The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and in the case of The Lotus Eaters this is certainly the case. I initially assumed that it was one of those chick lit type romances as the cover had a picture of a women in Western clothing with a red flower in her hair, and the plug “tremendously evocative, a love story set in the hallucinatory atmosphere of war”. It wasn’t until I saw the book listed on the New York Times “100 Notable Books” list that I thought I should give it a go.

At the opening of the book it is 1975 and we meet Helen, a photographer who has made a name for herself covering the Vietnam war over the last 10 years but work is thin on the ground these days as the American public no longer seems to care about the war. The Americans are being evacuated from Saigon but Helen cannot bring herself to leave with her injured Vietnamese husband, Linh, wanting to remain for that last story, the one that will bring the devastation and suffering home to Americans for the last time. The novel then takes us back to the beginning when Helen arrives in Saigon as a green, 22 year old college dropout, who wants to go where her father and brother went and gave their lives – to the battle zone.
 
What follows is her story. Rejecting a desk job, she strives to follow the troops into the field capturing the real war and learning from veteran photographer Darrow who becomes her lover. Darrow is the epitome of a wartime correspondent. A Pulitzer prize winner, he has covered so many conflicts that he is jaded with the war and hankers to cover the beauty in the country he finds himself in, but like an addict, can’t give up the fix of getting “the” photo, and thus keeps pushing himself into more dangerous situations. Ultimately he pays the price, leaving Linh to pick up the pieces of Helen’s life as they find something more normal together. However, as the years pass, Helen finds herself becoming more and more like Darrow, drawn to find the photo that will get people’s attention.

The real story of The Lotus Eaters is that of the Vietnam War. The book explores how the war changes people – the Vietnamese, the American troops and the photojournalists covering the stories amidst the beauty of the countryside that hides the danger lurking underneath. In Australia, travelling to South East Asia has become a popular holiday, so it was interesting to read about what is quite a recent event in this country’s history but one which Australians probably don’t have much appreciation of. I could also see parallels with the current conflict in Afghanistan where Australian troops are fighting and reports of fatalities seem to be more common – appearing more regularly in our newspapers

I really enjoyed this novel, so don’t be like me and make assumptions based on the cover. If you need more convincing, here’s a link to the New York Times review.