Deservedly Won the 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Charles Boatman, a solder in the Vietnam war is haunted by what happened there, and spend most of his life trying to come to terms with it. Plagued by nightmares, he goes to Vietnam in an effort to reconcile his life.
When he disappears, his children Ada and Jon go to Vietnam to try to find him. This is the story of Charles and his children, all lost in the confusion and chaos we call life.
This novel is deeply depressing and haunting. Bergen’s lyrical prose takes us to were most of us do not want to go, but should. It is not just Charles lonely journey trying to find life, but also that of his children and more in this cast of characters.
At times I found myself wanting to put this book down to catch a breath of fresh air, but I couldn’t! Bergen is amazing at his craft and I look forward to reading more by him. I wish I would have read this one sooner!
I highly recommend this book to all, however if your suffering from depression, you may want to wait to read it until your feeling better.
5/5
Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.
I read this one for the Canadian Challenge as well and had almost the same reaction. http://bookmineset.blogspot.com/2007/11/readers-diary-309-david-bergen-time-in.html
It is really good Nicola!
Thanks for sharing your review with me John! I loved it. More balanced than mine. I’ve been struggling with words lately. It is fun to see what others have said about the same book.
Wow! Sounds good.
Another one for my TBR list. Will it ever end? I hope not!
Isn’t it interesting that even though I don’t think most of us intentionally seek out depressing books to read, it seems like the ones that are are some of the books we take the most to heart? This one sounds really good.
Lezlie
Hi Kristy,
No, it will never end. All of us fellow bookaholics are such enablers!
Hi Lezlie,
It does seem to me that most of the most excellent books are depressing. I think that they usually have more meaning. Now isn’t the depressing? LOL!
It is an excellent book!
It sounds great – I’ll add it to my post-challenge reading for sure.
(Good luck with the knitting classes – knitting is a great complement to reading, especially in the winter months!)
I just wish I could knit and read at the same time!
I use to knit and crochet when I was in my teens and early 20’s. Then I went back to school and when I finally finished, I never thought to start knitting again. LOL!
Anyway about 6 months ago I caught the knitting bug again. Luckly I didn’t forget the basics. I made a shrug, and poncho, and a v-neck sweater, but I thought it would be nice to work on something a little more challenging.
i’m adding this one to my to-read list. thanks!
Your welcome Alison!
War is hell. They should have stayed out of Vietnam.
I agree!
I know what it’s like to suffer from PTSS.Sounds good and have pinned.
This sounds like a great book and one I wouldn’t have found if I didn’t read your blog. I find war stories engaging because of my grandfathers’ experiences. They didn’t walk about WWII much, so I always wished they had written some of their experiences down.