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Book Reviewed by:Suffering from uncontrollable rage and an inability to handle relationships, Frank Collard escapes from Sydney to the small beach town of Mulaburry on the southeast Australian coast. There, amid the cane fields, rip tides and other lost souls, haunted by the Creeping Jesus in the dark, he fights with his demons and comes to terms with his history.
Evie Wyld’s impressive first novel employs the harsh and often dangerous Australian environment as a setting for the loneliness and devastation that can ruin a man’s life after he returns from war. Asked about writing a book almost completely from a male perspective, she says, "I’ve always leant toward a more masculine voice. It was quite a nice thing to do to sit at my desk and to have to physically imagine myself as a man and sort of stomp around the flat a bit." She wrote the book as a tribute to her beloved uncle who fought in Vietnam, only to return traumatized.
In After the Fire, the trauma reaches through three generations. Frank Collard's grandfather fought in Korea and his father went to Vietnam. Though these two men were to a certain degree rescued by caring wives, neither one could conduct life successfully or be a good father after returning to the civilian world. Through chapters alternating between Frank's viewpoint and that of his father Leon, the reader discovers along with Frank the tragic history of this family. It is their inability and unwillingness to talk about their war experiences that creates the legacy of suppressed rage, alcoholism and depression that runs like a live wire through the generations of Collards.
The book requires a reader with the necessary toughness to confront these horrors. That said, the story should interest both men and women, since it is usually the men who go to war and the women who wait, worry and take care of the men when they return. I would also recommend it to adult children of soldiers or young adults who may be deciding whether or not to join the military. Certainly, Ms. Wyld does not glorify war.
When I finished the story I was left with scenes of jungles, death, loss and sorrow, but also vivid vignettes of young men discovering their sexuality, forming connections with friends, and finding peace of mind through creativity. Most strongly I felt a sense of redemption. Leon found his in the desert and later in faith. Best of all, though, is a character in Frank's story: seven-year-old Sal, the feral child of Frank's neighbors in Mulaburry, scarred as badly as any veteran by the losses in her short life, who through her remaining innocence and stoic insistence on having her own way, brings together the damaged adults around her to create a new family.
This review was originally published in October 2009, and has been updated for the
November 2010 paperback release.
Click here to go to this issue.
When war broke out in Korea in June 1950, the United Nations Security Council asked all of its members to assist in repelling the North Korean invasion into South Korea. North Korea was under the influence of the Soviet Union and later in the war Communist China entered the fray as well. Fifteen nations sent contingents to defend South Korea, with the United States being the largest.
Australia committed a squadron of Air Force personnel, equipment, and a battalion from the Royal Australian Regiment. The country's security was felt to be at risk from Communist aggression and the Prime Minister was eager to show its full support of the United Nations. More particularly he wanted to secure a formal alliance with the United States, who were assuming the former British Empire's dominance in Asia. The result was the ANZUS Treaty of 1951. Casualties from Australian troops came to over 1500, with 339 killed.
The Australian participation in Vietnam was more complex. For decades, the country had felt alone as a predominantly White nation in a region of Asian peoples. The history of Indonesian independence from the Dutch, which took place in the 1950s, was fraught with perceived danger for Australia because of the Dutch presence in West New Guinea and the fear of Indonesian Communism coming into Australia via that island. Australia relied heavily on the presence of the United States in Southeast Asia for combating the threat of Chinese Communist aggression, but the ANZUS treaty had proved to be vague in defining the defense America might provide in the event of trouble with China; and the size and strength of the Australian military was woefully inadequate.
As the Vietnam conflict heated up, Australia adopted a policy of supporting American military involvement and encouraging its continuation. They first sent a team of military advisors in August 1962. The institution of a draft in late 1964 allowed sufficient build up of military personnel to man a battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, sent to assist in the defense of American bases in South Vietnam. 1966 saw the creation of the Australian Task Force, consisting of two infantry battalions and various support units. By 1967, the country had also sent Navy and Air Force men.
Overall, Australian participation in the Vietnam War lasted for ten years. Almost 47,000 men were sent, close to 500 were killed, and about 2400 wounded. Beginning with the draft in 1964, a vocal minority made up of middle-class parents, clergy and numerous dignitaries made the war unpopular. As the war continued, a protest movement grew and while it was never as large as in the United States, the effect on Australian society made a soldier's homecoming traumatic, created a sense of alienation and caused him difficulties in returning to civilian life.
This review was originally published in October 2009, and has been updated for the
November 2010 paperback release.
Click here to go to this issue.
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