Customer Reviews

The Road Home

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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One day, about a year ago I, a young seventh grader was browsing in the young adult section and couldn't find any new interesting books or ones I wanted to read that I hadn't already read, so I picked up The Road Home
Since that day I have read this book about a million times. I had my dad buy a used copy from a far off state, and every time we go one a trip I bring it along. I love this book and I don't believe that I once lived without it.
Rebecca, the heroine, is a young nurse who went to Vietnam and served her country. This book has an anti-war theme, but it defends the veterans and exposes their persecution.
Possibly the most enjoyable part for me was to read someone's writing whose humor so perfectly matched mine. I love it.I believe that while some swear words and other may be unappropriate for too young of readers, this book is perfect for anyone aged twelve to aged 120. This book combines the key elements, in my mind, of history, adventure, wit, humor, and romance.
I've read this book so many times that I've almost memorized it. Please try it and tell your friends. This book is too good to be thrown out of libraries. Read it!!!

I read this about a year ago. I am very interested in reading historical fiction, particularly concerning the Vietnam War. I read this book before any others in the Echo Company series, simply because it was the only one at the book store, and I just happened to pick it up. I think that it is a good continuation of the series, and, while I would have liked to learn more about what happened to certain characters when they got back to "the world", I think that this book does a good job of finishing everything up. As a teen who generally dislikes the formulaic teen novels that crowd the shelves of bookstores, I think that this is a great book. I only wish that more people would read it.

Twenty-one-year-old nurse Rebecca Phillips has fled a wealthy Bostonian upbringing fraught with issues and essentially exchanged it for a different type of hell --- a field hospital for wounded American soldiers in Vietnam. She works 16-hour days in the chaos of horrific amputations, burns and other casualties, and must often make the call between life and death...something that continues to haunt her day after day.

In a very short time, her co-workers cease to be merely people working with her toward a common goal. Rebecca finds a source of inspiration and friendship in her seemingly perfect direct supervisor, Major Maggie Doyle, and comic relief in Wolf and Spike, two young pilots. At the same time, Rebecca's bonds make her feel the pain all the more intensely when she learns more about the difficult past that led Major Doyle to the Army, and when tragedy befalls Wolf and Spike -- and herself.

But with tragedy often comes some joy, however small and imperceptible it may at first seem. In the most unlikely circumstances, Rebecca meets Michael Jennings, a 19-year-old private who seems instantly infatuated with her. She grudgingly agrees to exchange addresses, and before long, Michael's heartfelt accounts of his thoughts, dreams and daily experiences in the jungle have made her fall in love with him.

When tragedy again strikes, separating Rebecca and Michael not long before her yearlong tour is up, she feels as though she cannot go on. The past year of grief, horror, physical and emotional pain finally combine in a way where Rebecca believes she cannot fit into regular American life ever again. It's at her lowest that Rebecca shows just how strong she can be, and how while she could not control so many other things in her life, she can shape her own destiny.

I picked this book off a table of "remaindered" books some months ago, and just finished reading it. What a pity that such a good book should be resigned to the "nobody bought these" category. I suspect one problem is the "young adult" lable on the book. This is certainly not a book for children; most "young adults" are either reading mass market paperbacks or classics for school; and most adults assume a "young adult" book is geared for a young reader. This is an insightful and moving story of the destructive nature of war, both physically and mentally. The first half of the book takes place in a Nam ER room, moves as fast as the popular tv series ER, and is even more gruesome. This environment creates a hothouse of physical and emotional destruction this is almost unbearable. The second half of the novel explores ER nurse Rebecca's return to the States and her attempt to re-adjust to a "normal" life, a transition tale that is no less moving or interesting than the first half. There's a certain amount of "Born on the 4th of July" angst here, but the book is an insightful, entertaining, and moving tale that deserves more recognition by an adult audience. Which is not to say young adults wouldn't appreciate it. Really, it's a book for the 15+ set, with an emphasis on the +.

