Rating: 
Summary: Edge-of-the-seat romance
Review:
James Sullivan seems to have invented a new genre: the romance-thriller. Not one in which knife wielding, masked lunatics leap out of the bushes to threaten sex-crazed teenagers, but one in which the exigencies of the love itself, the longings and hesitations and misunderstandings, and the barriers raised by external forces, keep you on the edge of your seat. I stayed up until 2 in the morning finishing this one, dragged along by the compulsion to know what would happen next, what new byzantine twist would arise to thwart the lovers and how it would be overcome.
I cannot recommend this book too highly. I give it four stars instead of five only because of some awkwardness in the writing, occasional lapses of grammar, and confused narrative flow (notably at the beginning), and because of a few omissions noted below. But the subject matter, the story, is so compelling and uplifting that I urge you to simply go with the flow and if you have to paddle a bit to get into it, soon you'll be swept away by a powerful current.
Very briefly, the story is that of a young man, the author, who on a lark joins a friend for a bicycle trip in Vietnam, which they will write up for a sponsoring magazine. In the old-fashioned city of Hue, they meet Thuy, a young woman with whom they are both smitten, Jim seriously so. On the return trip by train, after a brief and cryptic visit, Jim jumps ship and spends several weeks getting to know her and her family. If they are ever to have a future, she tells Jim, he must return for a year so she can "know his temper".
After some time (it's not clear whether it's the promised two months or much longer) with his working class family and neighborhood near Boston, full of doubts and childhood/youth reminiscences, Jim gathers together enough money to live for a year, and returns. Over several months, their relation proceeds in the stately progression of a traditional courtship (interestingly contrasted with tales of the lurid sex trade Jim seems constantly exposed to, especially in Thailand, where he must return to renew his visa and for other business). As the relation gets serious, obstacles begin to appear, many seemingly due to one of Thuy's other suitors who works in the very department through which all paperwork relating to foreigners must come. We are also treated to a bit of travelogue, as Jim and Thuy visit a variety of sites or Jim deals with life as an outsider, and get to know Thuy's large family and their history, and the handful of foreigners living in Hue. I won't say more, so that you can discover this story for yourself.
Much as I love this book, much as I urge you "go out and get it", it does have problems. Time is often maddeningly unclear. The author sometimes takes on an almost Asian allusiveness -- I'm still unclear what the exact duties of the "mah-sah" girls in his Hue hotel were, which would be fine if he didn't go on at such coy length about it. The philosophical interludes are annoyingly sophomoric, along the lines of "when I was ten years old, playing stick ball, this four year old girl whom I was destined to love was ..." or all the possibilities that he might not have met Thuy, or missed her on the return trip ... the whole unique miracleness of it all. Practical details that would enhance the reader's understanding are missing; e.g., it would have been nice to say something about how Vietnamese names are structured (why is Thuy's family "the Nguyens" yet her parents are Mr. and Mrs. Bang?).
There are puzzling omission -- Though Jim sometimes thinks about it to himself, could he really never have spoken with Thuy about how their life would be in the US, what would be strange and daunting, what familiar, what difficult? Did he never tell her they would not be rich? Though Jim goes on about his Irish Catholic upbringing, why was no connection with Vietnam made -- either in that the slow traditional courtship is maybe not so strange to him, or to the Catholic influence in Vietnam from French colonialism? In light of the barriers put up by the Vietnamese government to their marriage, it would have been fair to mention that many American GI's who married Vietnames women during the war were denied permission to bring them to the States by the US government (not all those Americans who were "good at leaving" intended to leave their families there permanently).
Nonetheless, this is a book to treasure. Eager as I was to find out what happened, I was also reluctant for it to end. Let's hope the author has a sequel in the works!
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful love story.
Review: An American cyclist during his bike journey from Saigon to Hanoi in 1993 fell in love with a girl in the ancient imperial city of Hue. He was given a year to win her heart, which in the end was not that difficult. Although the environment was idyllic with its temples, its river, its old colonial houses, and its bare simplicity, he soon realized the gulf between the two worlds (America and Vietnam) was large. Bridging this gulf was difficult, although not insurmountable.The hurdles caused by the communist bureaucracy on the other hand proved to be overwhelming. One has to live in Vietnam to understand how archaic and corrupt the regime turned out to be: the police one day bluntly told him his visa had expired while it was still good for two more months, and so on. The hurdles kept coming and anyone other than Sullivan would have quit a long time ago. This is a love story from a third world country: it is beautiful for its simplicity, its purity, and the difficulties the lovers had to overcome to achieve their goal.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, Not a Superficial Travel Book
Review: I bought this book because of its setting, Vietnam. Sullivan really captures what its like to live in a foreign country, rather than just a holiday visitor. Compared to, say,(Paul) Theroux or (Bill) Bryson who give the reader "literary snapshots" of a country, though wittingly, with Sullivan you'll get the whole "movie", a deeper understanding of real-life drama of foreign residents living in Asia. He keenly describes the challenges (malaria, visa hassles), misunderstandings (culture gaps,language) and treatment of foreigners (both favorable and rediculous) as he courts a Vietnamese woman for more than one year while camped out in an $8/nite bug infested hotel. There are a number of surprises along the way, some funny, others that would test the patience of a saint. Clevery crafted passages and the story unfold like a novel rather than a true-account which it is. (Sorry to end with a preposition.)
