Up Country

I have read many of Nelson DeMilles novels and have enjoyed them immensley for their intrigue, characters and settings. This one was different.I bought the paperback in Dusseldorf, Germany, to read on the flight home. Over 800 pages...bit of a tome.I have not read "The General's Daughter", where the central character, Paul Brenner, originated. I didn't need to. Brenner's character is well defined in this book. I understand why some people might think that the book bogs down in places. When you've been through a DeMille novel, like "Plum Island", or "Lion's Game", you develop a certain expectation for swiftly moving adventure and deft plot twists. A quick read, a great story, and possibly something to think about.That is not the case with "Up Country". It's a long read, a great story, and a lot to think about. I think that in this novel DeMille vetted his views on the political, cultural, economic and social impact of the war we fought in Vietnam. The detail of Brenner's trip back to Vietnam,his insights about the places he'd been, the battles he'd fought, and the battles he's still wondering about, are richly described.Those descriptions are the meat of this fascinating novel. DeMille doesn't really need Susan or Colonel Mang to make this story interesting. In a way, they kind of both detract from the realism in his descriptions of Vietnam today.I was left with food for thought, and not caring so much about the characters. But I like food for thought in a novel. DeMille delivers bigtime in that category in this one.I was 9 in 1968, but, our war with the North Vietnamese affected me too. I still have my own questions. DeMille answers a lot of them in this book through the eyes of someone who was there."Up Country" is quite a ride.

Retired military investigator Paul Brenner is confronted with a trip back to Vietnam in this DeMille mystery and thriller. A letter written by a Vietnamese soldier during the battle of Hue in '68 has been discovered and it details the grisly murder of an American Lieutenant by another American officer. His former boss asks him to go investigate - to see if the author is still alive - and to 'resolve the situation'.Knowing he hasn't been given all of the details, but smart enough to fill in many of the blanks, Brenner is more than willing to engage in a cathartic trip back to the venues that so dramatically altered his life during his first two tours of duty.DeMille does a wonderful job describing the modern landscape of Vietnam, where the divide between south and north still exists and the bitter after-effects of war are still tasted on a daily basis. Saigon, Hue, Dien Bin Phu, Hanoi and the countryside are all described in rich detail. Those who criticize this book as a travelogue are missing the point. Where else can one experience - almost firsthand - today's Vietnam viewed through the eyes of a returning veteran?The details of the story are taut and compelling (even hough I would agree many of the elements are a tad predicatable). It may be a combination mystery and travelogue, but even with its minor shortcomings, DeMille's talents shine through, enlightening, engaging - sometimes startling - and completely absorbing.

It's true, this is not a typical Nelson Demille thriller packed with intrigue, espionage and murder, but it is a fascinating story and obviously a topic that means a great deal to him. Paul Brenner, from The General's Daughter, is back and is called out of retirement to go back to Vietnam to perform a vaguely described mission for his former bosses at CID. As a veteran, Vietnam is the last place in the world he wants to go, however curiosity eventually overcomes his misgivings and he agrees to the mission.Starting at Saigon, Brenner proceeds to accomplish two missions, one official and the other personal. He makes contact with Susan Weber who is more than she appears. He also relives many moments from the days during the war, exorcising some old demons along the way. From Saigon he heads north, up country, visiting old battlegrounds and lending great insight to us, the reader, into what life was like as an American GI in Vietnam.I found this book to be a fascinating and informative adventure story. With so much travelling done by Brenner, there is no time for it to become slow and boring. The actual reason for his mission to Vietnam eventually becomes of secondary importance as I got caught up in the country and it's meaning to Brenner. By the end, it really made no difference to me what the final outcome was, I was satisfied by the journey however it turned out.This book is obviously of special importance to Demille and feels as though it's a kind of homage to Vietnam and the people of both sides who fought there. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, appreciated the humour in which it was told and respect the emotion that it evokes. I fell richer for the experience of having read it.

Nelson Demille opens his newest novel, Up Country, with the old saying that "Bad things come in threes." With this latest book, Demille's Paul Brenner returns for a third trip to Vietnam, this time thirty years after his two tours during the war. Investigating the thirty-year-old murder of an Army Lieutenant by a an Army Captain during the Battle of Quang Tri, Brenner not only must deal with the ghosts of his past as an infantryman during the war, but with the present less-than-friendly security police of Hanoi and their Washington counterparts. As I've grown to expect from his previous work, I was laughing out loud by the end of the first page, but there is far more to this story and a good suspense yarn and witty dialogue.Demille doesn't paint any rosy pictures of Vietnam, now or then. This book -- as well as Word of Honor -- touches on the darkest parts of the human psyche and explores significantly deeper psychological territory than the average suspense thriller. I couldn't put this one down.I'm a Gulf War veteran, and a writer (Prayer at Rumayla: A Novel of the Gulf War), so I tend to read a lot of more serious war fiction (two of my favorites are The Things They Carried and Fields of Fire). Word of Honor fits in that tradition more than this novel, but this is still one of the better books I've read this year.As always, I was unhappy to reach the end.