Dear Bookclub,
Meeting on a tranquil day with a Veranda lunch greatly diverged from any possible setting that would characterize Kristin Hannah's "The Women". Thank goodness. The horrors of the Vietnam War and the journey of Hannah's Frankie widened our eyes to details previously unknown and opened our memories to that time period of our lives. Our individual histories varied, from exposure to the nightly news at the childhood dinner table, to having family members or peers who fought, and some who died. Terry lived on base in the Philippines from 1965-1968 while her father was a rescue helicopter pilot nearby in Vietnam.
Hannah's novel, we agreed, can bring an new awareness about the Vietnam War to newer generations.
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| Captain Diane Carlson Evans |
First in the book's Acknowledgments, is a tribute to Captain Diane Carlson Evans. Hannah gratefully relied on Evans' help in writing the novel. Featured in these two short videos from PBS, Evans explains her impassioned journey to create the Vietnam Women's War Memorial emphasizing the startling animosity she encountered many years after the war:
https://www.pbs.org/video/vietnam-womens-memorial-8c1ndo/
https://www.pbs.org/video/war-nurses-zgatjz/
Please do your own 'dive' into the memorial and notice the intensity of the sculpture itself. Not easily photographed, being circular, the representation is powerful. Lots of individuals have posted amateur looking videos that reveal different objects left at the memorial and a feel for the location.
More stories and videos about Evans and others can be found on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial website:
https://www.vvmf.org/stories/Diane-Carlson-Evans/
Finally, is it Vietnam or Viet Nam? Confused by what I thought I knew and what I was encountering, is just another day in the life of me-aging-brain; there is no end to these confoundments (did I just make up a word?) Vietnam was once spelled Viet Nam, coming from the Vietnamese for "southern Viet people". And long ago, it was Nam Viet. Nam is a Chinese word meaning 'south' and Viet meaning 'beyond'. Early Chinese histories refer to a kingdom called Nam Viet, the southernmost of Viets; there were also eastern Viets and several other Viets. I will forget most of this by tomorrow.
Terry's suggestions for an upcoming read:
"Table for Two" Amor Towles
"The North Woods" Daniel Mason *chosen
"The Vaster Wilds" Lauren Groff
Up next:
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