The War on All Fronts
A fledgling romance is the focus of Kim Oclon’s sensitive historical novel The War on All Fronts.
In 1967, high school graduates Anthony and Sam are poised to separate. One is bound for basic training by choice, and the other aims for a future as a professor. Fearing outsiders’ opinions about their relationship, they veil their feelings for each other. They send occasional letters, conveying both their fears and their hopes and capturing the volatility of their separate environments. Still, they grow apart from each other as they look toward the future.
Mixing giddiness with repression, the couple’s coded letters relay their affections for one another well. On campus, Sam encounters anti-war protests that leave him feeling conflicted: in addition to Anthony, his brother has been deployed. But he’s also invigorated by the protests, which contrast with Anthony’s brutal experiences in the infantry, serving to confirm how unjust it is that wars are fought by young people.
Elsewhere, people’s views on Vietnam are shown to differ from the realities that the soldiers face. Details about the era’s music combine with notes about the unfathomable strategies of the Viet Cong and the camaraderie of soldiers, resulting in a layered panorama against which Anthony and Sam’s love, for all of its seeming fragility, matures into deep acceptance.
Indeed, Anthony and Sam remain determined to do what they believe is right during their time apart. Still, their anxiety is palpable. Their senses of anticipation between letters intensify as the novel progresses. Others prove curious about their connection, which they are vigilant in protecting. Their young adulthoods are fraught with unusual pressure.
Two men strengthen their senses of identity against daunting historical forces in the sobering novel The War on All Fronts.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
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