Customer Reviews

Lonely Girls with Burning Eyes

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I will be a USMC wife on July 4th, 1999 and so much of what Mrs. Novak writes about is so similar to my own encounters with the USMC. Anyone who has a loved one in the military should read this book. It's time our story was told.

This is a book I have read many times and each time I am touched and reminded of all the men and families who went through so much for the war. I am glad that Mrs. Novak wrote a story from the perspective of someone who suffered at home. I could relate to her and her experiences.

Read this book and thank Marian Faye Novak for writing such a difficult story. A compelling autobiography from the wife of a U.S. Marine who served in Viet-Nam during 1967 - 1968. Not the usual hero worship story glorifying war but rather a sobering account of life in the military and the demoralizing effects of an ignoble and senseless war.

Extraordinary memoir recounts the emotional and mental devestation being a military wife without a support system. But, it is much more than just her story but rather the story of all the isolated women and families who waited for their men and then had to deal with the ugly after-effects.

This is a story that needed telling and certainly needs to read by all the psuedo patriots anxious to send young men to fight bogus wars. Shame on Lyndon Johnson. Shame on Richard Nixon. Shame on George Bush, Jr. Shame on them, their wifes, parents and children for not opposing such heinous actions which destroyed so many lives. Thank you Marian for revealing the other side of war.

An eloquent, evocative telling of what it's like to wait, worry, and wonder about a loved one in harm's way. Anyone who's been separated from a significant other will be able to relate to this one. Simple, but moving, and well written. Highly recommended to interested parties.

I bought this book from a thrift store. Every time my husband goes to Iraq I read it. He's been over there four times. Every time I read it as this war goes on it becomes more relevant as the level of discontent towards this war increases. It's the things you think and feel when your not sure your husband is coming home, but can't ever say to anybody. It's a wonderful book and I am so glad I have it. I wish it were required reading in college classrooms. Whatever your position on any war, I think people need a bit more compassion when dealing with people who are facing the possibility of death every day, It's an invisible hand that presses down on you. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a better understanding of the toll war takes on both the servicemembers and their families.

While this book is about a select group of people, primarily the wives of student officer lieutenants from Quantico, training for the Viet Nam war, it is really about any of those left behind, wives, families and friends. In that era, our country confused the warriors with the unpopular war and that added to the stress on wives and families.

While the mood of the country is now different about our servicemen and women, the impact of war on young lives remains the same, particularly on young couples who are just starting married life, must live with the threat of death facing them. A sequence in which the author rejoices because her husband was "only wounded," is particularly poignant. Getting to know each other as husband and wife while recognizing that the arduous training is for a deadly purpose adds strain to young marriages.

And, for what is now common knowledge, the war does not end when the young husbands come home. They and their wives must confront the demons that combat brings. A difficult, but very moving and well written book.

An eloquent, evocative telling of what it's like to wait, worry, and wonder about a loved one in harm's way. Anyone who's been separated from a significant other will be able to relate to this one. Simple, but moving, and well written. Highly recommended to interested parties.

For any woman whose better half is in the military and/or has served in war, this book is a must read. I just finished reading it and it has brought me more healing than I could have imagined. My better half is a Marine who lost his left eye when a bomb hit his humvee convoy in Iraq. Unlike the author, I did not live on a military base and did not have the support of other military wives to help keep me together through this experience. I had a 2 year long weight lifted off of me because for the first time I read the words of a woman who had the same thoughts and fears that I did when my Marine was in Iraq and when he came home. For the first time I did not feel alone in my experience that is often ignored and underestimated by society. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Novak for having the courage to write her story as well as encourage other military wives, girlfrieds, mothers, sisters, and daugthers to read it as they try to find comfort.

In 1989, I took a writing workshop at Simmons College in Boston, mostly because Robert Cormier, a great writer, was speaking. I wound up in a class taught by C. Michael Curtis, the fiction editor of The Atlantic(!). Every morning he'd read aloud one of our stories anonymously and we'd comment, analyze, and give our feedback, which was often very emotional and passionate. But the class was always civilized, even when the critique was not very positive. Some of the writers had been published in some good journals, unlike me. I couldn't be objective and didn't know whether I was incredibly out of my league or would be benignly considered a neophyte with some potential.

During the class I'd become friendly with a student named Marian. She was about 15 or 20 years older than me (26) yet despite apparent differences we got along well. She was emotionally honest, smart, and we had fun talking about and trying to figure out our fellow students: the Hollywood guy who had been to a million workshops and had sold a story on it's 54th submission, the literate 70ish guy who had only been writing for a few years, etc. She talked warmly about her husband. I believe they both taught at Simmons. I didn't connect as well with anybody else and like what happens during a lot of these kind of short, intense experiences away -- vacations, week-long conferences, temp jobs -- we made a pretty solid bond.

Near the end of the workshop, Mike Curtis read a harrowing story about a group of Marines, all Vietnam vets, who get together for a reunion at a hotel on the Charles River in Boston. They all fought together (if memory serves) and tell stories about the people they knew and experiences they had. But the conversation doesn't really get going until one of them says something like, "What scared you the most over there?" I wish I could tell you some specifics about those tales now but all I can say is that they were full of terror, strangeness, anguish, intense love, loyalty, and dread.

The class was pretty quiet after Mike finished. Finally we started speaking and the general consensus was that this was one of the best stories heard all week. We speculated about who wrote it. The Hollywood guy's story had been heard, the old guy was too old for Vietnam, I was too young, and the one guy left didn't seem the type.

As we went to a little lunch the college had prepared for us I told Marian all these thoughts and my confusion over not being able to figure which guy wrote the story. I was frustrated -- I'm pretty good at sizing people up, listening, and reading things that are under the surface (I became a social services family counselor right after this).

I looked at her and her face was red and her mouth was taught. "I wrote that," she said. I think now that she wasn't red from embarrassment but from something like pain, conviction, and pride. "My husband was in Vietnam when we were first married. I know all those guys or guys like them. I've heard them tell their stories." There was a tense second as I looked at her in shock and I guess she waited to see what the hell I was going to say. I laughed a little and said, after saying "Wow," a bunch of times, "You sure as hell do." She was one great writer.

Marian, if you ever read this, I hope I didn't get any of the big details wrong. Some of the quotes are correct and some are paraphrased but, I think, pretty accurate. To everyone else, at the very least, remember the last line above.

I read this book many years ago but I still recall some of the writing and how powerful and moving it was. This is a book for anyone, whether you have family in the military or not. Those who do will get even more from it.

I think this book was in great condition, and I am satisfied with it.