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148 of 155 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Viet Nam and the Vietnamese As They Really Were, March 13, 2010
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So much has been written about the Viet Nam era, and now along comes author Tatjana Soli with the evident intention of writing a "great" novel about these times. The funny thing is that, against all odds, she has succeeded in doing so, at least up to a certain point. I lived through the Viet Nam era through my teens and into my twenties. Author Soli brings back a lot of memories, though not necessarily good ones; but she captures the spirit of the era with an uncanny accuracy--- and yet as nearly as I can tell (biographical information is sparse) she did not herself live through those days. Her research must have been superb and she must have talked with many a Viet Nam veteran, Viet Nam refugee, and many others besides. She shows us Viet Nam as it really was, the good and the bad; she shows us American soldiers as they really were: mostly young and scared and far from home, yet capable of great bravery and nobility as well as the base acts associated with soldiers from time immemorial. This is not an anti-war book per se, although it shows the horrors of war. The perspective of the book is balanced. Viet Nam and the Vietnamese are bathed in the light of realism, just as are Americans. The book asks us to sympathize with the plight of the Vietnamese, and who cannot? Yet we sympathize with the Americans as well as the war grinds on, becoming hopeless and eventually, lost. Who can forget among those who lived through those days the sight of the Communist flag flying from the American embassy at the fall of Saigon in April, 1975? The author has us live--- or relive-- that infamous day, and much more. At its core, the story, such as it is, is about an American photo journalist who starts out as a naive and unskilled photographer but who, through time, loses her innocence even as she learns her craft. She has her first love affair with another American photo journalist, this one as cynical as he is seasoned. Her second love affair is with a Vietnamese who has a dark and suspect background, and yet their mutual love redeems them both in the end. The writing is superb, the imagery masterful, the story-telling excellent. It's just that there really isn't a lot of connected storyline. As mentioned above, author Soli seems deliberately to have set out to write something "great" and storyline is only an incidental tool. The novel is more about Viet Nam itself than it is about the characters in the novel, who could have been selected from any of a myriad of possibilities. While Soli integrates the characters into the novel very well, it is not the characters that make the book come alive: instead, it is the era and the setting. It is very telling that the ending is both rushed and sketchy; after some 360 or so pages of detailed exposition the denouement is wrapped up in under 20 pages of spare prose. Do I recommend this book? Of course. It is one of the best Viet Nam era novels I've ever come across, maybe even *the* best. Just be aware that if the times are familiar to you, don't expect this to be any easy book to read, especially if you have memories that you would rather not call back. The book takes you to Viet Nam in the 60s and 70s in a very direct, accurate, and uncompromising matter. That, of course, is the book's real genius and the book's strong draw.
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48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully Written, Haunting Book, April 10, 2010
When I read a book that keeps me enthralled to the final page, that is so absorbing I have to tear myself away from it, I find myself amazed (and envious) that anyone can be so gifted. That's how I felt after reading The Lotus Eaters. Having attended my share of writing seminars, I realize you can't really soar as a writer until you have truly mastered the craft; however, some writers seem to have talent that defies reason. A few paragraphs into this novel, I realized Tatjana Soli's powerful prose would haunt me. I rarely read war novels, but the plot of this one intrigued me. The main protagonist is Helen Adams, a young American photojournalist covering the Vietnam War, and in Helen, Soli created a character that is complex, courageous, and real--yet flawed at the same time. Both Helen's father and brother were in the military, and her brother lost his life in a Special Forces operation in Vietnam. Helen always felt excluded by the camaraderie between her father and brother, and she is plagued by the sense of having something to prove. This lingering demon has driven her to being in the midst of this historic point and place in time, and Helen is willing to risk almost anything to get a defining, iconic photo. Many of the characters in this novel are addicted to war, like a drug that must repeatedly enter their bloodstream. Within hours of arriving in Vietnam, Helen meets Sam, a legendary war photographer, and Linh, a Vietnamese photographer and translator. Sam becomes a mentor and guide to Helen, who quickly learns that women are not welcome in the macho world of war. Linh helps her to navigate the murky landscape of a dangerous country that is shifting on a regular basis. Helen's human interest assignments also shift as her willingness to take risks proves her mettle as a serious photojournalist. "She had proved to herself what she hadn't known before; that under the right circumstances she could be brave. An unknown gift, strange and random, like the ability to play an instrument or be good at a sport." Soli's prose is gripping, moving, and unflinchingly places you in the middle of the action. I had to stop reading from time to time because the story affected me in a way that was hard to shake off. Told through the multiple viewpoints of Helen, Sam and Linh, we get a 360-degree view of the nightmare that is war and the bond these individuals developed with each other. I was deflated and relieved when I turned the final page of The Lotus Eaters. It was unlike any other book I've read recently: beautiful and somewhat unsettling. If you want to know how to write a great novel, ask Tatjana Solis. Originally published on the Feminist Review Blog
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engrossing Vietnam fiction, April 10, 2010
Helen Adams is a photojournalist in Vietnam - one of the only women covering actual combat, recon, and rescue assignments. She comes to Vietnam as an idealistic college student, determined to make a name for herself, tell the story of the war - and discover the truth of her brother's death in country. During her years in Vietnam, Helen will learn to love two completely different men - and will learn that the true human cost of war is nothing that can be captured in numbers or photographs. In The Lotus Eaters, the reader experiences the war in Vietnam through the eyes of Helen, and we watch as her idealism is eroded, bit by bit, each piece representing a person she has lost or seen killed. At first finding the American soldiers she accompanies and photographs to be her personal protectors and heroes, she begins to see the way war changes a man until he loses his humanity, and she loses her trust in her country and the military. She is drawn to the experienced photographer Sam Darrow, and afraid of the obsession she detects in him, yet unable to prevent the same obsession from taking hold in her own life. Ms. Soli has written a devastatingly true novel - not true in the sense that it is based on a real person - but true in that it is so real and authentic that the experience of reading it is like submerging yourself in Helen's experiences. She writes in uneven prose - gorgeous descriptive sentences interspersed with jagged fragments - so that the reader is left feeling restless, unsettled, and unsure. The journey that Helen takes from eager new journalist to jaded photographer almost hurt to read, and yet I couldn't stop until I knew what happened. We also experience the story through the eyes of Linh, a Vietnamese man who works as an assistant for Sam and Helen, holding close and quiet the secret of his own private war, the losses he has experienced. It is truly an amazing thing that a female author from California could capture the mind and heart of a Vietnamese man so perfectly. As Helen and Linh's stories being to collide, the book became even more engrossing. As I read the last chapter, with tears streaming down my face, I actually found myself mentally praying for the characters, something that only happens when I'm reading a book that has become completely real to me. I don't know what else to say about this book except that I consider it one of the best books I've read so far this year.
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