Pretty good novel about a Vietnam vet trying to adjust back home and his sister. ( )

I read Mason's Feather Crowns many years ago and was sort of so-so on it. I liked In Country quite a lot. In its spare 240ish pages, it captured a lot about what I can now imagine it must have felt like as an essentially orphaned kid of the 80s growing up in the aftermath of Vietnam. I don't think every line landed, but enough of them landed well to make this a worthwhile read. ( )

Found record that I read this during a lost summer. I don't recall any aspect of the novel. ( )

The first 3/4 of the book barely rated two stars. I felt that it was not well written and frankly - boring. I stuck with it because it is the book that all incoming freshmen at the Mount are required to read. (And I still wonder why.) It somewhat redeemed itself in the last pages of the book as it made some timeless statements about war and its horrendous effect on those who fight the war. If you want to read about the effects of the Vietnam War on the soldiers who fought it, The Things They Carried is a much better choice in my opinion. ( )

Mason's major novel concerns a high school senior named Samantha whose father died very young in Viet Nam, never having seen his infant daughter. Samantha's mother has recently fled small-town Kentucky after mothering her own brother, an alienated Viet Nam vet, for many years. Sam now lives with this unfortunate uncle and attempts to fill her mother's vacated shoes.

Most of the book is devoted to Sam's efforts at getting any- and everyone around her to open up about the war experience. These passages are moving and effective. The final 30 pages seemed to me a bit forced as we move toward a crisis/gestalt moment in which Sam attempts to relive a semblance of her father's wartime experience. Nonetheless, I liked the shifty narrative, combining 3rd- and 1st-person points of view. I felt this brought the characters to life in an unusual way. ( )