The Outside Lands

June 20, 2016
The Vietnam War is explored in Kohler’s debut novel. Living with their WWII-hero father after the death of their mother, siblings Jeannie and Kip Jackson are left to their own devices. Jeannie marries a young doctor and gets pregnant, while trouble-making Kip impulsively joins the Marines. In Vietnam in 1968, he quickly learns that surviving the jungle means making hard choices and becomes embroiled in a military crime. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Jeannie meets a 16-year-old girl, Lee Walker, who seduces her (sexually and politically) and leads her into the world of antiwar activism, where she is asked to forge medical letters for inductees hoping to be reclassified 4F. Although she is in over her head, Jeannie also tries to help her brother’s defense at court-martial. Although Jeannie, Kip, and Lee are all well-realized characters, the stateside chapters feel overstuffed and melodramatic. It is with the Vietnam War chapters that the author distinguishes herself. You would have to go back to Susan Fromberg Schaeffer’s Buffalo Afternoon to find a novel written by a civilian that so totally captures the nightmarish, psychedelic feel of a war that refuses to be relegated to the dusty pages of history. Agent: David Godwin, David Godwin Associates.

Narrators Tavia Gilbert's and Michael Crouch's performances make up for any clunkiness or sentimentality in the expository passages of Kohler's ambitious debut novel. After their mother's death, Jeannie marries and appears to be the epitome of the happy American housewife, while Kip joins the Marines and is sent to Vietnam. Gilbert is just right, sounding innocent and confused when Jeannie is seduced, both sexually and intellectually, by Lee, a 16-year-old girl who is involved in the antiwar movement. Crouch's truthful performance creates a disenchanted Kip as he faces a court-martial for a shocking crime in Vietnam. Gilbert and Crouch take us from the nightmare of JFK's assassination to the chaotic fall of Saigon, offering rich portraits of people and their problems during the volatile period that was the 1960s. S.J.H. � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine