Absolution

TW: portrayal of several miscarriages and the callous 1960s response to them by the medical (and general) community

Understated but powerful novel about the wives who accompanied their husbands to Vietnam in the early 1960s, before US troops were directly involved in the war. The book is narrated primarily by Tricia, the shy newlywed whose greatest dream is to be a good “helpmeet” to her Naval husband. But the character who leaves the strongest impression is Charlene, an experienced corporate spouse with the face of an angel and the personality of a shark. Charlene ropes Tricia into her scheme to make money by selling Barbie dolls dressed in traditional Vietnamese garb and then using the proceeds to buy food and toys for hospitalized Vietnamese children. Do her actions reek of white privilege, cultural appropriation, and colonial arrogance? Is she making a real difference in the children's lives considering the larger reality that they are the victims of a deadly proxy war that will eventually destroy their country?

McDermott doesn't supply easy answers to those questions. Although the novel shows a variety of relationships between parents and their children, she doesn't pass judgement on their relative merits either. After a devastating reveal about Tricia's final days in Vietnam, the book ends abruptly in the present, leaving a multitude of unanswered questions. McDermott has crafted a haunting portrayal of a pivotal moment in American history and filled it with fascinating, flawed characters. Not a happy read, but one with sufficient grace to keep the overall tone from being a total downer.

Wow. This was powerful, devastating, smart, and troubling. Perfect for book club. It captures a place and time; the gender dynamics; problems of benevolence; colonialism and race; marriage; generational change; mothers and daughters; and the yearning to be good, to matter, to help, to love.