Up Country

Thank goodness, thinks I, for a high draft number. I had a marriage/family exemption then lost it when I divorced. Received a student deferment but lost it upon graduation, despite the fact that I was married again and had two kids instead of one. Fortunately, the lottery number I got was high in 1970 and they were winding the Vietnam war down and I never served. Many of my friends did, however, some came back whole, some did not. Some did not return alive. My gratitude to all of them, friends or not. But I have read a few novels dedicated to 'Nam, as well as a significant number of non-fiction titles.

If this were a simple tale of moving from A to B, the book would be half the length it is. But, with the main protagonist returning to the places he "saw the elephant" (experienced combat) the book gets much more involved. Been there and want to re-live it? This is your book. Been there and want to go back? This is your book. Never been there but wonder what it was like and what it took to survive? This is your book. I was especially taken by the psychological insight into war, and what one goes through in these live and death circumstances. This is a powerful and moving book of insight and while the plot is bit simplistic at times, it is twisty and curvy enough to hold your interest and keep you guessing. Well done.

This was thrust upon me by a friend who served there with the words, "I need it back by next week to return it to the fellow who lent it to me. One of the best I have read." Well, it is a 700 pager so the other books I was reading went to the side and I hoped it would hold my interest long enough for me to finish by the deadline. It did. I enjoyed it enough to order a copy of the paperback (850 pages) for a friend whose stories of his service were quite similar.

Up Country is Nelson Demille's suspense thriller set in post-Vietnam. Full of exciting escapes and tense drama, Demille takes the reader on a dangerous adventure through a country teaming with ghosts from previous wars. Superbly researched. Brilliantly paced. A must read for DeMille fans.

Donald Gallinger is the author of [[ASIN:1601641591 The Master Planets]]

This was a very long book with a good balance of suspense and single thread of tension. Nelson Demille keeps a single thread of suspense and balances it out very well throughout the book. My only complaint that he ended the book with more questions than answers and conclusions. Paul Brenner has this knowledge that could get him killed and Mr. Demille doesn't expand what he is going to do with this information. I thought the book was good overall, but was very disappointed in the ending. For those who like a ending with closure, you wont like this ending..

Nelson DeMille is one of my newest favorite authors. I love that he is a Viet Nam veteran as is my husband. I read many books about wars, Viet Nam in particular. When I saw this book, I had to order it.

Even though it is fiction, the book reads like a non-fiction book about the Viet Nam war. The main character, former Army investigator Paul Brenner, is asked to return to Viet Nam for an assignment. As a VN vet, he had zero interest in ever returning. The mission was something he had no desire to do. But because of his loyalty and sense of duty to his country, he reluctantly agrees to accept the mission.

There were parts of the book that reminded me of Lee Child's character, Jack Reacher, who seems to wander around the U.S. doing good, even if it means killing people, but never has to answer for his actions. Brenner does the same thing in Viet Nam in order to accomplish his mission. Expatriate Susan Weber who lives in Viet Nam, teams up with him although he really doesn't want her participation other than the wonderful sex she provides. He finds out much later than she is CIA, something that he suspected early on.

Brenner finds the Vietnamese man he is searching for, but realizes the American authorities really want the guy killed. He doesn't want to do that and is rocked by the real story behind his mission. He knew from the beginning they were keeping large parts from him. The ending is amazing - you realize the mission involves a presidential candidate in the U.S. The ending is even better because there is no conclusion - DeMille leaves it to the reader to decide what happens. Genius!! I can't recommend this book highly enough for anyone interested in the Viet Nam War. It is one of the best books I have ever read regardless of topic.

Recommended as a substitute for Sominex. So far I've slogged through over 350 pages of this snooze-fest and at this point, even if the rest of the book turns out to be great, it won't matter because I've already been turned off. It's doubly disappointing because I've enjoyed all of DeMille's other work so far. It's just incredibly slow. Nothing has happened; it's both a travelogue and development of a "love interest" with Susan Weber, whom I find not just unrealistic but boring and self-centered as well. At least if she'd been a Vietnamese woman there could be some cultural interest and conflicts between the two of them to keep things interesting but nooooo. The author also hints at secret reasons for Brenner's trip and usually authors start dropping clues bit by bit to entice you to keep reading, but at this point that hasn't happened, either. Last but not least, I'm just realizing that "Paul Brenner" is actually the same character as "John Corey" in DeMille's other novels -- he talks and smart-mouths exactly the same way. I've gone this far, I guess I'll finish it -- the last 450 pages could hardly be any slower than the first 350.

Demille's Gold Coast is one of my all-time favorite books, but Up Country seems to have been written by a mediocre author intent on cranking out 800+ pages in one draft. The writing is repetitive, shallow, annoyingly chatty, and several of the events described strain the credibility of the reader.

I am not much of a fan of popular fiction. But I went to Viet Nam with my Vietnamese brother-in-law in 2002 on his first return visit since he and his family left Viet Nam on the day Saigon fell in 1975. Some family members who accompanied us read this book on our return and gave it high praise. So I gave it a try. And, as the cliche goes, I could not put it down.

On our visit, we started in Saigon in the south, went to the nearby coastal city of Phan Thiet (my brother-in-law's home town), flew north to Da Nang in the central part of the country, drove to Hue and finished up by flying to Hanoi in the north. This is almost identical to the route taken by the characters in the book, although they also visit the battlefields we skipped. Demille does a great job describing the sights and feel of these cities. Many reviewers object to this travelogue approach, but I really enjoyed it as it gave me a chance to relive my experience.

The main story line, of a retired American career officer returning to Viet Nam circa 1997 in an attempt to find a soldier in the North Viet Nam army who had witnessed an American captain kill an American lieutenant during the Tet Offensive in 1968, provided lots of suspense and kept my interest level high throughout.

A central theme of the book is that Viet Nam is a police state, where every move of the protagonist is watched, his itinerary is scrutinized by the police, they follow him, they bug phone calls and they take and hold his passport and visa to limit his ability to travel. All that was in service of the story line, but I saw virtually no evidence of it whatsoever when I was there. The people we met throughout the country could not have been nicer, despite the fact that four of the five people I travelled with were obviously Americans. Several times during our trip when I noticed how much Viet Nam had embraced capitalism, Americans and the U.S. dollar (which was the preferred currency everywhere in the country other than at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum), I remarked "we won the war". I was amused when Demille's characters made the same observation.

I do not think that you need to have actually gone up country in Viet Nam to enjoy this well written book. I look forward to the film.

Nelson Demille is, by far, my favourite author and a writer of substantial quality. All of his books are of the highest quality and a pleasure to read and re-read. Up Country is however, the only exception. Being many many pages in length it is certainly an interesting insight into the '68 Tet Offensive however it is lacking any worthy plot. The novel unfortunately reads as more of a set of war memoirs although I am pleased that Nelson has 'got this off his chest'! I even flew to the Vero Beach book centre to meet Nelson and for him to sign my copy so it's a shame I'm unlikely to read this novel again. An interesting read, but not a classic.

I won't recap the novel since it has been done in previous reviews. I'll keep it simple. If you like DeMille, don't skip Up Country.

I didn't think this novel was drawn out as others have suggested. The main character had many flashbacks of when he served time in the Vietnam War all of which fit into the novel perfectly. I was not alive during the time of this War so I appreciated the information, descriptions, and detail DeMille put into this book.

I would highly recommend Up Country, especially to DeMille fans. In my opinion, this book was 100 times better than The General's Daughter.

I've read all of his books, and this one is my favorite. I'm actually reading this a second time.