Healer's War

Rating:
Summary: Paints a vivid, detailed picture
Review: Being born in the early '80s, I never experienced what the Vietnam War was like for Americans, military and civilian. To me, Vietnam was "just another war"; another chapter in my history textbook. Until I came across The Healer's War. The Healer's War is pure fiction, set in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. The plot revolves around a mysterious amulet that the main character Kitty "inherits" from one of her patients. (She's a nurse in Vietnam.) As time progresses, Kitty realizes the true healing power of the amulet. Although fiction, this book paints a vivid picture of Vietnam during the war. The conditions the soldiers had to tolerate, and the daily battles is described in excruciating, almost explicit detail. The Healer's War gave me a view on Vietnam that no textbook or history class could offer. I will never look at the Vietnam War the same way again, and I now hold a respect for those that served in it. This book is a must-read.

Rating:
Summary: Paints a vivid, detailed picture
Review: Being born in the early '80s, I never experienced what the Vietnam War was like for Americans, military and civilian. To me, Vietnam was "just another war"; another chapter in my history textbook. Until I came across The Healer's War. The Healer's War is pure fiction, set in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. The plot revolves around a mysterious amulet that the main character Kitty "inherits" from one of her patients. (She's a nurse in Vietnam.) As time progresses, Kitty realizes the true healing power of the amulet. Although fiction, this book paints a vivid picture of Vietnam during the war. The conditions the soldiers had to tolerate, and the daily battles is described in excruciating, almost explicit detail. The Healer's War gave me a view on Vietnam that no textbook or history class could offer. I will never look at the Vietnam War the same way again, and I now hold a respect for those that served in it. This book is a must-read.

Rating:
Summary: The cold, hard face of war stripped away
Review: I'm too young to remember the Vietnam war, nor am I in the medical profession, so I am not going to comment on the veracity of the medicine and the war action. It is enough for me that the author served as a nurse in Vietnam during the war there. The story initially feels autobiographical - the main character, Kitty, is a nurse in the long-term orthopedics ward in an army hospital. The twist: a Vietnamese holy man gives Kitty an amulet that allows her to see the "aura" of people, revealing their inner thoughts - how they are hurt (mentally and physically), their true moods. In addition, by pouring her "life force" into patients, or by channelling others, she can effect remarkable healing on her patients.

The amulet is a simple plot device that Scarborough uses to delve into the psyche of the various characters in the book, and to humanise the terrible events that occur around her heroine. It also allows us to suspend disbelief that a city girl from the U.S. could survive a chopper crash into a jungle full of VC and U.S. forces trying to kill each other. Scarborough does not hold back - she gives us the full force of the savagery that made the Vietnam war so different from other conflicts, and does so in a fairly non-judgemental way (i.e. both sides are committing the atrocities).

This is not a "feel-good" book by any means. It is not science fiction either, in spite of the fact that the Science Fiction Writers' Association awarded it the Nebula in 1989. It is an good book, though, and I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Wow, a fabulous well written tale!
Review: Such a wonderful hopeful story set in such a horror-filled time. Ms.Scarborough's writing is so real and humorous I couldn't help but be pulled into the story to feel alongside her characters. This book I simply did not want to put down.

Rating:
Summary: The Healer's War
Review: The book was absolutely gripping. It is hard to believe that the writer of the Fairy Godmother books could produce such an emotionally overwhelming book of the horrors of the Vietnam war. You know the book is fiction, but you wonder just "how much" is really ficiton. E. A. Scarborough pulls you kicking and screaming through desperate war situations that you know, deep inside, must have been real, yet she makes it bearable with her "healing hand" of magic and mystery. Had I known beforehand what the book was about, I would never have read it. I was sick of the Vietnam war ages ago when it happened. But, Scarborough made me relive it with her, sometimes sobbing, sometimes livid with fury, and I wound up reading all night a book that years ago, I would have scorned. She is quite a lady, and a genius to have pulled *me* into her coils.

Rating:
Summary: The Healer's War
Review: The book was absolutely gripping. It is hard to believe that the writer of the Fairy Godmother books could produce such an emotionally overwhelming book of the horrors of the Vietnam war. You know the book is fiction, but you wonder just "how much" is really ficiton. E. A. Scarborough pulls you kicking and screaming through desperate war situations that you know, deep inside, must have been real, yet she makes it bearable with her "healing hand" of magic and mystery. Had I known beforehand what the book was about, I would never have read it. I was sick of the Vietnam war ages ago when it happened. But, Scarborough made me relive it with her, sometimes sobbing, sometimes livid with fury, and I wound up reading all night a book that years ago, I would have scorned. She is quite a lady, and a genius to have pulled *me* into her coils.

Rating:
Summary: Speculative fiction about a nurse in Vietnam.
Review: This is an excellent novel about a nurse serving in Vietnam during the war (the author was also a nurse in Vietnam). A Vietnam veteran myself, I recommend it highly. The main character, Lt. Kitty McCulley, is having a difficult time with her nursing responsibilities and with her interactions with others. An elderly Vietnamese holy man gives her an amulet which allows her to see the "auras" of others. It helps her guide herself through the war and helps her find herself in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and Ms. Scarborough's writing (note the five stars I awarded) and I recommend the book to everyone (the publisher should be shot for letting it go out of print). However, I do have a bone to pick! What makes this novel so different can be seen by the fact that it won the 1988 Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of the year, the Nebula Award being given by the Science Fiction Writers of America. I loved the book; but, it was not the best science fiction novel of 1988. It's excellent speculative fiction and I'm certain that is the reason the members voted for it; but, I'm sorry Ms. Scarborough, every few years the SFWA seem to go off on a tangent. Nevertheless, because it has won the Nebula, it is now incumbent that all serious students of science fiction literature read "The Healer's War." But then, they should read it anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Eastern mysticism combined with "China Beach"
Review: What a lovely book, an unexpected pleasure written by a female nurse with Vietnam war experience.
As a trauma surgeon, I can assure you that the first half of the book, mostly taking place in a patient ward, feels absolutely real. Total verisimilitude.
The second half...the "jungle" half...effortless dovetails aspects of Eastern mysticism...of "auras" if you will...with tense accounts of the travails of war.
An unlikely combination to be sure, but a terrific read!
This is probably a "science fiction" book with the widest possible audience. It could be an Oprah Book Club pick, and I mean that in a good way!