In country : a novel

BobbieAnn Mason’s debut novel—”a brilliant and moving book… a moral talethat entwines public history with private anguish.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review“How Ms. Mason conjures a vivid image of the futility of war and its searing legacy of confusion out of the searching questions or a naïve later generation is nothing short of masterful.” —Kansas City StarSamantha “Sam” Hughes is in her senior year of high school in ruralKentucky. Her father, whom she never knew, was killed in Vietnam before shewas born. Sam lives with her uncle Emmett, a veteran who appears to besuffering from exposure to Agent Orange. Amidst worrying about her uncle andyearning to figure out who she is and learn about the father she never knew,Sam develops feelings for Tom, one of Emmett”s veteran buddies. Tom andEmmett attempt to shield Sam from the truth of what they endured, but she hasbecome convinced that her life is bound to the war in Vietnam.In Country is both a powerful and touching novel of America’sghosts and a beautiful portrayal of a family, not unlike many others, leftbruised and twisted by the war. At the time of its publication in 1985,Richard Eder’s rave LA Times review concluded: “One of the questionsfor post-war American literature, dealt with variously by Updike, Cheever,Roth, Salinger and a host of others, is whether the larger capacities of thehuman spirit can be exercised, so to speak, in a motel room equipped withcolor TV and a drinks refrigerator. The answers vary; Mason has found her ownstriking variety of ‘yes.’”