Authors: Danielle Steele
Series: No
Genres: Romance/Historical Fiction
Brief Summary:
The story's main character is Paxton Andrews, an aspiring newspaper reporter, fighting an uphill batter during a time when female journalists were relegated to 'fluff' stories like weddings, baby showers, etc. The novel starts when Paxton is in high school and moves onto her college years before getting into the heart of things. Even before she graduates college, Paxton has experienced heartache and tragedy. It is this heartache and loss that propels her to beg for an assignment to Vietnam to cover the war.
Her editor-in-chief (and father of her former fiance) is at first quite reluctant to grant her request, but her persistence eventually pays off as she had hoped. She is given an assignment to travel to Saigon and send back reports on what she finds there. Her column, entitled aptly "Message from Nam" is a great success for the newspaper, and a personal triumph for Paxton herself, as she is finally recognized on equal footing with her male counterparts. It is supposed to be a relatively short assignment, but with only a brief trip back to the states, Paxton ends up staying in Vietnam for 7 years.
This story is much more than a woman's journalistic struggles, however. In almost painstaking detail, Steele brings to life the people she encounters there. From the tunnel rats, to simple villagers, their stories are equally as important as Paxton's own. Here is what Goodreads has to say about the novel:
As a journalist, Paxton Andrews would experience Vietnam firsthand. We follow her from high school in Savannah to college in Berkeley and then to work in Saigon.
For the soldiers she knew and met there, Vietnam would change their lives in ways they could never have imagined. For the men in her life, Vietnam would change their lives in ways hey could not escape or deny. Peter Wilson, fresh from law school, was a new recruit who would confront his fate in Da Nang. Ralph Johnson, a seasoned AP correspondent, had been in Saigon since the beginning. He knew Vietnam and the war inside out. Bill Quinn, captain of the Cu Chi tunnel rats, was on his fourth tour of duty and it seemed nothing could touch him. Sergeant Tony Campobello had come to Vietnam from the streets of New York to vent a rage that had followed him all the way to Saigon.
For seven years Paxton Andrews would write an acclaimed newspaper column from the front before finally returning to the States and then attending the Paris peace talks. But for her and the men who fought in Vietnam, life would never be the same again.
My take:
Let me just say that I generally have a strong aversion to romance novels. It is only through my mother's urging that I even considered reading this one, and I went in fully prepared to hate it. I was seriously wrong. Danielle Steele, an acclaimed romance novelist, had earned my begrudging respect. Surprised? So was I, believe me!
For starters, it's not really a traditional romance novel. There are aspects of romance woven throughout, but it's far from the bulk of the story. Characterization is Steele's strong point, and by the end of the novel, they seem as real as the person sitting next to you on a crowded bus. Paxton's heartbreak becomes your own, and I am not ashamed to admit that I shed tears a time or two.
Equally impressive was her command of the landscape and period of time about what she was writing. My mom told me that Steele is renowned for doing thorough research when she writes a historical story, and this particular novel more than proved that. Having an uncle who served in Vietnam, I've grown up hearing stories about his time there, and she was dead on with her descriptions. Steele managed to capture both the desolate beauty and sheer horror of both the land and the time; if you like historical fiction than I would definitely recommend this one to you.
