Never Fade Away:

This story hit, "Close to Home", for I am a Vietnam Vet and a member of a minority. It is for these reasons that I was very sympathetic, understanding, and emotionally drawn to the people in this story. William Hart has written a short, but powerful story that packs quite a punch. It's a solid and touching story of the relationship between a teacher and his student, that could become romantic but does not quite reach that point. It's 1985, and a Vietnamese student, Tina Le, has signed up for an English Secondary Language (ESL) course at a Los Angeles college. John Goddard is her writing teacher and a Vietnam Vet, who is still experiencing flashbacks of the war. The story is told in alternating journal entries, so that we are exposed to the views of both characters daily lives. This creates a very personal and intimate method of telling the story. I think it brings us closer to the characters real feelings. The story unfolds as the English Department decides to flunk out the many Asian Students. Tina Le, a math major, has a talent for writing stories. She writes a heartfelt story on the suffering of her family back in Vietnam during the war. Goddard recognizes her literary talent and tries to reward her by having the story published. Soon Goddard finds out the university administrator plans to fail the overabundance of ethnic minority students, including Tina Le. Once Goddard finds out Tina Le has failed the course unfairly he strongly brings his objections to the university administrator, and soon finds himself fired from his job. After filing a grievance, they are given a hearing, and what follows is a courtroom like drama, where both Tina Le, who testifies for Goddard, and Goddard fight to save his job. During this time, Tina Le's and Goddard's relationship deepens, to the point where it could become romantic. Of course, this creates even more problems for both of them. This is a short and easy read, and an impressive debut by a writer that is a force to be followed in the future. I especially enjoyed and related to his Vietnam experiences and the emotional and caring feelings he had for his ethnic and Vietnamese students. This is a book that's hard to put down, and a story that should touch almost any heart. Highly Recommended!Joe Hanssen

This is a superb novel about Vietnam War veteran John Goddard and his ESL pupil, Vietnamese refugee Tien Le, as each confront past war traumas and current problems with the English Department's grading policies at a fictional California State University.Hart presents a dual-first person narrative in the protagonists' journals, and this is where his mastery shows. Unlike other first-person novels (or dialogue in 3rd person), Hart gives John and Tina (her chosen Anglicized name) authentic voices true to their strengths and, most importantly, limitations. The bounds on their perceptions and emotional responses ring true: Goddard's cynical and sometimes sweeping moralizing tone, for example, seems appropriate for a man tuned into the "black and white" rather than the gray shades: "Then there's Memorial Day...here the underlying theme is human sacrifice by auto crash, as thundering engines and screaming gears are echoed a millionfold on the nation's highways." Though the book effectively attacks the ESL practices and the self-righteous administrators who impose them, Hart restrains from using his characters' voices as a proxy for his own; they do not suddenly become eloquent or insightful so that Hart can make a point.The book's pace, character development, and alternating narratives show great balance. Hart is patient with his characters, letting them reveal explosive bits of the past in wider and wider circles as they approach their Vietnam experiences. Mr. Goddard initially confronts the past indirectly, seeking answers in the lives of other war survivors: Ulysses, the prototypical soldier and war refugee, humorist/Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce, and in his own farcical but somewhat detached Vietnam novel. However, this intellectualizing does not abate his continuing symptoms strongly indicative of PTSD (e.g., nightmares, flashbacks, isolation, anger). Goddard (as well as Tina Le) gradually faces the past through his journal entries (and ultimately through some briefly mentioned therapy at a VA Medical Center and a Vet Center.)Hart doesn't stereotype the hurting vet, he shows us Goddard's intelligence, compassion, and a cynical idealism that serve him well in his battles against the discrimination of the English Department. Similarly, Tien "Tina" Le is a well-rounded character, showing doubt, strength, and maturity. The writing, with very few exceptions, is excellent: "...the polyglot students of CSUM are quiet but tough...a leatherlike durability cured to absorb 10,000 blows without a flinch or whisper." Goddard also injects a somewhat mordant levity to the book:" Once our squad did a body count after a wall-to-wall carpet [bombing] our leader called...We confirmed 32 kills, although all the pieces could have come from-And I believe did come from-one unlucky water buffalo." Excellent. However, I did think that Rayneece, Tina Le's roommate, sometimes seems a bit "pasted" onto the story. But no matter, this is a great book.What could hav

NEVER FADE AWAY should be required reading for teachers at any level, especially those (which is now nearly all teachers) with students for whom English is a second language. It shows poignantly the frustrations and downright heroism of an immigrant student and of a teacher who risks his job to help her in defiance of a college administration that uses absurd standardized tests for academic cleansing. Furthermore, this is a fine novel. Using a double epistolary form, alternating narratives by teacher and student, it evokes brilliantly the complementary perspectives of its two main characters. It keeps us intimately involved in their thoughts and feelings while it presents the social and political tangles in which they are wound. I literally did not put it down, reading it in a single sitting, something I have not done since reading Nabokov's PNIN many years ago. I recommend it most highly.

A wonderful, touching story. Never Fade Away is the tale of two unlikely heroes brought together as they challenge the status quo of a corrupt academic system.John Goddard and Tina Le are beautifully depicted. Hart provides an honest glimpse into their lives and keeps you rooting for them, even beyond the final page.Never Fade Away is a testament to the human spirit. It's proof that heroism lurks in surprising places, and that beneath the emotional baggage we all carry, truth, and even love, can be found.

Never Fade Away is a deeply moving book. It takes place in a mythical Cal State campus, and deals the struggle between a compassionate and competent ESL instructor and a program that seems to feel its job is to flunk students out. It is told from the point of view of the instructor and one of his students, and really succeeds in presenting the studentÕs point of view. In dealing with many universities, I have seen the same kind of thing Hart describes: Very competent speakers of English as a second language who do well in all of their courses, have developed impressive levels of competence in English, and yet canÕt seem to pass the senseless and pedantic exams given by the writing departments. And of course the same problem exists throughout the entire educational system. This book is riveting. I read it in two sittings, only because I forced myself to put it down late at night because I had to get up early the next day. It presents its message in a way that journal papers and essays never could.