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Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Mar 08, Chrissie rated it did not like it Shelves: returned , love , vietnam , dnf , hf , audible-uk , not-for-me , disliked. This is cinematic, cheap, tawdry romance.
I have quit after eleven chapters, that is to say 3. I cannot bear another minute. It is actually possible for me to not finish a book. Yay, Chrissie! Within these first chapters the wife of an American senator has in sexual ecstasy thrown herself upon their French hunting guide who has just forced himself upon the wife of his Vietnamese employee.
The chapter before, the fifteen year old son of the American senator This is cinematic, cheap, tawdry romance. The chapter before, the fifteen year old son of the American senator and wife lost his virginity with a Vietnamese native. Oh my I am enthralled.
I hope you hear my sarcasm. It starts by telling us that many Americans didn't know why they had come to fight in Vietnam. The point of this book was supposedly to explain that. Excuse my French, but this is pure bullshit. The characters are two-dimensional and the plot predictable. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the audiobook's narration by Gordon Griffin.
I recommend this only to those who are looking for a soap opera with a large dose of "romance". View all 27 comments. I have read many, many novels about the Vietnam war and most are written from a US perspective, generally anti-war and about the experiences of the young American G.
This is the first one I have read that gives a proper overview of the whole tragic conflict over a period of 50 years. The English author takes us from the roots of the eventual disastrous US misadventure with the brutality of the colonial French towards the as then called Anname I have read many, many novels about the Vietnam war and most are written from a US perspective, generally anti-war and about the experiences of the young American G.
The English author takes us from the roots of the eventual disastrous US misadventure with the brutality of the colonial French towards the as then called Annamese, through the struggles of the nascent revolutionaries to overthrow the French, taking in the 2nd World War when Vichy France handed the country over to its ally Japan, the post war period when Britain connived to enable the French to remain in power, the eventual humiliating defeat and overthrow of the French and the subsequent infamous direct Cold War involvement of the US with the indirect involvement of China and the Soviet Union.
The conflict is personalised around the main character of Joseph Sherman, the son of a US senator, who first visits Vietnam as a 15 year old boy in In that first visit he meets the Devraux, a colonial French family, a peasant Annamese family who work for the Devraux and also a mandarin Annamese family who owe their position to their collaboration with the French.
These families, their children and grandchildren form the thread around which the author weaves his dramatic tale. The novel is generally written from no country's particular political perspective and this was the key thing for me. Written in , yes it is eventually anti-war, but the French, British, Japanese, Americans, North Vietnamese revolutionaries and all the various South Vietnamese regimes are ultimately all portrayed as seriously, seriously flawed.
The domestic stories of the various families, though at times a little tenuous, are interesting enough but it is the backdrop of the political and military struggle, and the unfolding overall tragedy that that kept me turning the pages. View 2 comments. Sep 25, Ming Wei rated it it was amazing Shelves: read-war-related-books , read-vietnam-related-books , favorite-books.
Such an interesting book, story, really like it, I was attracted to the book by the cover in the 1st instance, but the quality inside passes the quality of the book cover. Really well worth reading, added to my favourites list. I graduated from high school in so Vietnam was part of my young adult life. I associated it with a callous group of people that killed and maimed my friends and family in an undeclared war.
Reading this book has enlightened me on who the people and culture of this country really were and their years of oppression that ultimately created this conflict and the role our own government played. I was a war protester then and I still hate wars that take the youngest and best of any country but th I graduated from high school in so Vietnam was part of my young adult life.
I was a war protester then and I still hate wars that take the youngest and best of any country but there is always a second side to most conflicts. A very long read but worth it for me. I very seldom give five starts to a novel in which the writing is not exquisite - - and Anthony Grey's writing is very good, but not outstanding.
However, the scope of the novel and the history it portrayed and taught me - - and I thought I knew a lot about Vietnam! The characters are very well drawn and, yes, I know there are some unlikely intersections of characters, but I got over it and the scenes and landscape are vivid. Of course this book is about I very seldom give five starts to a novel in which the writing is not exquisite - - and Anthony Grey's writing is very good, but not outstanding.
Of course this book is about war, and the brutality is, rightly, there as well. This novel showed all aspects and sides of the Vietnam war. I recommend it. Feb 01, Doubledf A very good historical novel that covers a French family, a US family, 2 Vietnamese families and a host of historical characters in Viet Nam from the 's to the fall of Saigon.
Dec 08, Sarah rated it it was amazing Shelves: fiction-adult. I'm not sure how to go about writing a review of such a complex, involved book which was originally written in , not , as this record indicates. I am astounded by the amount of research and planning that must have gone into writing this book. I didn't know what I was getting into beyond that. The book actually spans from , providing context for the war and American involvement far beyond what I'm not sure how to go about writing a review of such a complex, involved book which was originally written in , not , as this record indicates.
The book actually spans from , providing context for the war and American involvement far beyond what I ever learned in history class, or according to the book beyond what Americans of the time understood about Vietnam as well.
The story is told through the lives of members of four families over three generations: the French Devrauxs, the American Shermans, and the Vietnamese Trans and Ngos, who all become acquainted with each other in the s, and whose lives become intertwined over the next 50 turbulent and often tragic years.
The characters themselves seem a little uninteresting at times, but I think this actually works in the book's favor, as the character's interpersonal relationships serve more to provide a backdrop for historical events than to drive the plot of the book.
