Customer Reviews

Lost Soldiers

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"He loves Vietnam," says one of James Webb's Vietnamese characters, "He is like us, I think. He knows that to love our country is to experience tragedy." And Webb would know given his C.V.. He is a Senator from Virginia, author and a former Secretary of the Navy. A 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Webb served as a Marine Corps infantry officer until 1972, and is a highly decorated Vietnam War combat veteran (Navy Cross, Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts).

During Webb's four years with the Reagan administration, he served as the first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, then as Secretary of the Navy. So presumably he knows of what he writes. Webb is an interesting fellow - he also had a very tense exchange with President George W. Bush regarding Iraq.

Lost Soldier could have been a "simple" thriller involving murder, treachery, and retribution (and a good one at that) but the book is much richer based the enigma that is Vietnam during the war and twenty-five years following when the book's action takes place. Webb's life has either been defined or greatly influenced by his experiences in-country. His avatar in the novel is the main character Condley, a marine veteran, who cannot detach himself from the country even years after the war. He is a philosophical, somewhat jaded, adrift warrior who is "always looking for answers".

This drives him to investigate a murder mystery - one that results when a U.S. serviceman is discovered in a Vietnamese village cemetery. From there we are treated to a decent mystery but a more engaging cultural and political look at Vietnam. The Vietnam War has always fascinated me (I grew up in Canada listening to radio reports on the conflict) and wonder if James Webb's son who has served in Iraq will pick up a pen one day to illuminate aspects of that conflict.

This book was obviously written by someone with a keen knowledge and love of Vietnam. The characters are well described and seem real people.

The plot is somewhat unimportant and there are probably holes in the story, but it is well worth your time

As a fan of James Webb, I was surely surprised at this slow reading novel. Lost Soldiers is only a history/geography lesson of Viet Nam, Thailand, Hawaii, Russia and Australia that concludes with a predictable and disappointing climax. Let's hope that his fuure work is better than this one.

James Webb's characterizations in this wonderful story are some of the richest I've seen. Mr. Webb takes the reader along for a sensual tour de force of Vietnam from it's heat to it's people to it's smell(s). The reader is intoxicated with all that this beautiful and troubled country has to offer. It's also a great detective story! The storyline is pretty damn near brilliant.

Another winner for James Webb.

I found this book extremely enjoyable for several reasons. It had very few characters and a simple plot that made the story easy follow. It painted a picture of Southeast Asia and its culture. Especially Vietnam, which has been an enigma to me since I was a young boy watching my uncles go off to the Vietnam war. It is a good mystery, with enough suspense and humor to keep you turning the pages.

When the last CH-46 helicopter lifted off the Saigon Embassy rooftop at dawn on April 30, 1975, America had closed the book on Vietnam. Thousands of men like Dzung were rounded up for labor and re-educated camps for years. Their spirit and voice drowned amid Vietnam's attempt at recovery after years of war. Back in the States, U.S. veterans silently worked their way back to sanity and mainstream. A few never forgot the country, the people and the South Vietnamese soldiers abandoned on the battlefield. Jim Webb is the first novelist to offer a glimpse of a "reeducated" man and the biggest sufferers of the Vietnam tragedy -- those from the South who were left behind. No American knows Vietnam better and no one loves it more than Jim.

When I read "The Quiet American" in Saigon upon my 1995 return to my hometown after 20 years in America, I thought I had read the best. Lost Soldiers exceeds that fine work in many ways. Today's Vietnam and its people come alive through the pages and Condley's love for the country is authentic albeit reflective of Jim's work in real life to help release many of those "reeducated" soldiers. This novel belongs on the bookshelves of those who are curious about what happened to South Vietnam, its people and soldiers on both sides long after the last shot is fired and the aging politicians have expressed their remorse. It moves beyond America's obsession with itself after the war. Semper fi!

Not quite what I have read in his other books but what seems like a closure to a era of fiction that may take him to other areas. Very enjoyable but I found not as exciting as his other novels... We are becoming ancient history but we will always remain young with stories like this.

I enjoyed the characters and the story too. I also found some of the descriptions of Vietnamese family and daily life to be very interesting. From seeing the plight of the peasants in both Saigon and throughout most of the rest of what was South Vietnam when I was there, the book broadened my perspective about the lives of our allies, enemies, and the ordinary people in the South.

I especially enjoyed being able to refer to the map at the front and back of the hardcover version. Although I was in Saigon only a few times back in '67-8, I still remember a lot of the streets and sections of the city (e.g., the Cholon district, the US Embassy, and Tan Son Nhut). The map and the characters' movements through the city with the descriptions of the traffic, landmarks, sounds, and smells brought the city to life for me.

There were a couple of places where the pace of the story slowed, but the pace of the rest of the book outweighed those.

I think the book could me made into a decent movie too.

As with other readers who have read some of Webb's earlier novels, especially the excellent Fields of Fire, I looked forward to an in-depth look at postwar Vietnam and Saigon as seen through the eyes of an author who had intimate knowledge of the area. I was assigned to the American Embassy in Saigon in 1973-74, so was very familiar with the city and anxious to see how it had changed in the last 25 years. How sadly disappointed I was, then, with this meager work. In spite of glowing acclaim from such lumanaries as Senator John McCain, and Senator Robert Kerry, who should have known better, Webb has produced a novel with a pain-in-the-neck leading character (Brandon Condley), an inane story line, a weak plot, cartoon-like secondary characters, and no insight at all into what the end-result of the Vietnam war was all about. It reads in fact,like it was written especially for the next Bruce Willis movie. Hardly a recommendation. For me it's back to the next Wilbur Smith and a good read.

While one reviewer claims, "The descriptions of Saigon, Bangkok, Moscow and Honolulu are as sharp and realistic as in any well-written travel guide," I challenge that reviewer or any reader to locate "The Arabat" in Moscow. The boldface titular error in the prologue should read, "The Arbat." While there is much to recommend Lost Soldiers, such sloppiness mars the work. Is a reader asking too much of a well-paid, lauded author, his editor and his publisher to ensure that place names are correctly spelled? At the very least, they owe such accuracy to the innocents who expose their identities in promotional blurbs on the dust jacket: Colonel David Hackworth (Ret.), Senator John McCain, W.E. B. Griffin, James Bradley, Walter Anderson, Senator Robert Kerrey, and James Brady.