Invisible Girl

In the prologue, a Vietnamese woman named Mai falls off a bridge over New York's East River. To complicate matters, Maggie Malone's less than savory brother shows up at his sister's doorstep beaten to a pulp. The only way for either of them to stay safe is to hunt down the secrets of their father's past as a Vietnam vet and track down the current elusive killers. The more they discover the more secrets emerge. In Invisible Girl, the shifts between several scenes of past and present layer the suspense and the depth of the characters. Buddhism and Catholicism mix to provide a unique spiritual vision. The deep, eternal love of Mai and Jimmy Malone grows in the midst of the hell fires of the Vietnam war. Maggie's childhood memories of her mother Mai help her to understand her elusive father. In the present, Maggie and Danny try to hunt down the identity of the dangerous shadowy killers. Here, the magic of memory creates a truth and a spirit beyond a basic straight plot. Nice surprise ending. Most of all, Invisible Girl is an important book for our times. Although the past Vietnam war is an axis for the plot, courage and truth are an endless values in any age. This novel reaches my heart and soul as American in a place beyond politics. Sometimes true love, both for a man and a country, is eternal. Sometimes, our true American heroes are not the most obvious or newsworthy. This book would make an excellent book club selection.

Have you ever felt like there was something going on in your family that you didn't know about? Well, that's how the main character in the book Invisible Girl, Maggie Malone, has felt like all her life. Maggie's whole life, her father Jimmy Malone was hardly ever around. Even after her mother, Mai, committed suicide he wasn't there for his two children. When Maggie's older brother, Danny, who has had some trouble with the law because of their father, shows up at her door badly beaten, Maggie finds out that her father has been killed. To find out why her father was killed, Maggie, Danny, and her boyfriend, Bobby, go in search of their father's old friends and relatives, and while figuring out what happened to their father, uncover some very interesting secrets about their mother and uncle Terry. They end up facing people too big to handle on their own. Will Maggie, Danny, and Bobby figure out what happened to their family, and defeat the greater force that is terrorizing them? Well, why don't you read the book and find out? I liked this book because it is actually very exciting! The book may sound like a girl's drama because of the title, but it's actually a complete opposite. I mean, the main character, Maggie, owns a bar. How many girly dramas have something to do with a bar? Not only that, but their father is a Vietnam vet. If this was a girly book, they would be talking about anything but a war. If they were talking about a war, it would be about their lover dying in a war. Even though there are some little bits of love in the book, like with Maggie and Bobby, and Jimmy Malone and Mai. Bobby would do anything to make sure Maggie is ok, even get tangled in a family that is in trouble with the law, despite the fact that he's a cop. Bobby is a cop, who is a law abiding citizen. It's the same thing with Jimmy. He was very protective of Mai. An example would be: when Jimmy was flying with someone, he criticized Jimmy about the fact that he was dating a Vietnamese woman. Jimmy beat him until he was unconscious. So, I like this book because its exciting, isn't a girly drama like the cover leads you to believe, and has two men devoted to their women. Nothing about this book needs to be changed. The book had a good beginning, a descent plot, and a good end. That's all a good book really needs. I recommend this book to anyone who likes conspiracies, or war stories with unpredictable twists. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who feels like they don't know their family, because when you read this book, you will realize that it could be so much worse.

An amazing book. Beautiful writing, coupled with an intense storyline about Operation Babylift and a conspiracy. The East vs. West and Buddhism vs. Catholicism elements added to the yin/yang of the book. A great read!

The story of Mai is poignant. But the way her story weaves with her children . . . it's a multi-layered thriller. I really enjoyed this, and the caracters were vivid. The Vietnam vets--Hop, Con, and Jimmy--were rightfully paranoid. Political and religious themes great for a book club.

In Manhattan Maggie Malone's brother Danny is shot and her Irish-American father is murdered. She assumes the two incidents tie together with a third that of her mother Vietnamese expatriate Mai dying years ago in the East River. Unable to ignore the tragedies that she also concludes are tied to her late dad's mysterious work, Maggie investigates who shot her sibling and killed her father because she feels that will reveal why her mother died. However, as she begins to unravel a web of deceit that leads back to the Viet Nam War era "Operation Babylift", someone wants Maggie to stop digging for the truth. That unknown adversary makes it clear she will die if she continues on her quest, but Maggie is beyond concern as she is fixated on knowing all the players and whys. This is a fascinating look at the impact of the Viet Nam War on a generation of Amerasians but at times is difficult to follow with the constant switching between the present and the 1960s. When the story line focuses on Maggie's amateur sleuth investigation into her family history as opposed to shifting eras, the tale is gripping and fun to follow, but before fully hooking the reader a time transfer occurs and jolts the plot. This is still worth reading by readers who do not mind a bit of disorientated time joggling and the final spin is fabulous as Tess Hudson shines a light on a little known poignant piece of history by showcasing its aftermath thirty plus years later. Harriet Klausner