A genuine, very moving and heartfelt novel, The War Within is not only aptly titled, it is everything and more the stirring cover promises. I have to admit the best parts (for me) are the ones that deal with the Vietnam War flashbacks and Meredith's growing realization of her deep and romantic feelings for another woman, but, truly, the entire book is terrific and I highly recommend it as both a compelling and very sincere read! :) ( )

This is the fourth book I’ve read by this author. And to think, this all started from me asking for and receiving ‘24/7’ through Netgallery (and the publisher). Who knows if I would have otherwise ever gotten around to reading something by Wallace, eh?

Characters
I could very well be confusing myself, but I believe this book has two points of view. And it’d be a much different type of book if those two points of view were the opposite sides of a coupling. Since the point of views are that of Meredith Moser and Jordan Gonzalez (this is the first time I noticed that Jordan’s last name is Gonzalez; took me looking at the description to catch that point); grandmother and granddaughter.

Meredith Moser: The book starts with Meredith in her, I believe, 70s. In the late 1960s, Meredith was a nurse in Vietnam. Where she met George Moser, and Natalie Robinson (along with others, but those are the two important ones).

Jordan Gonzalez: Jordan is around 20 years of age, a junior at college, someone who has changed their college major something like at least 3 times, and, as her mother puts it, has ‘causes of the week’. She’s the kind of woman, Natalie that is, who enjoys protesting and protests, even if, she might get arrested during these protests. She’s also the kind of woman who (1) respects her grandfather George and grandmother Meredith despite her own anti-war sentiments, and their own status as military veterans; (2) the kind of woman who wears t-shirts with protest slogans on them on vacation, like the time she came face to face with Tatum Robinson while wearing an anti-war shirt – though, weirdly, Tatum never pointed out her choice of apparel (as far as I recall).

Natalie Robinson: Natalie, unless I’m confusing myself, does not have her own thoughts and feelings exposed to the reader, no she’s seen, mostly, through the eyes of Meredith – both directly, and indirectly through Meredith’s stories that she tells Jordan during their summer drive. Natalie, like Meredith, is also in her 70s. She’s still actively working, as a nurse at a nursing home. Some of whose patients are actually younger than she is. Unlike Meredith, Natalie was as open as she could be as a lesbian in the military in 1967. As in, she didn’t hide her own nature from herself, nor keep herself from going to gay bars.

Tatum Robinson: Tatum is Natalie’s niece. If her age was given, I didn’t pick up on it. She’s at least old enough to have spent time in the military – long enough to have served in Afghanistan, get injured, and is forced to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. She works at a hotel on the nightshift. I forget if her title is actually ‘night manager’, though I’ve a vague sense that it might be. She, like Natalie, also does not have her own point of view and must be seen through the eyes of another – in this case mostly through the eyes of Jordan.

Setting and Plot
“Each year, Jordan would spread a map of the United States, close her eyes and point” – thus random chance puts Jordan & Meredith on the path that leads them to Natalie Robinson and Tatum Robinson.

And so, this book takes place in a car driving long distance; in Vietnam through stories told by Meredith to Jordan on this drive; and in Jekyll Island Georgia (and, I believe, a scene or two in Savannah Georgia).

The scenes in Vietnam take place in 1967, in Saigon, and other locations inside Vietnam. There’s danger, death, tension, and romance in this Vietnam. The danger coming both from enemy combatants seen (those openly running around with guns) and unseen (those leaving bombs in various locations; many of which were supposed to be places of relaxation for the US (and other) forces); and from their own military – both by regulations (if the military finds out you are gay/lesbian they will dishonorably discharge you), and by those who do not mean well (some ‘friends’ appear to be on active look out for those who might be gay/lesbian and enjoy reporting on them to authorities).

Through the stories told of Meredith’s experiences in Vietnam we learn many things. (1) Natalie is and has always been a lesbian; (2) Meredith’s sexuality was clouded and unknown, even to herself – while in Vietnam Meredith came to find two loves of her life, one in the form of a man, George Moser, and one in the form of a woman, Natalie Robinson. Meredith had always dreamed of finding a good man, marrying, and having a family. Apparently she had both never found a man that was acceptable to her, until coming to Vietnam and meeting George; nor realized she might have any feelings for a woman, in a sexual/romantic way, again until arriving in Vietnam and meeting Natalie. Meredith meets both at roughly the same time. Meredith had a choice to make, go against her own desires for a family, and against societal and military pressure and pursue Natalie, or go with her desires for a family, and keep from fighting society and the military, and pursue George. Her decision is not exactly a spoiler – I mean, she is telling this story to her granddaughter while driving to that island in Georgia.

So, the plot. It alternates between the past and the present – at least while on the drive to Jekyll Island. Once there, Meredith pursues her old flame, while Jordan pursues her own thing – working for some extra money, and pursuing women (while also being somewhat . . .conflicted about learning of her grandmother’s feelings).

Romance
The romance is split into two couples. Meredith and Natalie; Jordan and Tatum. Plus something of George and Meredith’s romance is seen through Meredith’s story of her time in Vietnam.

Meredith and Natalie’s time together probably fell just slightly within a ‘good range’ in terms of detail/number of pages/etc. Tatum and Jordan’s relationship, though, seemed somewhat short-changed by the nature of having their story appear as if an appendage to Meredith and Natalie’s tale. Which is unfortunate as I felt like I might have, to a certain extent, liked Jordan and Tatum as individuals and as a couple.

Overall
I enjoyed the book. I like being in the present, so books with flashbacks can annoy me, but once I realigned my brain, the ‘stuff’ that occurred in Vietnam was quite interesting.

Let me expand upon that a tiny bit – by ‘present’ I mean present in the story. If it’s 1918 in the ‘present’ in the book, I don’t particularly wish to ‘flash back’ to 1908. Or, specifically in terms of this book, if it’s 2014, I do not really want to ‘flash back’ to 1967. I read the book in 2016. My present is 2016. I’ve no problem reading a book set in 2014, or 1967. Reading a book set in 2014 that flashes back to 1967 is what I have trouble with. Though, as I noted, I was able to get over my annoyance to enjoy the book. (All of this reminds me of seeing the film Lawrence of Arabia. You know what happens at the beginning of the film? They show Lawrence crashing his motorcycle and dying. Meaning the whole rest of the bloody film is a fucking flashback – I already knew he was dead; it was a movie about a bloody British dude who was running around Arabia while it was still under the control of the Ottoman Empire during WWI. Did I really need to see him die on a motorcycle to have me connect with the fact I’m looking at someone’s story from the, to me, distant past? Mmphs).

Right, distracted myself there. I liked the book. It was good. Might have been better if more time/space had been allotted to Jordan and Tatum’s relationship, but everything seemed to otherwise work.

March 25 2016
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