In Country

Author: Bobbie Ann Mason
Publisher: Harper Perennial 1985

“Is it OK if I go through your garbage?”  I asked a friend of mine when I saw he was cleaning his office and throwing out many books.  “I doubt there is anything that interests you here, but be my guest”, he replied.  I picked up this book from one of those boxes.  My friend is an English professor and he told me that he used this book once in one of his courses.  There are numerous markings throughout the book: crosses, circled crosses, vertical line segments, circles with forward slashes or backward slashes, and underlined text with no signs. I wondered what each symbol mean but did not investigate (yet).

Sam is a teenager growing in a small town in rural Kentucky.  Her mother Irene is remarried and had another baby not too long ago.  Her father Dwayne died in Vietnam before
she was even born.  Emmett, Irene’s brother went to Vietnam to take the revenge.  Emmett came back suffering from Post Vietnam War Syndrome.  Irene took care of both Emmett and Sam until she had her second baby and moved to a big city with her new husband.  Sam takes care of Emmett now and “In Country”—a slang for Vietnam—is their story.

KP has even underlined “praise for In country”.  The following are some of those remarks that I kind of agree with.

“ … She (Mason) makes the likable Sam both a headstrong charmer and a thinking and feeling observer who learns what Vietnam cost, and keep on costing (in 1985). It’s a triumphant characterization, and this is probably the year’s best novel.”

“As long as there are people like Sam Hughes intent on keeping the World honest, we all have a chance to learn and grow.”

“ There is a discovery here, and Mason presents with a humanizing tone.  She also writes with a canny feel for conversation and the sense of ordinary life.  She gives us interesting people and and an important message.”

The following are few excerpts that were marked with a circled cross.

“You have to go to college, Sam.  Women can do anything they want to now, just about”.

“You just want me to get out of Hopewell and forget about Emmett, the same way you want me to forget about my daddy,” Sam blurted out.  “You want to pretend the whole Vietnam War never existed, like you want to protect me from something.  I’m not a baby.” She glanced at the baby, who was tugging away obliviously.

A flash of pain hit her mother’s face, and Sam regretted her outburst.  Irene said slowly, “I’ve told you about all there is to tell, Sam.  I was married to him for one month before he left, and I never saw him again.”.

The baby stopped nursing and her head swiveled around.  She looked at Sam curiously.  “I guess she’s not hungry,” Irene said, flopping her breast back in her nightshirt.

“Just look at her.  I was nineteen.  Not much older than you.  Imagine yourself with this little baby.  How would you handle it?  But I can’t live in the past.  It was all such a stupid waste.  There is nothing to remember.”

“Did he know you were going to have me?”

“Oh, sure.  We wrote back and forth.  He knew.”

“Emmett said it was my daddy’s idea to name me Samantha.”

“He liked the name.  I can’t remember exactly how it came up.  It might have been his idea.”

“I still don’t see why never told me.”

“I didn’t think it mattered.”

“Yes, it did.”

The following passage was not marked, but it is relevant here.  Sam found a bundle of letters written by her father.  She found the following in the next-to-last letter.

“I was thinking about what you wanted to name the baby and I really don’t want to name it Darrell.  That was the name of a guy in my outfit who isn’t with us anymore.  I’d feel too unlucky naming my baby Darrell.  Your idea of Melinda Sue reminds me too much of that ugly girl I had to sit by one summer in Vacation Bible School.  And Bill and Bob are too ordinary.  But here is my favorite name: Samuel.  It’s from the Bible.  If it’s a girl, name it Samantha.  …”

The following received the vertical line segment marking from KP.

“Sometimes in the middle of the night it stuck Sam with sudden clarity that she was going to die someday.  Most of the time she forget about this.  But now, as she and Emmett and Mamaw Hughes drive into Washington, where the Vietnam Memorial bears the names of so many who died, the reality of death hits her in broad daylight.”

The following went unmarked.

“Sam climbed the ladder until she is eye level with her father’s name.  She feels funny, touching it.  A scratching on a rock.  Writing.  Something for future archaeologists to puzzle over, clues to a language.”

This is a great novel; It is clean, honest, and error free.  

Now I have to investigate all these mystery markings made by KP just like an archaeologist.