THE LOTUS EATERS

THE LOTUS EATERS by Tatjana Soli

From the back of the book:

In this much-lauded, fiercely imagined novel, Tatjana Soli paints a searing portrait of three remarkable photographers brought together under the impossible umbrella of war.  In the final days of a falling Saigon, Helen Adams, a once-underestimated amateur whose gutsy photographs have turned her into a dazzling, if jaded, star, finds her ambition conflicts with her desire as she grapples with her feelings for two very different men:  the mysterious Linh, a Vietnamese photojournalist with questionable loyalties, and Sam Darrow, an American reporter addicted to the narcotic of violence and to his dangerous love for Helen.  All three become transformed by the chaos they risk everything to record.

The Lotus Eaters unfolds a stirring canvas of three souls trapped by their intense passions and treacherous obsessions.  Readers will be transfixed by this stunning debut contrasting the wrenching horror of combat with the redemptive power of love.

This was an extremely difficult book for me to read.  I lived through the Vietnam era.  I watched the war unfold on the TV news every night.  I knew boys who were sent there.  I knew boys whose names are now etched on The Wall.  But I felt this would be an important book to read.

The contrasts in the lives of the photographers were striking.  One evening they would be having a meal at a fancy hotel, laughing, drinking, enjoying life.  The next day, they would be in the jungle, following a squadron of young men as they searched for the invisible enemy.  The fear of the soldiers was palpable.  The descriptions of the land and the destruction of life and property were vivid.  Reading this book, it was easy to understand how these boys found solace in booze and drugs.

This was a hated war.  When the boys returned, they weren't given a hero's return.  They were scorned and treated as second-class citizens, when in fact, they were only doing what was ordered.  This book lets the reader get inside the war and understand the feelings of the soldiers who had no choice but to be there.  Young people today only know about the war from what has been written, most likely watered-down versions of the fighting.  They need to read this book to see what it was really like.