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评论 (3)
出版社周刊评论
In her first novel for adults, Farish ( Shelter for a Seabird ) powerfully conveys the sights and sounds of the Vietnam war as experienced by a ``doughnut dollie,'' one of the women sent to run Red Cross mobile recreation units. Diana Seymour, an unsophisticated 19-year-old college girl from Texas, signs up with patriotic fervor for a stint in Southeast Asia. Her best friend there is cynical yet sensitive Pearly, whose life so far has been ``one catastrophe after another.'' Told that their job is to be a ``mix of storyteller/social worker/entertainer'' to the soldiers, the women soon realize these duties present many contradictions. ``If you came over as a cute college girl with nice skin and neat values, you wouldn't go home as one. This was war,'' says Diana, who falls in love with a soldier and loses much of her naivete. Diana's narrative crosses freely between her inner and outer worlds, resulting in a dreamlike and haunting, though sometimes confusing tale. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
Farish exhibits a fresh, original, and intensely appealing voice in this first adult novel--a female addition to the Vietnam genre that is as moving as it is wise. It is 1969, and Diana, a nutrition major in a small Texas women's college, is only 19 when she feels the call to go to Vietnam. The Red Cross needs ``doughnut dollies''--wholesome young women to entertain the troops with trivia games and a little innocent flirtation--and shapely, blond, virginal Diana perfectly fits the bill. Leaving behind a proud mother whose own patriotism dates from her soldier-husband's death during WW II, Diana behaves like the quintessential girl scout as her group of apprehensive women is shipped off to Saigon. What she finds there, though, is hardly what she expected. After a few days of trying to interest death-stunned soldiers in baseball statistics and barbecues, Diana gradually ceases referring to ``our boys'' and their brave mission and draws closer to Pearly, her best friend and fellow entertainer, for comfort. Pearly proves unhelpful in this department: feeling responsible for the accidental death of her soldier boyfriend, she slides into a deep depression. Diana grows increasingly desperate as the violence escalates, her own tall, good-looking, Irish- American soldier boyfriend is called back into action, and their teenaged flirtation is forced to take on the weight of a life-or- death affair. It comes as no surprise--particularly to Diana--when tragedy finally strikes her in a particularly excruciating form. ``Nobody got out without paying,'' she explains. ``This was war.'' Diana's breathless innocence makes this story a particularly heartbreaking and memorable one. Farish shows great promise.
《书目》(Booklist)书评
College girls in the late 1960s join the Red Cross in order to serve in Vietnam. When they get there, they have their assignments--mostly they are supposed to bring a little humor to the sad situation out in the field. At first, that's possible. They giggle with one another, they meet all the "boys" they could possibly dream of meeting, but then the reality of Vietnam in the war years begins to sink in. They are camped far from the battle zones, but helicopters crash, they visit the wounded, and the feeling of helplessness overwhelms them like it does everyone else. They begin to forget that they have lives to go back to in the States. Then one night, a "friendly" goes berserk, cutting and slashing his way through their quarters with up-close-and-personal violence. Flower Shadows is a poignant and emotionally charged story about times and places that young people--any people--should never have to witness. ~--Cynthia Ogorek