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The Man From Saigon: A Novel (2009)

by Marti Leimbach(Favorite Author)

3.44 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0385529864 (ISBN13: 9780385529860)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Nan A. Talese

review 1: When a journalist working for an American women's magazine arrives in Saigon in 1967 and begins to seek human interest stories, she isn't sure what to expect. Susan quickly finds that the glamorous evening parties among the social elite contrast sharply with the impoverished children who clamor in the streets and the anguish and chaos found in war hospitals. As she becomes romantically involved with an American television reporter who has been strongly dissuaded by military officials to avoid disclosing what he has seen during the past two years in Vietnam, she pushes herself closer to the war itself in an attempt to reveal its harsh truths in her own way. Son is a Vietnamese photographer who accompanies Susan and develops his brilliant photographs in her hotel room's tiny... more bathroom, eager to share them with American readers. When Susan and Son are captured by three Vietcong soldiers after an ambush sends them scrambling into the jungle one morning, questions arise in the midst of their terror. Is Son really who he claims to be -- and if he isn't, what does that mean for him and for Susan?When a copy of The Man from Saigon found its way into my hands with many thanks to Doubleday and the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, I was quickly absorbed. Leimbach's writing style is very visual. It wasn't until after I completed the book that I found out one of her previous books, Dying Young, is being adapted into the forthcoming film Daniel Isn't Talking. The prose in The Man from Saigon reads like meticulously detailed directions provided to a film cast or crew.
review 2: I read this while travelling through Vietnam recently and was very impressed with the story, the beautiful descriptive writing and the authentic feel of the story, which recounts the harrowing capture of a young English reporter by the Viet Cong, along with her friend, a Vietnamese man ostensibly photographing the war from a South Vietnamese perspective. It gave me an intimate personal point of view on the war from the other side of the fence, and is told beautifully and poignantly to great effect. I would highly recommend it. less

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