About the Book
The realities of a futile campaign are portrayed in this novel of the Vietnam War. The action ranges from the White House to the jungle, from the American Embassy in Saigon to the front lines. Michael Peterson has also written "The Immortal Dragon". If you're looking for a Vietnam War novel, but you don't want to wade in too deep, this is perfect lightweight fare. Think of it as a cross between Tom Clancy and Graham Greene (see Orrin's review of The Quiet American)with the civil servant as superhero trying to navigate a moral cesspool. Bradley Lawrence Marshall is the blue blood, war hero, diplomat who is sent to Vietnam as the personal emissary of President Johnson, to find a way out. In country, he meets with real figures like General Westmoreland, who tries to convince him everything is copacetic. But he also meets folks like: his driver, Corporal Mead, a decent though violent American lad of ambiguous sexuality, who is sick of the war; Lacouture, a flamboyant, Guy Burgess-like, Frenchman who sells information to all sides and loves Mead; and the insidious CIA station chief, Wilson Abbot Lord, who lives to fight the Communists and, fearing that Marshall will end the war, plots to kill him. And it's all set against the backdrop of the Tet Offensive. The whole premise, of Johnson and a bureaucrat secretly planning an exit strategy, doesn't withstand much scrutiny and the stereotypes and clichés run rampant. But taken on its own terms, as a sort of politico-military potboiler with only mild pretensions of addressing issues in any serious way, it succeeds pretty well. It's certainly a more diverting read than many of the more critically acclaimed novels of the war.
Review :
I first became aware of author Michael Peterson via a documentary on Netflix. The subject matter of that film had nothing to do with his writing, but I was curious to see if this man I was watching could actually write. And write he can! Michael Peterson's novel A Time of War reminded me of James Jones's From Here to Eternity. A Time of War did for me what From Here to Eternity did""gave me a clearer picture of wartime (Eternity, of course, is World War II, while Time of War is Vietnam,) plus both novels give us beautiful portraits of those who fought, died, and lived through these wars. Peterson, who fought in Vietnam, has unique insight into the war. His characters are rich-blooded people who may or may not have been thinly veiled actual people he encountered. Certainly, his story is peppered with real people among his fictional ones. There is General Westmoreland and there is President Johnson. I was a teen during the Vietnam War, and I didn't really know Johnson. I don't know if Peterson captured the real Lyndon Johnson, but his painting of the man shows us a President who was funny, a bit bumbling, certainly not refined, and very concerned about how he would be perceived by his constituency and by history because of this war. I can believe, because of Peterson, that this is exactly Lyndon B. Johnson. The other, fictional, characters are created with detail that makes us care about them, feeling so deeply that we shudder when they are in danger, worry for their safety, and rejoice when they survive. But make no mistake, this is war, and some do not survive. And there is Michael Peterson's skill as a writer. This almost 750 page novel moves along with fluidity and purpose. And Peterson throws in literary allusions from time to time that make us realize this writer is more than a hack who decided to throw together a book. And I have to say, his treatment of homosexuality, though never graphic, is quite satisfying indeed, for amid the expected characters who think it disgusting, there is an equal number, many of them prominent characters, who show understanding and acceptance. This, I'm sure, since the fight for equality has been with us probably since time began, was unusual for the 1960s, when the gay rights movement was just getting started. Yes, Peterson wrote this in 1990, but his portrayal of the gay "dilemma" seems accurate for the '60s and wartime. My only criticism with the book is that Peterson's character names are a bit heavy-handed: the man who thinks he is God is named Lord; the saintly woman who is trying desperately to save the children is named Theresa; the main character is named Marshall, for he is trying to bring law and order back to the world in his efforts to stop the war. But in a huge epic novel, perhaps we need such character names to remind us of who we should be cheering for and who we should be booing. I'm surprised some enterprising, insightful movie maker has never found this novel, for it could be a star-studded blockbuster, as celebrated as the film of From Here to Eternity. A Time of War is the quintessential Vietnam War novel, in my humble opinion. -- Russell J. Sanders "Amazon"
