The Time In Between

October 31, 2005
Ada Boatman and her father, Charles, cross borders in Canadian author Bergen's luminous fourth novel. As their surname suggests, the in-between approximates the watery space between life and death. The narrative alternates between Ada's and Charles's points of view, between their separate experiences in contemporary Vietnam and their past together in the Pacific Northwest. Charles, an isolated American Vietnam veteran turned Canadian woodsman, raises his three children—Ada, Jon and Del—in British Columbia after their mother's death. As they scatter into adulthood, Charles retreats further into the memories (especially the terror of a single day of combat) that keep him at arm's length from life. When a fellow veteran sends Charles a novel written by a Vietnamese soldier, the story moves Charles to revisit Vietnam. There, he attempts to peel back the dark shroud of memory, but he cannot make peace and disappears instead. Ada and Jon follow their father to Danang, where they confront his past, and where Ada, whose life has been defined by her father's long sadness, learns to forsake her unmoored existence in favor of inner reconciliation. In this meditation on the aftereffects of violence and failed human connection, Bergen's austere prose illustrates the arbitrary nature of life's defining moments.

August 15, 2005
In this new novel by award-winning Canadian author Bergen ("A Year of Lesser"), Canadian vet Charles Boatman returns to Vietnam 30 years after the war, tormented by his experiences there and how they changed him. When he goes missing, eldest daughter Ada and son Jon, now in their twenties, travel to Vietnam to find him. The story then shifts mostly between father and daughter, with the past blending into the present and the perceptions and needs of each character while in Vietnam tending to run parallel. The book's haunting and dreamlike tone stems partly from several characters' attempting to seek answers to elusive questions. Fortunately, this is not a story of overt desperation, and the author writes with a certain delicacy of description concerning how the Vietnamese survived the war and its aftermath. This sensitivity prevents any vulgarity from shattering the lives of the characters and preserves the exquisiteness of the Vietnamese culture, lending a unique beauty to the story. Highly recommended. -Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2005
This powerful novel about the long-term aftereffects of the Vietnam War is a beautifully crafted meditation on the frustrating search for emotional clarity. Ava Boatman and her brother, Jon, have come to Vietnam in search of their missing father, Charles. A Vietnam vet with a terrible secret that has turned him into an emotionally distant loner, Charles has made a pilgrimage to a small Vietnamese village, the scene of the most emotionally devastating moments of his life. What becomes hardest for him to accept is the fact that no trace remains of the horrific events that took place there; indeed, it seems the country has moved on without him, although he himself is still psychically riveted to that spot. As Ada and Jon try to find Charles, they deal with their fears in completely different ways. Bergen takes readers from the hardscrabble isolation of the rural Pacific Northwest to the bustling disorientation of modern-day Vietnam, and from fear of death to grief and acceptance. This slow, simmering novel will mesmerize readers with the intensity of its vision.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)

February 6, 2006
Asking Ellen DeGeneres–sound-alike Anna Fields to narrate this haunting novel of a veteran who goes missing while revisiting Vietnam to make peace with the atrocities he witnessed and committed doesn't initially sound like an inspired idea. However, Fields's narration of this Scotia Bank Giller Prize–winning book (Canada's highest book award) really works. With more than 200 audiobooks to her credit, Fields (aka Kate Fleming, and an Audie Award winner) has a master's touch, and her restrained delivery melds perfectly with Bergen's spare and Hemingwayesque text. Her deadpan delivery works for the narrator's voice as well as it does for Ada Boatman, who travels to Vietnam to find her veteran father, Charles. Fields's only weak note is the voice she uses for the taciturn Charles. As the book shifts between Ada's and Charles's points of view, Field's expertise becomes apparent, especially in her meticulous attention to detail, such as the correct pronunciation of the copious Vietnamese phrases and places in this tale. Simultaneous release with the Random House hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 31).