Becoming Me

"I saw courage both in the Vietnam War and in the struggle to stop it. I learned that patriotism includes protest, not just military service." -  John F. Kerry

My friend Tricia Dower's new novel Becoming Lin came out this week.  I ordered it months ago when I learned that it would be released this spring.  I loved her last book Stony River and expected this new one would be equally good.  I was wrong.  Becoming Lin is even better.

I am a voracious reader.  When I pick up a book that resonates with me, I usually won't put it down until it is done.  This often means 3 a.m. bedtimes giving me only a few short hours to sleep until I need to be up for a meeting.  Becoming Lin is only 275 pages, so no late night would be required.  It should have been an afternoon's reading but in fact I took three days to finish it.  I worked hard to resist the urge to read until it was done.  For one thing, I knew that I would be sad to come to the end.  I got attached to the characters and was reluctant to let them go.  For another thing, I wanted to reflect on the story as I read it.  I spent hours remembering who and where I was in the time of the Vietnam war though I was younger than Lin, the central character in the book.  It was the late sixties and early seventies. I was becoming Jackie.

Coincident with my reading, I entered into a conversation of sorts with my cousin Francis.  He has been trying to help me understand the intricacies of U.S. politics.  Francis is a bit older than me.  He was drafted and served in Vietnam when I was in high school.  Though I've wanted to talk to him about it for more than forty years, we have not.  Francis doesn't talk about the war.  He has written about it though, sharing his writings with only his wife in the civilian world.  This week, he shared them with me.  I am truly humbled.

As I have had to learn to live with the physical and psychological effects of lifelong heart disease, Francis has had to learn to live with the lifelong physical and psychological damage of war.  I wish there was something as simple as getting a pacemaker to fix his maladies.  Unfortunately, there is not.  There is only love.  I'm not sure it is enough.

Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/vietnam_war.html