I think this book is full of emotion and it definitely pushes you to feel, but sometimes it feels like unreigned chaos. I did feel like the book was informative, though densely so at times. I wasn't always sure what point Thach was trying to make, but overall I did enjoy reading the novel. I look forward to seeing this writer's growth, there are strong foundations for very good writing.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sebastian Thach for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect going into this book, but what I got was a bitter-sweet story of a man whose life was completely changed because of the Vietnam War.

The story itself was very easy to consume, with quick chapters that had me reading the entire book in about 2 hours.

However, I’m not sure if I particularly enjoyed the execution of the book. Although there were very painful and emotional moments, something about the situation made it difficult to connect with in a much more personal way. Perhaps it's because we are being told this story from a future date, so the stakes for Luc aren’t high. Maybe it’s the writing style, I’m not too sure.

One thing that was very hard for me to understand, is the political stance the book is taking. When it comes to such a difficult topic, such as war, typically the narrative take some sort of stance. However, at times I felt like I was getting a variety of opinions, not just from the characters but from the story itself. It made it difficult to place what the ultimate theme of the novel is. Many of the characters seem to take a pacifist stance, and the narrative seems to reflect that at times, at other times it seems there are strong anti-communist sentiments (and glorification of the US aid), and then a few chapters later we’ll have the mentioning of the numerous war crimes the USA committed there. Though I think it’s okay for characters to have shifting and contradicting feelings about war, the narrative should be very clear about what it’s trying to convey. If that idea is that: war is bad and all sides are wrong and do cruel things, then that's fine, but the story didn’t feel like it consistently reflected that ideology. It can be very hard to put feelings about war to page, and whether that would mean the author ultimately chooses a side or speaks about the horrors of war, that would be okay. But it needs to be clearer.

Overall I think there were some very strong moments, enough to keep me compelled to keep reading, but it just didn’t connect with me in the way similar stories (in different backdrops) do.

The premise is intriguing. But the book is poorly executed. I think this was self-published and that comes across.

Overall the writing has an awkward feel. The dialogue is clumsy and very unnatural (eg, the conversations that Phuc, Hung and Luc have sound like 21st Century people talking smack). There is a lot of overt explaining (about the famine, political figures, American involvement etc) which is jarring. And the plotting feels pat and contrived especially when Minh is introduced.

When Luc and Thien first meet, the talk about Luc being rich is repetitive and unusual. The point was made the first time but then it's repeated in the same exchange for no reason--this clunky part was almost painful to read.

This ARC has a lot of errors too.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sebastian Thach for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sebastian Thach for providing an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars, rounded up.
This book is a tragic historical drama that blends personal narratives with historical events, telling the story of individuals, one man in particular, impacted by the Vietnam War. While at times painful, the story was bittersweet and heartfelt, and it didn't feel like it hammered in the tragedy unduly hard.
I did find some parts of the story, especially the ending, to rely on slightly implausible coincidences, and I struggled at times with the extremely stream-of-consciousness storytelling style.