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UP COUNTRY Reviewed by: Susan
McBride, MyShelf.Com Warning: Those who wish to read UP COUNTRY better work on their upper body strength first. The book is a fat 706 pages with printing that goes nearly to the inside margin. I remember a time when I used to love really big books, now I wonder however I'm going to finish them. But Nelson DeMille penned two of my favorite books, THE CHARM SCHOOL and WORD OF HONOR, so I figured I'd give it a shot. What I found in UP COUNTRY was less suspense and intrigue and more an old soldier's recollections of fighting a losing battle in a country that's still bleeding. The premise of UP COUNTRY has Paul Brenner, retired as a criminal investigator for the Army after THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER, heading to Vietnam to find a North Vietnamese soldier who supposedly witnessed an American captain killing his lieutenant in cold blood. Brenner hooks up with Susan Weber, a woman who presents herself as an American businesswoman living and working in Saigon. She knows the language and the people, and she volunteers to help him get about with less of a hassle from the police. What happens next is as much a travelogue of the new Vietnam superimposed on Paul's memories of the past. There is little tension except for the sexual kind between Paul and Susan. When the witness to the killing is finally located and the murderer finally confronted, it's rather anticlimactic. If you want to know about Vietnam and the things your history text didn't teach you in high school, UP COUNTRY is not a bad way to learn a little. But if you want a more engaging book about a Vietnam vet caught in a web of secrets, read WORD OF HONOR. It's a tighter, better book. ----- |
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