, you probably won't enjoy "In Country." If you can appreciate a complex, emotional novel, one that makes you think, then this book is a modern classic.

In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason is the story of a young girl on a road-trip, struggling to uncover details of the Vietnam War. The story begins with main character Sam Hughes having just embarked on a road-trip with her uncle Emmet and her grandmother. The trio set off from Kentucky in hopes of visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. The story is divided into three parts, with the second being written in past-tense. The second part of the novel describes the events of the summer before the road-trip, and gives the reader insight into the reasons behind many of the characters issues. This key background information allows the reader to better understand the emotions Sam and her companions are dealing along their journey to the memorial.

In my opinion, In Country was very well written, however, the plot was lacking. It was a very straightforward story, yet the characters emotions were far too complex for such simple events to unfold. However, this novel may appeal to veterans, as it deals with many of the after-effects of going to war, as well as the effects this has on the people around you. Readability was the main issue I found with In Country; after a while, the story begins to drag on seemingly forever until an extremely anti-climactic ending. While war buffs may find this book worthwhile, those searching for a bit of excitement should look elsewhere.

- D. Williams

This is a beautifully written book. Some may argue that it does not have a point, yet consider--did Vietnam have a point? Did teens Sam's age have a point in the mid-80's on their lazy summer vacations? Did Sam have any real point in mind in finding out more about her late father? No. The beauty of this book lies in discovery--of the past, of the present, and the future. Mason's characters are rich with personality, humor, and emotion as they each journey to discover something more than what today holds. A must read for anyone interested reading the best of American literature.

Bobbie Ann Mason's IN COUNTRY is an excellent novel. Mason's well thought plot allows the novel to remain realistic while letting the reader see the main character learn her family's past, and look to the future while trying to find herself in the present. Mason puts a twist on the typical coming of age storyline by adding an unusual inner conflict. Sam Hughes, the main character who is a highschool student, deals with deep feelings for a sexually incapable thiry-something war vet, breaks up with her basketball superstar boyfriend and supports her pregnant bestfriend all at once. Sam spends most of her time trying to understand what really went on in the vietnam war because her uncle and father both served, only, her father never came back. Some parts of the story are repetative but they show her eagerness to know what the vets went through. This book has humor, sadness and can be very intriguing. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for some easy to read material or for a book to laugh at. In Country does just that.

"In Country," by Bobbie Anne Mason is a great story about a girl that lost her father in the Vietnam War. She lived a wild life without a father. Her mother living nearby, but her, in her late teens, lives with her uncle. She has no discipline, yet gets along well. Her main strugle throughout the book is finding out what Vietnam was really like. She also wants to know what her father was like, since she never even met him. Her uncle, was in the war, but he made it home alive. Sam, the young girl, is worried about her uncle, scared that he has Agent Orange. All she has is him, and she doesn't want to lose him to the war too. All of this takes place in the early 80's. She is dealing with the past, in the future. Some things just never go away. There is so much more to this book, and if you love to read books about Vietnam or even just like to read, then I would recomend this story. It's not too long, and wouldn't take up too much time. Sometimes the book moves rather slowly, and you must be patient with it. The main theme from the book is that things in the past, really do still effect us today.

In Country is a great coming of age novel as well as an anti-war story. Sam, our lead character, has to come to terms with the Vietnam War killing her father, and what he had to do over ther, and seriously messing up her uncle and several other veterans. It is a great story along the lines of The Bell Jar or any other coming of age story. It is good. I highly recommend it. This is Mason at her best.

In light of the way views and attitudes about Viet Nam and Viet Nam vets are slowly changing, it is interesting to read a book written in the early 80's about a girl whose father didn't come back. This is a coming of age novel--both for the girl and her Viet Nam vet uncle. As Sam learns more about the war and her father's part in it, those readers who did not go to war or were not alive at the time, gain a deeper appreciation for the sacrifices and struggles of Viet Nam vets today. There are many interesting juxtapositions of the different kinds of vets, the non-functional to the highly functional. Each carries baggage from that war. But Sam also carries baggage, perhaps the load her father never brought home. Touching and poignant, I enjoyed it tremendously.

I enjoyed the book very much. Though, it was not one of my favorite books, I did enjoy it. I could relate very much to Sam and her life. Although her life takes place many years back, and she lives a different life than I do, her reactions seem to be very much like mine would. I liked how the book began with the end and then continued from the beginning in the next chapter. I thought it to be very different. I would recomend the book to any teenager, but if you are younger or older, I would say that you may not enjoy it as much and get out of it what I did. It is a book that I will never forget.