Lives Intertwined portrays events of two individuals who fought together in Vietnam, both members of Army Special Forces of their respective countries, U.S. and Vietnam. The American, Dordi, marries a Vietnamese woman. The Vietnamese fighter, Loc Tin, suffers the death of his wife in war and the loss of his children to an unknown fate. He flees Vietnam on an overloaded boat, which capsizes in a storm. He finds himself on a piece of flotsam with the boat’s pilot, whom he marries after they make their way to the U.S. The characters are separated, but eventually reconnect though happenstance and DNA searches.
I spent a year in Vietnam from February 1967 to March 1968 with the Marines in I Corp, the northernmost sector, and felt a visceral tie to much of the narrative. Depictions of the effects of war on individuals is haunting and told not only with human empathy but also with scientific accuracy. The author to her credit depicts the damage that agent orange still exacts on those exposed to it and to their offspring. She gives attention as well to the burn pits that have harmed U.S. troops in the Middle east. Human relations are rendered skillfully; depictions of battle less so. Despite a text check by a U.S. army veteran of Vietnam, I found the action Rambo-esque: a silent and instant kill by a thrown bayonet and again with a bow and arrows. A soldier climbs the outside of a building in the battle of Hue to get to a sniper, because the building is booby trapped. In Hue, snipers were hit with explosives. NVA killed Marine snipers with rocket propelled grenades. Marines used the Ontos, a tracked vehicle with six recoilless rifles, to good effect as well as M79 grenade launchers.
The novel starts as a memoir written by an old man that describes his vigilante killings. This provides some mystery to the story, as his identity is not revealed until the end. However, the author’s extensive use of exposition (turning around the maxim “show don’t tell”) delivers no real tension. Neither is there a good explanation of why the vigilante killed bad people, except that “they deserved to die.”
Still the novel is packed with information and is an excellent read for Vietnam veterans or anyone interested in either Vietnam or the lingering effect of toxins released in war zones by the U.S. Three stars.
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