We meet Robert Quinlan and his wife Darla right after he meets a Vietnam War veteran, Bob, one night at a local restaurant and buys him supper. It brings memories back to Robert who met his wife after she marched in an antiwar rally when he had just returned from Vietnam. He served near the Perfume River and he still has many secrets he has never told anyone. The woman he loved there. What he did the night of Tet offensive.

Robert went to try to please his father. The war tore his family apart. His younger brother Jimmy went to Canada to avoid the draft and never returned. He is still there, still with the woman who went there with him. The brothers were also torn apart, neither approving of the other's choices. The family hasn't seen or spoken with Jimmy in decades.

Now things come to a head. Robert's father falls and breaks his hip and at age eighty-nine, the prognosis isn't good. The family reaches out to Jimmy but he remains aloof. Bob, the homeless veteran, is attacked when seeking shelter and it takes him back to his days of service. The three men will come together in an explosive moment that echoes the violence that the war perpetrated on everything and everyone.

Robert Olen Butler is a distinguished author who has won the Pulitzer Prize along with many other honors. Like his protagonist in this novel, he teaches at Florida State. This novel explores the impact that the Vietnam War had on families and individuals and how war resonates down through the years, sometimes separating those who served and often damaging them in ways that one never recovers from. The writing is spare yet draws the reader in and for those who lived through the Vietnam War, reminiscent of those times in ways both good and bad. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

I couldn't finish this book. I think i wasn't in the right frame of mind for it, A story about father and son, and the effect of the Vietnam War.

It was a good novel just not much of my taste but doesn't take away from the fact that it was good. The author tells a wonderful story about families and regrets and unrevealed stories and secrets that haunt people in their lives - the decisions they made and may or may not have lived to regret.

This book helped me understand the ravages of war without it being a book about a war. It told of the impacts upon family and individuals, when the decision about whether or not to be involved was divisive. The fallout from these decisions which permanently changed lives and caused gaping holes in families. The torment that resulted from being involved in a controversial war.

Written in a gentle pace with a unique take on a story about families and the destruction caused not so much by weapons as by individuals attitudes toward war. Also, a story about love. The enduring love between husband and wife, mother and son and to an extent between brothers. A story about fathers and sons and how strongly held attitudes can cause lifelong rifts in that relationship. It provided an insight into what happens when long held convictions are reassessed and found wanting.

I read this book at an unusually slow pace due to a busy schedule so perhaps did not feel as invested as I might have felt if I'd read from beginning to end in one session as I normally do. However the characters and the story remained with me and each time I returned go the book I immediately found myself settling back into the point where I last left off. Reading an electronic version I was not cognisant of my place in the story so found I was taken unawares when I read the last page, but with hindsight I shouldnt have been. The loose ends had been tied and the story had a fitting end.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free electronic copy of this book.

One of his best recent titles. Perfect ending. Well drawn characters. A craftsman at the top of his writing game.

I’m a keen student of the Vietnam War and have ‘enjoyed’ exploring its legacy in Vietnam itself.
I found this novel intensely thought-provoking in its depiction of the repercussions of war and its impact on relationships (familial and otherwise).
Unlike some other reviewers, I did not find it an easy read, but I did find it an immensely rewarding one.