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THE ROAD HOMEWritten by Ellen Emerson White
Amphetamines, coffee, and forced casual indifference rule the nightmare world of Lieutenant Nurse Rebecca Phillips. Rebecca has left home and joined the Army after her brother was killed in Vietnam. Her family was torn apart, and against the wishes of her anxious mother and her out-of-touch father, she becomes a nurse and is sent to the war zone. She is stationed at a U.S. field hospital that caters to the front lines. During her stint on duty overseas, she quickly learns what hell just might look like—screaming wounded soldiers, piles of corpses and amputated limbs, medevac choppers coming constantly in and out with more patients than the hospital can hold. As we enter the story, Rebecca has been working forty-eight hours straight in constant pain and under incredible stress. The cast on her broken ankle has cracked off, yet it doesn’t stop her from working under these grisly conditions; she pops Darvon and “slips on the smallest right boot she can find from the pile on the floor. After, of course, shaking the foot out of it first.”
Rebecca has just recently had her spirit broken. She used to be the positive one in her unit, showing energy and optimism in the face of gory death and near-unbearable pain. Often the pain was, in fact, not as much in the soldiers as in those who tended them. They worked almost constantly from the moment they arrived, having to adjust to the shock of the environment at once. They eat soggy, room-temperature sandwiches if they can even stand to eat, and spend the few free minutes they have sleeping uncomfortably in corners, drinking as much liquor as they can hold, or getting away for a few minutes to smoke rancid cigarettes. The heat and humidity cause extreme fatigue as well, along with the stench of blood and death in the air. In the face of all this, Rebecca had kept both her spirits and the spirits of the hospital up. Until, we find out, she had been confronted by a Vietnamese soldier and killed him. This destroyed the fragile bonds that had been holding her attitude just above despair. Without close friends, isolated by womanhood, her love interest at the front lines, and knowledgeable beyond her status as a nurse, she plunges into melancholia and becomes an automaton.
In the beginning, Rebecca dogs it through the days, crossing them off until she can get home. The highlights of her days are the communal letters she receives from her boyfriend Mike and his company who are right in the middle of the fighting. She makes a friend of the major that supervises her unit, and their casual relationship combined with the letters helps her pull through. However, most of Mike’s troop is blown to smithereens, and he becomes reclusive and bitter towards everyone, including Rebecca, when his leg is amputated. Shortly after that, Rebecca goes home and tries to adjust to the culture shock. She has post-war trauma, and most Americans are vicious to her because she was over fighting. Besides that, the environment is totally different as she is living with her parents. All the other women from her generation are married with children and she feels she doesn’t have a friend in the world. She lives out her days depressed and alcoholic, fighting with her father and trying to keep all the stories of horror and despair inside of her. Suddenly, after her time of service runs out, she goes on a road trip to Colorado to find Mike again and try to see if he might still love her.
White’s novel tells the younger generation just how hellish and vile the Vietnam War was. For those who never lived through it, or for those who were living in a cardboard box at the time, it paints a great picture of the way things were from the point of view of the medical field. It also tells the story of a young woman who thought her dreams were destroyed, but who builds them back up again slowly in spite of herself. It’s a very emotional book, and intense to boot; but an enjoyable read. White shows the world of Rebecca’s generation clearly during the war, and there is a lot of encouraging thought and spiritual strength in the face of total depression and anguish. As far as spirituality, the book conveys that even someone who isn’t a practicing Christian can be spiritually strong and receive love in the world that God created. There is hope throughout the novel along with service, kindness and humanity. Human relationships are defined, broken, and redefined. Rebecca is continually beaten down and beats herself down as well; and just like Mike, she goes off into her own little world and rejects everything else. But they meet in the end, and I won’t tell you what happens due to the satisfaction of suspense. All I can say is that although the novel is graphic and intense, it is only in the mid-range and not very offensive. Pacifists may want to avoid it, or may find themselves likely to start tearing out pages or their own hair. War buffs and historians will eat it up like sugar maple candy! It is not overly feminist, and it is not religious, but White presents a moving story that’s a surprisingly easy read. Dramatic and meaningful, I recommend this book to most for rounded reading. Also, there is a bonus: if you get the Scholastic Fiction edition, you can get an illustration on the front that is done by Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried. Myself, I borrowed the book, so I couldn’t tell you where to get it—only that you should get it. Enjoy!
- Tina Hegg
October 2002
October 2002
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