Rating:
Summary: A Travelogue of the Heart
Review: I had a hard time finishing this book. No, not in the usual sense where thickness of the prose or my own ennui cause a book to be put down not to be picked up again. I put off finishing this book because I did not want the experience of reading it to end. Jim Sullivan combines a keen eye both for life in Vietnam's city of Hue and his own awakening to the love he has found with Thuy with his marvelous ability to write a story. The result is "Over the Moat," a travelogue not only in the conventional sense but also of human hearts haltingly discovering an affinity for each other. "Your work is both good and original," Mark Twain supposedly once told an aspiring author. "Unfortunately the part which is good is not original and the part which is original is not good." Jim Sullivan has written a good and original book. While it reads like skillful fiction, remarkably, it is not. The book had for me special meaning insofar as I spring from the same soil as the author and, as it happens, am finding his book striking close to home in several respects. And while that certainly makes the book resonate all the more for me, it is no prequisite for any reader who enjoys an engaging story written in language which manages to be both nuanced and unpretentious all the while flavored with some gentle humor. Sa'ch tuye^.t vo*`i or "wonderful book" as one might say in Vietnam.
Rating:
Summary: A Travelogue of the Heart
Review: I had a hard time finishing this book. No, not in the usual sense where thickness of the prose or my own ennui cause a book to be put down not to be picked up again. I put off finishing this book because I did not want the experience of reading it to end. Jim Sullivan combines a keen eye both for life in Vietnam's city of Hue and his own awakening to the love he has found with Thuy with his marvelous ability to write a story. The result is "Over the Moat," a travelogue not only in the conventional sense but also of human hearts haltingly discovering an affinity for each other. "Your work is both good and original," Mark Twain supposedly once told an aspiring author. "Unfortunately the part which is good is not original and the part which is original is not good." Jim Sullivan has written a good and original book. While it reads like skillful fiction, remarkably, it is not. The book had for me special meaning insofar as I spring from the same soil as the author and, as it happens, am finding his book striking close to home in several respects. And while that certainly makes the book resonate all the more for me, it is no prequisite for any reader who enjoys an engaging story written in language which manages to be both nuanced and unpretentious all the while flavored with some gentle humor. Sa'ch tuye^.t vo*`i or "wonderful book" as one might say in Vietnam.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully written & a true story for the ages
Review: Mr. Sullivan's tale of finding love in post-war Vietnam is amazingly descriptive. My imagination got a workout and his writing style is extremely conducive to telling such a story. I highly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully written & a true story for the ages
Review: Mr. Sullivan's tale of finding love in post-war Vietnam is amazingly descriptive. My imagination got a workout and his writing style is extremely conducive to telling such a story. I highly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: A Story of Love Across Cultures, Continents
Review: Over the Moat is an extraordinary story. To call it a "love story" -- which it certainly is -- only tells half the tale. While the reader is soon enmeshed in the lives of Jim and Thuy, there are so many more intricate layers to the story. Throughout the book we are introduced to the people and culture of Vietnam, seen first through Jim's eyes as the outsider and then with his understanding as he is gradually accepted. Over the Moat is rich with descriptions and runs deep with emotion. A treasure to read.
Rating:
Summary: A Story of Love Across Cultures, Continents
Review: Over the Moat is an extraordinary story. To call it a "love story" -- which it certainly is -- only tells half the tale. While the reader is soon enmeshed in the lives of Jim and Thuy, there are so many more intricate layers to the story. Throughout the book we are introduced to the people and culture of Vietnam, seen first through Jim's eyes as the outsider and then with his understanding as he is gradually accepted. Over the Moat is rich with descriptions and runs deep with emotion. A treasure to read.
Rating:
Summary: A splendid memoir, a modern day romance...
Review: Sullivan's writing is addicting, he takes us on a tour of love, life and overcoming adversity. Sullivan tells a story of amazing perseverance, when he is faced with losing everything, including his life, for such a small, yet important thing to gain, that being true love, he elects to pursue the latter and in doing so takes us on an amazing journey of his courting of his bride, Thuy. The analogous style of writing is brilliant, "I took another step, hauling my lungs full of the night air, the fumes of diesel fuel, creosote, and some other fragrance carried in the breeze. One more step and the train jerked. The muscles in my groin went numb as they do when a plunge takes you into the coldest depths." The "coldest depths" is explained as the Quincy Granite quarries, a dormant quarry in his home town that was now a popular swimming hole, with high cliffs and was comparing whether or not "this leap was beyond my courage." Sullivan knew then, at 27, this quest was written long before him and that his and her lives were on a course to meet..."It had occurred to me then that there was a girl somewhere in the world whom I would marry. Even then her life was moving inexorably toward mine."
It's a story you just don't want to end.
|
