After their village is burned to the ground by American soldiers, sisters Mai and Tam escape down the Mekong river. In Saigon, Tam finds work in a restaurant, while Mai Mai becomes a bar girl, flirting and drinking with American soldiers. Disgusted, Tam parts ways with Mai and ends up training and fighting with the Viet Cong.

This felt very much like an Americanized story. I enjoyed the story itself, and reading about the two different paths, but somehow the book lacked authenticity. Mai and Tam felt very western. Overall, a bust. ( )

I’ve read books by this author before and have always enjoyed he books. They were mostly thriller/mystery type books which are my favorite. I thought I would read this even though it was a little different for me. I’m very glad I read it. What an interesting read about two Vietnamese sisters who are the only members of their family that survive after their entire village was destroyed. The sister’s take different paths in their lives but it’s amazing how they both went through so much along the way and became very strong women. The author describes everything very clearly and you feel like you are right there. I learned a lot about this horrible time in history and glad I read it. Sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone and I’m glad I did. I highly recommend this book for everyone to read. The author did an exceptional job of reminding us what was happening in our world during the 1960’s. ( )

After I told the author I would read this book, I asked myself what I had gotten myself into. This isn't my usual genre and I figured it would be a DNF. Boy, was I wrong! I stayed up till 4AM finishing it. This book grabs you from the beginning and doesn't let go . You live the life these girls live. You are there with them when their village is massacred, as they escape to Saigon and as they try to survive this awful war. I was a college student during the Vietnam years. I didn't think we should be there but I wasn't an activist. Like much of the American public we believed what our government told us back then. We see the war from their side in this book. Mai, the youngest daughter at 14, is a typical teenager who wants love and marriage and babies. Tam, 17 was the scholar who wanted to study botany, listened to radio broadcasts with her father and came to share his views in favor of the North. Think back to when you were 14-17. Can you imagine living in a hut in a tiny village, seeing your family murdered right in front of you, traveling down a river in a tiny boat to reach Saigon, living in a tent city, and doing whatever you had to just to survive? This book will give you a new perspective on the Vietnamese people. It is fiction but it is well researched fiction. It is powerful, descriptive fiction that will stay with you. It is the best book I have read in a long time. Thank you Libby Fischer Hellman for asking me to read this. I wish I could give it 10 star ( )

I guess that Bend in the Road may be offensive to some that fought in the war that wasn't declared a war with so many horrors to both the Americans's forces, the affected families, and the minds of two teenager girls who found there was no family nor friends left in the village that they had called home. While Mai three years younger than her older sister only thought of her looks and marrying a wealthy son in their village, Tam wanted to go to college to study botany, she found herself the sole responsibility of her younger sister. There was nothing left of use in their village, and Tam had heard the Americans say which way they were going so she led her sister the opposite way toward Saigon. They were unaware that their lust to always be right, as girls will scrabble would take them in different directions. As the war goes on will they be reunited? ( )