Highways to a War: A Novel [Hardcover]

Christopher J. Koch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1995

The story of a war photographer who vanishes in the Cambodian jungles and the many lives that he touches--narrated by a childhood friend--captures the deep friendships forged amid the turbulence of the Vietnam War. By the author of The Year of Living Dangerously. 35,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Australian war photographer Mike Langford has just disappeared inside Cambodia as this intriguing novel opens in 1976. That country has been closed to all foreigners since the Khmer Rouge takeover, however, so when Langford doesn't emerge the general presumption is that he has been killed or taken prisoner. When the narrator, a boyhood friend, receives Langford's diary-on-tape, spanning 1965-1975, it sets off a series of reminiscences that offer indelible insights into the mind and heart of a remarkable individual who would dare infiltrate Communist Kampuchea against all odds. Readers will be touched by Langford's experiences in Indonesia (the setting of Koch's 1979 novel, The Year of Living Dangerously), Vietnam, and Cambodia. Highly recommended.
Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1ST edition (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670861553
• ISBN-13: 978-0670861552
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,522,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Settle back for the ride, February 21, 2000

By 

hugh riminton - See all my reviews

This review is from: Highways to a War (Paperback)

This is a big book, lumbering in structure, almost Victorian in the way it mucks about before settling into the yarn - but it winds up rich and troubling and moving and difficult to forget. Rather too obviously based on the life of famed war cameraman Neil Davis, it follows its hero from sylvan days in the hopfields of Tasmania to the warzones of Vietnam and Cambodia. The evocations of scented Asia, the journo/GI milieu, the chaos of battle are extremely strong.

Over time the hero's naive idealism is forged into - um, experienced idealism, as he comes to identify with the Cambodian people in particular. His ultimate fate is almost operatic in its awfulness.

The French have a word - sillage - which means the ineffable scent left in the air by a woman's passing. This book leaves a sillage. It is the gentle wash of sadness of the old survivors of those horrible South-East Asian wars, as they calculate the prices paid, and wonder at their meaning.

I recommend this book. It is like an old-fashioned Sunday roast - not necessarily the meal you'd choose, but richly satisfying at the end.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Espionage, God and the Khmer Rouge, November 29, 2007

By 

A. Williams "Tokyo Reader" (Penang) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Highways to a War (Paperback)

Christopher Koch writes about recent history in a way no other writer has done. He frequently is compared to Graham Greene, because they both write about espionage and moral confusion in exotic locales and because they both create unforgettable characters, but Koch approaches novel-writing from a different point of view. Both write beautiful, poetic prose. Koch, who rejects many contemporary literary vogues, nevertheless shows more interest in the structure of the novel than Greene. Greene was a troubled Catholic; Koch is a former Catholic, and either in spite or because of this, has a more clearly developed moral perspective. He uses it to lead his readers into one of the most ghastly moral cul de sacs of the 20th century, the triumph of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. His hero, Mike Langford, his greatest character, even greater than Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously, is a Christlike figure -- literally, as is revealed in the tremendous conclusion to this wonderful book. More fashionable Australian writers, like the former advertising copywriter, Peter Carey, have been more adept at selling their work than Koch, but his books will be the ones that endure. Koch originally conceived Highways as a longer work, which would have included the story of Mike Langford's ancestor. The other half was later published as Out of Ireland. The first 40 or 50 pages of Highways provides a bridge between the two novels, which might be confusing to readers who don't read them as a pair.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful piece of literature, October 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Highways to a War (Paperback)

'Highways to a War' is a wonder and interesting novel to read. It explores many intersting issues and concepts, including love, human suffering and friendships. It initially seems long and it is difficult to get into, but in time the reader gets drawn into the story and you won't want to put it down.