I read this book two years ago and I liked it enough to not only remember it but to sit down and write a review for it. The Road Home is typically billed as a children's book; it isn't, not by a long shot. No matter how old you are, you'd have to be made of stone not to be affected by this book. Ellen White tells a story of the war in Vietnam as it was. She doesn't mince words and she doesn't turn the war into something wonderful and glory-filled. War is nothing short of hell, and you'll know that when you finish this book. After I read this, I had a new, deep respect for the soldiers that fought in Vietnam. I thought that every politician in the world needed to read this book - then maybe they would think twice about sending soldiers to war. Read this book. It deserves to be read.

I read this a few years ago and absoluty love it! The charaters are great and after reading it had had to read the Echo Company series to get a better look into the story. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone, adult or young adult! I am very distressed that some libraries are getting rid of their copies! That is were most of the books for sale here are from. But it's out of print and I want everyone to be able to find and read this awsome book and how can that happen if the library gets rid of it! I am totally outraged and distressed! I hope you read this book, it's great!

I randomly picked this book up at a library (I was actually looking for something totally different) and was unable to put it down. It is a well-written, insightful look at the Vietnam War from the vantage point of a young nurse who leaves a life at home full of conflict and disappointment to serve her country, but returns to find that her life has only become more complicated and turbulant. While it is listed as a young adult novel, I would say that it is perhaps even better read as an adult. I'm sure the Junior High and High school set would find it captivating also. Themes of romance, gender discrimination, patriotism, and the anit-war movement are all present, and dealt with in a very tactful and thoughtful way. Her graphic depictions of the horrors of war would make it a questionable book for younger readers.

Our class was assigned books to read for our Vietnam unit and I chose to read "The Road Home." At first I just thought that ok, I would pick a book and get it overwith. Yet after reading the first few pages of it I was immediately drawn in. In this book you always think that once things have become as rotten as they have, they immediately return for a happy ending. This book has taught me much more than I ever would have known about Vietnam and has portrayed a character with a life full of hardships, friendships and romance which keeps you pleading for more.

Ellen Emerson White has always been one of my favorite authors, since I read The President's Daughter and Life Without Friends. But, while those novels were excellent, The Road Home far surpassed them. Having no real clue of what war is really like, I came away from this with, I think, a greater understanding of all of the horrors, and all of the small triumphs and quiet heroism as well. Rebecca's character is very well-drawn, and complex (she is at once funny and devastated, strong for her time, but very close to being broken by the horrors she has witnessed. I can't recommend this book, or any of White's, enough. My mother also read it and loved it, so I would say it spans beyond the young adult-adult classifications.

This book is one of my all-time top comfort reads. I know. Historically accurate, minutely researched Vietnam War novel=comfort read? you ask incredulously. What can I say? My favorite characters tend to endure mountains of suffering before attaining (hopefully) a modicum of happiness. Lt. Rebecca Phillips is no exception. What a heroine she is. A Radcliffe-educated nurse, Rebecca comes from stalwart, intellectual New England stock. She's the last person anyone expects to enlist in the Army and voluntarily get herself shipped off to Vietnam. But after the boy she loves is killed in the war and the brother she idolizes flees to Canada to escape the draft, Rebecca has to do something to deal with the pain and confusion that suddenly is her life.

The War, unsurprisingly, turns out to be a million times worse than her worst nightmare, and gets progressively worse until Rebecca finds herself racing for her life through the jungle on a broken ankle, having been shot down in a helicopter she never should have been on in the first place. Yeah. White doesn't pull any punches and Rebecca goes through hell and back again before she finds herself home once more, utterly unable to deal with the ramifications of The War and the friends she gained and lost there. And Michael is at the top of the list. Michael Jennings--the bad-tempered private Rebecca meets while MIA in the bush. The second half of the novel follows Rebecca's stilted attempts to reconnect with her family and Michael. To somehow fit together the pieces of her two lives: Before and After The War. It's a tour de force, in my opinion. White's prose and dialogue are as rapid-fire as ever and my pulse races every time I read it. Rebecca and Michael are such wonderfully strong, tangible characters. They deserve every scrap of happiness they can get.