The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
Release date: 2010 / 386 pages
Synopsis (from back cover): As the city of Saigon falls, Helen Adams, an American photojournalist, must leave the devastated country she has come to call her own. While Helen and her lover escape through the streets, her journey drifts back twelve years playing out a drama of devotion and betrayal as she is torn between the love of two men.
First line: “The city teetered in a dream state.”
Review: Reading this novel is like going on an exhausting, interminable journey against one’s will — which is appropriate since the setting is the Vietnam War. However, the protagonist enters the war of her own volition in an attempt to come to terms with the loss of her father and to discover the truth about the death of her brother.
I’ve actually read quite a lot of Vietnam fiction. I still vividly remember meeting the Hmong refugees who were brought to the U.S. by my church. Twenty years later, I have taught many Hmong children in St. Paul and my connection to this culture has led me to read about the conflict that brought them to the United States.
The Lotus Eaters resonated authentically with what I’ve read about Vietnam and especially with regard to Tim O’Brien’s writings. At times I felt as if Helen was a revisioned Mary Ann, escaping with the Green Berets into the depths of the jungle… However, at the same time, Soli’s novel is truly unique and stands apart from the other Vietnam fiction I have read.
Seeing the war through the eyes of the “media” — slipping into the skin of a war correspondent — was an experience unlike any other I’ve read about, and an experience I have no desire to revisit — ever. The arrogance, courage, and callousness needed to film the atrocities of war was hard to experience, even vicariously, and I grew to deeply dislike Helen, who was risking her life by choice when so many were forced to the slaughter against their will.
I do not understand obsession on a personal level — thankfully — although I have read enough war literature to appreciate how difficult and mundane civilian life can seem after the adrenline-saturated time “in country.” For this reason, the title’s allusion was adroit. While we cannot understand the siren-song of war during times of relative peace, when one loses any perspective on identity, the concept of home becomes relative as well:
“The city teetered in a dream state. Helen walked down the deserted street. The quiet was eerie. Time running out. A long-handled barber’s razor, cradled in the nest of its strop, lay on the ground, the blade’s metal grabbing the sun. Unable to resist, she leaned down to pick it up, afraid someone would split his foot open running across it. A crashing noise down the street distracted her — dogs overturning garbage cans — and she snatched blindly at the razor. Drawing her hand back, she saw a bright pinprick of blood swelling on her finger. She cursed at her stupidity and kicked the razor, strop and all, to the side of the road and hurried on…
Helen hurried, sucking on the drop of blood at her fingertip, but couldn’t help her excitement, stopping to look, framing the composition in her mind’s eye: teenage boys, some in jeans, some in rags, breaking a plate-glass window; a crowd inside a ransacked grocery, gorging themselves on crates of guava and jackfruit; a young girl with pink juice running down her face and onto her white blouse. It had always fascinated her — what happens when things break down, what are the basic units of life?”
And, although Helen repelled me, I truly appreciated Soli’s artistry and skill in portraying a “conflict” that will never be fully understood and certainly should never be forgotten. However, I think this may be the last work of fiction set in Vietnam for this reader. While the soldiers and correspondents must become somewhat immune to the horror, my fill of these visions may have reached its limit.
If you are interested in winning a copy, simply leave me a comment and I’ll choose a lucky winner very soon!
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Here’s the full list of TLC tour stops!
Friday, March 19th: Musings of a Bookish Kitty
Monday, March 22nd: Feminist Review
Tuesday, March 23rd: Reading, Writing, and Retirement
Wednesday, March 24th: Caribousmom
Thursday, March 25th: Word Lily
Friday, March 26th: Bookfoolery and Babble
Monday, March 29th: My Friend Amy
Wednesday, March 31st: Books and Movies
Thursday, April 1st: Lit and Life
Friday, April 2nd: Luxury Reading
Monday, April 5th: Suko’s Notebook
Tuesday, April 6th: One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books
Wednesday, April 7th: Diary of an Eccentric
Thursday, April 8th: Happy Lotus
Friday, April 9th: At Home With Books
Monday, April 12th: Savvy Verse and Wit
Monday, April 13th: A High and Hidden Place
I’d love to win a copy of this book. Your review really caught my eye and added it to my wish list.
thanks for the giveaway.
bibliophilebythesea AT gmail DOT com
I’d like to read this book. Thanks for the chance.
A member of our book club just asked about a book on Vietnam. This one sounds like it could be the one. Interesting!
Since I have yet to read a book about Vietnam, I’d like to give this one a chance. Thanks!
I’ve heard stories about Vietnam from my uncle and a few others who spent time there in the war. I really am interest in reading this book and another person’s point of view. Please count me in. Thanks!
I would love to win a copy of this book-I have been to Vietnam and have numerous V. clients.
thank you
The book sounds so intense!
Thanks so much, Kristen, for all the time you spent reading and reviewing The Lotus Eaters. We really appreciate it.
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