For Rouenna

Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing and moving
Review: FOR ROUENNA starts comfortably enough, with the narrator, a novelist, receiving a letter from a woman she barely remembers from childhood. This woman, the Rouenna of the title, pressures the narrator to visit her Brooklyn apartment so they can talk, though the narrator fears the intimacy of a face to face meeting. Eventually, though, they meet, becoming friends despite their differences. Their friendship has barely taken root when Rouenna commits suicide in her mother's house in New Jersey. As the narrator tries to come to terms with the loss, she finds herself writing about Rouenna - her difficult childhood in the projects of Staten Island, and, most compellingly, of her time in war-torn Vietnam as a military nurse. The story becomes a powerful, unsettling eulogy not only for Rouenna, but for the innocence America lost during those turbulent times.

This is not a typical Vietnam War novel. Page-wise, the war itself probably takes up no more than a third of the book. By structuring her novel this way, Nunez gives the war context, culturally, historically, and personally, so that its reach goes far beyond its era.

You should not miss reading this extraordinary novel.

Rating:
Summary: Impressive, insightful, powerful
Review: FOR ROUENNA starts comfortably enough, with the narrator, a novelist, receiving a letter from a woman she barely remembers from childhood. This woman, the Rouenna of the title, pressures the narrator to visit her Brooklyn apartment so they can talk, though the narrator fears the intimacy of a face to face meeting. Eventually, though, they meet, becoming friends despite their differences. Their friendship has barely taken root when Rouenna commits suicide in her mother's house in New Jersey. As the narrator tries to come to terms with the loss, she finds herself writing about Rouenna - her difficult childhood in the projects of Staten Island, and, most compellingly, of her time in war-torn Vietnam as a military nurse. The story becomes a powerful, unsettling eulogy not only for Rouenna, but for the innocence America lost during those turbulent times.

This is not a typical Vietnam War novel. Page-wise, the war itself probably takes up no more than a third of the book. By structuring her novel this way, Nunez gives the war context, culturally, historically, and personally, so that its reach goes far beyond its era.

You should not miss reading this extraordinary novel.

Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing and moving
Review: This novel juxtaposes the lives of narrator and subject in a manner that draws the reader deep into their lives. Although Vietnam is at the core of the story, the gut-wrenching sadness and horror of that experience is woven brilliantly into the stories of the lives of two women who are very different, yet who share a compassion for humanity that is rare and incredibly moving.The settings are created so vividly that it is hard to put this book down. For the first time in a long while,I am left with the urge to re-read very soon. I cannot recommend it highly enough.