Though the story spans various conflicts including French colonialism, World War Two, and the Vietnam War, these individual conflicts read as a single decades-long struggle for Vietnamese independence. Through the generations of the four fictional families, we see how nationalism, prejudice, hatred, loyalty, fear, love, etc, can be passed down from generation to generation, motivating actions, affecting familial relationships, and escalating conflict on all sides.
This is a long and somewhat arduous read, but it's well worth it. This book would be appreciated by anyone who wants to gain a full, contextual understanding of the effects of colonialism, American foreign policy, and American involvement in the Vietnam War.
First of all, I have to admit that I knew little to nothing about Vietnamese history before I started reading this book. I'd heard of the infamous Viet Cong and knew bits and pieces about the Vietnam war, but that's about it.
Vietnam was never a country I found particularly interesting before. But since I'm always interested in books about South East Asia and recent world history, I decided to give this book a try anyway.
And I'm so glad I did! I was at turns shocked, utterly horrified, incredibly furious, saddened to no end, but also completely and absolutely fascinated and intrigued. More than once I had tears in my eyes and I often had to stop reading for a moment or two to get my feelings under control. Anthony Grey managed to portray his protagonists' feelings in a way that made me feel their sorrows as deeply as their joys.
The author didn't gloss over anything here. For the most part of the novel Vietnam was at war. Hence there was murder, rape, torture, lots and lots of violence and incredible suffering. What was happening was always obvious, at times also very explicit, and yet Anthony Grey never crossed the line from violence to gore, it was never excessive.
The plot was a perfect mix of historic events and personal destinies, which got me hooked immediately. I could hardly stop reading and I was utterly fascinated till the very last sentence and was sad to see the story end. I found it incredibly intriguing to watch the impact of the historic events on the protagonists' lives. The protagonists and their destinies are fiction. At the end of the book, Anthony Grey talks about his years of research for this book and his conversations with various experts on Vietnamese history.
Now, I can't judge how successfull the research was, but I always felt like the author knew what he was writing about. Grey's style of writing is definitely sophisticated but it never felt jarring. I don't think you need any previous knowledge to enjoy this book. Before every new part of the book the author gives a brief summary of what happened between the end and the beginning of the new part.
That was very helpful and there was no need for lengthy interruptions of the plot to explain the historic facts. Well done! Especially in the first part of the book, when Vietnam was still the French colony Annam, there were a lot of French phrases and sentences that weren't translated. Thanks to my somewhat pathetical French I understood most of them, but I still found it a little jarring. Luckily, as the plot moved on, less and less of these French phrases showed up.
A little help with pronouncing the Vietnamese names and words would have been nice as well. I don't speak a single word of Vietnamese, so I always had to guess the pronounciation, which I hate doing. Other than that, I would've liked a little epilogue on the situation in Vietnam today. That might not have been necessary when the book was first published in , since that was only a few years after the plot ended, but now it's been over 35 years and I'm sure a lot has happened since. To sum it up, "Saigon" is a truly epic work that doesn't require any previous knowledge about Vietnam.
I haven't read many books that managed to touch me and intrigue me so completely. A book for everybody that's interested in contemporary history. You don't need to be a huge fan of Vietnam to enjoy this book! This was definitely one of the best books I've read this year.
Consequently, I just have to give this novel a full five stars. A real must read! This is not a new book, but the 30th anniversary edition of an amazing novel centred on Vietnam. The action here takes place over 50 years from to At it's centre is the Sherman family, specifically Joseph Sherman. In , at the age of 15, he came to Vietnam with his mother, father, and older brother Chuck to hunt. The hunting was to obtain specimens of rare animals for the Washington museum created by Joseph's grandfather.
This first visit of Joseph to Vietnam also connects him to t This is not a new book, but the 30th anniversary edition of an amazing novel centred on Vietnam. This first visit of Joseph to Vietnam also connects him to three other families that play an important role in the novel. One is the French Devraux family.
The hunting guide that the Sherman's have hired is Jacques Devraux, and his son Paul is his assistant. Chuck, Paul, and Joseph are close in age and make a connection. Joseph's mother also makes a connection with the Devraux family that will have a lasting effect. Servants to Devraux family, Ngo Van Loc, his wife Mai, and their sons Dong and Hoc, are not treated well and their lifelong struggle to regain an independent life now includes a strong resentment against the Devraux men.
In their first days, the Shermans also meet the Tran family. Tran Van Hieu is a mandarin and at one of the formal events, the Tran children have stayed in the palace grounds while the formal event takes place inside. Joseph makes the acquaintance of the three childen Tam, 12; Kim, 11; and their sister Lan, His experiences lead Joseph to a lifelong fascination with Vietnam, and he becomes a scholar in the history of the region. When he returns again in , he again encounters the Devraux and Tran families and renews his friendship with Paul, while creating a different connection with Tran Van Lan.
What is Scribd? Cancel anytime. Start your free 30 days Play sample. Publisher: Dreamscape Media Audio. Released: Jul 26, ISBN: Format: Audiobook. Also available as Joseph Sherman first visits Saigon, the capital of French colonial Cochin-China, in on a hunting expedition with his father, a US senator. Historical Fiction. About the author AG. Read more. Related to Saigon Related Audiobooks. Wagons West Texas! Capsized Read Online. Good and Valuable Consideration: Jack Reacher vs.
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