|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Amazon
In David Bergen's moody, thoughtful novel, Charles Boatman, a Vietnam War vet, returns to Vietnam 30 years after the war to try to come to terms with his accidental killing of a young boy in a village. After about a month in Vietnam, he disappears. Two of his grown children, Ada and Jon, who live in B.C., come to Danang to search for him but Charles does not want to be found. While there, Ada falls in love with Vu, an older, well-known Vietnamese artist. Meanwhile, Jon leaps into the expatriate gay scene. In essence, this is the story of a father and a daughter (the mother has died) and their attempt to understand the depth and meaning of their similarities and differences.
The character of Charles seems slightly incongruous. He is a redneck, who maintains a bunker with guns and gas masks under his rural house, and yet sometimes seems too refined: "Whenever nightmares woke him, Charles ... played music, sometimes classical, sometimes opera." There is a profound aimlessness to the novel, some of it no doubt intended, but eventually it stalls the momentum of the story. While in the city of Danang, Charles seems to be waiting for something to come that doesn't come from waiting. Throughout there is an inordinate amount of staring out of windows and recounting of dreams. The highpoints of this book are several chapters taken from an imagined Vietnamese novel written by a veteran and deserter of the North as he makes his way home across a war-torn landscape--in these the power of storytelling comes fully alive. These chapters are so riveting that the novel is worth reading for them alone. --Mark Frutkin --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Ada Boatman and her father, Charles, cross borders in Canadian author Bergen's luminous fourth novel. As their surname suggests, the in-between approximates the watery space between life and death. The narrative alternates between Ada's and Charles's points of view, between their separate experiences in contemporary Vietnam and their past together in the Pacific Northwest. Charles, an isolated American Vietnam veteran turned Canadian woodsman, raises his three children—Ada, Jon and Del—in British Columbia after their mother's death. As they scatter into adulthood, Charles retreats further into the memories (especially the terror of a single day of combat) that keep him at arm's length from life. When a fellow veteran sends Charles a novel written by a Vietnamese soldier, the story moves Charles to revisit Vietnam. There, he attempts to peel back the dark shroud of memory, but he cannot make peace and disappears instead. Ada and Jon follow their father to Danang, where they confront his past, and where Ada, whose life has been defined by her father's long sadness, learns to forsake her unmoored existence in favor of inner reconciliation. In this meditation on the aftereffects of violence and failed human connection, Bergen's austere prose illustrates the arbitrary nature of life's defining moments. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Past that Catches Up With Us,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Time in Between (Paperback)
This is the third novel of Bergen's that I have read and reviewed and, like the other two, "The Time in Between" is a well thought-out story that attempts to get inside the tortured soul of its main character, a middle-aged male going through a mid-life crisis. There are a number of things about Bergen's writing style that I like that include his knack to tell a believable story that has decent character development, a very engrossing plot, a few well-timed surprises, and a satisfying ending. One, Charles Boatman, the protagonist in the novel, is a very visibly unhappy and restless Vietnam vet who appears to be running away from his past. From the deceptive security of the hills around Abbotsford, BC, Charles attempts restore some stability to his life that is being slowly drained by one calamity after another: the spectre of violence left over from the war; the death of his wife and his children's mother; and the growing disaffection between him and son, Jon. Any attempt to restore his confidence meets only with increased despair. Two, Charles takes that mystical journey into the Vietnamese jungles in search of redemption - much like Marlowe's travels in "Heart of Darkness". Following the wisdom found in the works of a popular writer, Dang Tho, Charles comes prepared to admit his role in the massacre of years before. Three, after Charles disappears from the scene, Aida, his daughter, comes looking for him. It is only by her protracted efforts to locate her father and a persistent desire to reconnect with him does the reader finally discover Charles' true dilemma. His return to the killing fields of Vietnam, though well-intended, has all been a futile exercise because nobody can understand or appreciate his sense of guilt. Only in death, does Charles' efforts at atonement make sense to his daughter, Aida, who can now truly honour the memory of a man who tried to make right a past that everyone else clearly wants to forget but him.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Insight into Being Human,
By Franc Delyne (Randland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Time In Between (Hardcover)
The Time in Between is more than a story about Vietnam and much more than a story about a Vietnam war survivor. It is a story about being human and how our actions affect us and shape the rest of our lives. Fans of introspection and flawed characters as put on display in homerun hitters like My Fractured Life and Aligator should find The Time in Between to be a good match. It will keep your mind active and thinking to say the least.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deservedly Won the 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize,
By
This review is from: The Time in Between (Paperback)
Charles Boatman, a solder in the Vietnam war is haunted by what happened there, and spend most of his life trying to come to terms with it. Plagued by nightmares,he goes to Vietnam in an effort to reconcile his life. When he disappears, his children Ada and Jon go to Vietnam to try to find him. This is the story of Charles and his children, all lost in the confusion and chaos we call life. This novel is deeply depressing and haunting. Bergen's lyrical prose takes us to were most of us do not want to go, but should. It is not just Charles lonely journey trying to find life, but also that of his children and more in this cast of characters. At times I found myself wanting to put this book down to catch a breath of fresh air, but I couldn't! Bergen is amazing at his craft and I look forward to reading more by him. I highly recommend this book to all, however if your suffering from depression, you may want to wait to read it until your feeling better.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
