The Alleys of Eden
by Robert Olen Butler
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The tragic story of an army deserter and his Vietnamese girlfriend whose only sanctuary is a small back room in Saigon -- the first novel from the author of the 1993 Pulitzer-Prize winner ofA Good Scent from a Strange Mountain.Tags
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I have read only a few books on the Vietnam war and this is told from a very personal perspective. Reflecting more on the personal impact on individuals and the ensuing consequences.
I sensed that this was based on personal experience and indeed the author is a returned veteran of this war. He has been married 6 times so it makes me wonder what impact the war had on him. I must say that there seemed to be a strong emphasis on their sexual relationship, rather than their day to day survival.
I sensed that this was based on personal experience and indeed the author is a returned veteran of this war. He has been married 6 times so it makes me wonder what impact the war had on him. I must say that there seemed to be a strong emphasis on their sexual relationship, rather than their day to day survival.
2570 The Alleys of Eden, by Robert Olen Butler (read 20 Jan 1994) I was so impressed by Butler's prize-winning A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain that I decided to read more by him. This is his first published book (1981). It tells of Cliff, who deserts in Vietnam and shacks up with a Vietnamese whore. The book is filthy, filled with verbal pictures I hope I will forget. I found Cliff a revolting person. This is a book that made me glad I was raised as I was and that I have been true to my upbringing. The book is dedicated to the author's parents. If a child of mine dedicated a book like this to me I'd disown him. Ugh.
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44+ Works 5,063 Members
Robert Olen Butler is a novelist, screenwriter, educator, and short-story writer who grew up in Granite City, Illinois. Butler served in Vietnam. Following the Vietnam War, Butler began writing. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The Paris Review, and The Saturday Review, as well as in four annual editions of the Best American show more Short Stories and six annual editions of New Stories of the South. A collection of his stories, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler's novels include The Alleys of Eden, Countrymen of Bones, and Sun Dogs. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Butler also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He teaches creative writing at McNeese State University. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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