Kat Fitzpatrick

Just for a few moments, put aside any words in the title that will bring up any emotions, memories, or prejudices. Imagine that you are an eight-year-old child in a family with lots of siblings (six) and your father’s job requires moving sometimes. This is normal life for you. Thousands of American children follow their parents overseas when their father or mother is a large multinational company employee, a soldier, a diplomat, or a US government employee. When your employer tells you show more about the wonderful culture, great beaches, and fantastic food your children will enjoy along with all the comforts of home, this sounds like more of a great paid vacation and you just can’t believe your good luck. Any questions or concerns are quickly laughed off by people at the highest levels, so of course you pack up the house and the kids and go.

Your childhood may have been vastly different than Kat Fitzpatrick’s, but through her trusting child’s eyes we have an entirely new way of looking at events that we saw quite differently on this side of the world. Her first incongruity with her previous American life was seeing a man walking continuously outside the hotel room with a gun. That was different. Her brother told her that there was a curfew and if they went outside, they would be shot. The windows in their new home were all plastic and not glass. It was explained to her that the plastic would not shatter if there were bombs. Without having the context of many other, different life experiences, this might seem normal to a child.

While they were living their everyday lives in Vietnam, events and history unfolded around them. With dated letters and history to reference, the adult child put the pieces of the entire picture together. Fitzpatrick explains what is happening in real time with ceasefires, high-level correspondence, and peace negotiations while the family is trying to live a normal life, fishing or going to the beach. Pictures of the happy family give us the impression that they are blissfully unaware of coming events that would not only affect their lives, but the history of the world. There are also photos of important players in that history, with names that have been nearly forgotten and also those who will never be forgotten due to fame or infamy. The realization that things might not be going as well as they were told starts to dawn on the family and they know it is time to get out of the country.

Her father’s work at the radio station brings another dimension to the story. It is a continuation of the earlier work of Radio Free Europe, the only lifeline to the rest of the world that many European residents had during WWII. The devotion of the employees to each other, Americans and Vietnamese, is palpable. As the situation deteriorates, there are plans to escape, from either the country or their lives, before something much worse than death by suicide overtakes them all. The decision to stand with his people or die with them is not unique to Fitzpatrick’s father: This is something that American workers in foreign countries and soldiers have to face far more often than most of us will ever know. The fastmoving events kept me awake and reading long after I should have turned out the lights.

Whether your heart is still trying to heal from the national trauma that was Vietnam, or if you are too young to know anything about the war, this is a spell-binding read with twists and turns that keep coming until the end. If you like adventure and James Bond types of stories, this is a great book to pick up, for yourself or for family and friends. Even better, this is a true story. show less

Wouldn’t you like to get away?
If you seriously consider it as I have recently, you think about digging out your “real” clothes and suitcase, trying to find tickets, parking at the airport, hiking through the bitter cold and salty slush, hoping your flight is not cancelled, surviving the in-flight fights, getting a hotel and thinking up an attractive itinerary to have an adventure worth remembering.
Or you can curl up in a cozy bed and do what I did, take the kayak trip down the warm show more waters of Costa Rica while a strange series of coincidences or possibly planned malfeasance unfolds. Full disclosure: I know the author and she is as adventurous as her quirky alter ego in the story. I took each day at a time and it was a wonderful and much-needed escape from the present. I highly recommend that you take advantage of the offered mini-vacation: It doesn’t cost a small fortune and there is absolutely no issue with parking. show less