Customer Reviews

The Healer's War

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Being born in the early '80s, I never experienced what the Vietnam War was like for Americans, military and civilian. To me, Vietnam was "just another war"; another chapter in my history textbook. Until I came across The Healer's War. The Healer's War is pure fiction, set in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. The plot revolves around a mysterious amulet that the main character Kitty "inherits" from one of her patients. (She's a nurse in Vietnam.) As time progresses, Kitty realizes the true healing power of the amulet. Although fiction, this book paints a vivid picture of Vietnam during the war. The conditions the soldiers had to tolerate, and the daily battles is described in excruciating, almost explicit detail. The Healer's War gave me a view on Vietnam that no textbook or history class could offer. I will never look at the Vietnam War the same way again, and I now hold a respect for those that served in it. This book is a must-read.

This is an excellent novel about a nurse serving in Vietnam during the war (the author was also a nurse in Vietnam). A Vietnam veteran myself, I recommend it highly. The main character, Lt. Kitty McCulley, is having a difficult time with her nursing responsibilities and with her interactions with others. An elderly Vietnamese holy man gives her an amulet which allows her to see the "auras" of others. It helps her guide herself through the war and helps her find herself in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and Ms. Scarborough's writing (note the five stars I awarded) and I recommend the book to everyone (the publisher should be shot for letting it go out of print). However, I do have a bone to pick! What makes this novel so different can be seen by the fact that it won the 1988 Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of the year, the Nebula Award being given by the Science Fiction Writers of America. I loved the book; but, it was not the best science fiction novel of 1988. It's excellent speculative fiction and I'm certain that is the reason the members voted for it; but, I'm sorry Ms. Scarborough, every few years the SFWA seem to go off on a tangent. Nevertheless, because it has won the Nebula, it is now incumbent that all serious students of science fiction literature read "The Healer's War." But then, they should read it anyway.

What a lovely book, an unexpected pleasure written by a female nurse with Vietnam war experience.
As a trauma surgeon, I can assure you that the first half of the book, mostly taking place in a patient ward, feels absolutely real. Total verisimilitude.
The second half...the "jungle" half...effortless dovetails aspects of Eastern mysticism...of "auras" if you will...with tense accounts of the travails of war.
An unlikely combination to be sure, but a terrific read!
This is probably a "science fiction" book with the widest possible audience. It could be an Oprah Book Club pick, and I mean that in a good way!

Having no desire to read anything about the Vietnam War, I nevertheless picked up this book because I love the author's work, and because it was good enough to win the Nebula Award! Once I read the first sentence, I couldn't put it down. Even in this hard look at the war from a nurse's point of view, Scarborough's humor and deft touch shine through. It helped us to understand family members who came back from Vietnam forever changed and lost. The book is brutally honest and touchingly gentle, and merits more than one reading. A true "must-read" for everyone.

Such a wonderful hopeful story set in such a horror-filled time. Ms.Scarborough's writing is so real and humorous I couldn't help but be pulled into the story to feel alongside her characters. This book I simply did not want to put down.

I'm too young to remember the Vietnam war, nor am I in the medical profession, so I am not going to comment on the veracity of the medicine and the war action. It is enough for me that the author served as a nurse in Vietnam during the war there. The story initially feels autobiographical - the main character, Kitty, is a nurse in the long-term orthopedics ward in an army hospital. The twist: a Vietnamese holy man gives Kitty an amulet that allows her to see the "aura" of people, revealing their inner thoughts - how they are hurt (mentally and physically), their true moods. In addition, by pouring her "life force" into patients, or by channelling others, she can effect remarkable healing on her patients.

The amulet is a simple plot device that Scarborough uses to delve into the psyche of the various characters in the book, and to humanise the terrible events that occur around her heroine. It also allows us to suspend disbelief that a city girl from the U.S. could survive a chopper crash into a jungle full of VC and U.S. forces trying to kill each other. Scarborough does not hold back - she gives us the full force of the savagery that made the Vietnam war so different from other conflicts, and does so in a fairly non-judgemental way (i.e. both sides are committing the atrocities).

This is not a "feel-good" book by any means. It is not science fiction either, in spite of the fact that the Science Fiction Writers' Association awarded it the Nebula in 1989. It is an good book, though, and I recommend it.

The book was absolutely gripping. It is hard to believe that the writer of the Fairy Godmother books could produce such an emotionally overwhelming book of the horrors of the Vietnam war. You know the book is fiction, but you wonder just "how much" is really ficiton. E. A. Scarborough pulls you kicking and screaming through desperate war situations that you know, deep inside, must have been real, yet she makes it bearable with her "healing hand" of magic and mystery. Had I known beforehand what the book was about, I would never have read it. I was sick of the Vietnam war ages ago when it happened. But, Scarborough made me relive it with her, sometimes sobbing, sometimes livid with fury, and I wound up reading all night a book that years ago, I would have scorned. She is quite a lady, and a genius to have pulled *me* into her coils.

If you haven't read this book, get Amazon to find you a copy. I never wanted to go back to Viet Nam, but I'm glad I took the journey with Annie Scarborough. Hers is a remarkable story worth reading and reading. --Warren Norwood

Elizabeth Scarborough is mostly known for her light humorous fantasy and science fiction. "The Fairy Godmother" series and "Channeling Cleopatra" are examples of this. One doesn't normally turn to her for a harrowing read about war and combat. Nontheless, that's exactly what "The Healer's War" is--with the added element of fantasy to mix things up.

I won't summarize the plot, since other reviewers have made that redundant. Suffice it to say that the main character of the book is Kitty McCulley, an Army nurse in Viet Nam. The first half of the book, which takes place on the inpatient orthopedic unit where Kitty works, is gritty enough, but it's still largely realistic. The second half, in which Kitty is taken deeper into the nightmare of war, is more hallucinatory, surrealistic and ugly--just like war itself. Scarborough includes an illuminating afterward about how her own experience as a nurse in Viet Nam affected her and how she came to write the book.

It's easy to see why this novel won the 1989 Nebula award, even if it isn't strictly SF. It's still a moving, quality piece of writing. It's a shame that it's not still in print.

The SFWA, the organization that awards the Nebula Award, doesn't officially change their name to the Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from the Science Fiction Writers of America (with the F in SFWA changing from Fiction to Fantasy), for another two years but the powers that be for that change within the organization have already aggressively asserted themselves even two earlier and certainly for this year to allow this once prestigious ScF award to this novel. This may be considered a fair medical fiction novel, fine then award it some medical fiction award. Despite what Damon Knight, the FOUNDER of the SFWA, said that the Nebula award shouldn't be and was never intended to be for fantasy, the fantasy faction has decided to flex their muscles won by their coup and shove fantasy novels into all the faces of those that had considered this an award for science fiction.

Fantasy set during the Vietnam War was a bit of a subgenre in the late 80's, early 90's and their are some interesting stories that can be read such as "Ma Qui" and especially "The Dark" about the tunnel rats of Vietnam, that give a good sense of this genre and are relatively short readings. But this is an entire novel. Seeking knowledge about the Vietnam War is certainly a worthy goal and there are a number of documentaries that could be found at the video rental store, or even the public library, as well fictional movies; "Platoon" and "Full Metal Jacket" being some of them and tv series on the medical aspects set in wartime such as MASH or China Beach that could be found on cable or dvd.

The story is about a medical worker in Vietnam during the war that obtains an amulet that let's her see `auras' around people that vary depending on their condition. That's as much ScF you'll get, and considering how much really, really great science fiction is out there, there's no reason to settle for a novel of this caliber. I didn't find this novel interesting even despite that fact it wasn't ScF. I can't even recommend any of the Nebula finalists as fully four of the six finalists are fantasy or speculative fiction. (Maybe "A Boat of a Million Years: by Poul Anderson since it's considered definite ScF.) The SFWA in it's arrogance over fantasy, doesn't even NOMINATE Hyperion by Dan Simmons as one of the supposed five (although usually six or seven) finalists for the Nebula award. This is the novel that won the Hugo award for best Science Fiction novel for that year and the Hyperion series is perhaps one of the best of the 90's.

Works awarded the Nebula after 1987 are hit or miss on science fiction and this novel would not be of interest to anyone wanting to read science fiction. However, Hyperion, that came out the same year, and its necessary sequel, The Fall of Hyperion, if not already read, are highly recommended instead.