Book Reviews - The Hard Way Home/ The Grudge by

 

What do you do when you're an American soldier in the Vietnam War and you've been taken prisoner by the enemy, you're fellow country men have left you behind, and the Vietnamese government wants to kill you to save face?  Well, you take The Hard Way Home. Dennis Wesley Clark has created a gripping story of what our service men face as POW's. His book starts out in Vietnam and takes us on a journey across a continent with the brave a group of courageous young men that set out to fight for the freedom of others and democracy only to see those values turned against them. I have read many books - fiction, non-fiction, political, etc. - from that era, but for me this was the first time I have been really given a face, a real person. His characters are fictitious, but he has done such an amazing job of making them three dimensional and real.

In The Hard Way Home, begins with thirteen American POW's and MIA's who have managed to escape their encampments and have started a journey together to make their way back to America. They divide into three groups and formulate three escape plans: one by sea, one to the refuge of Thailand, and one a trek across the Asian and European continent. Not everyone will make it, but each will have to come to terms with their choices. It will be an arduous journey that will span years. For the ones that make it, they will discover the world before their capture has changed in unimaginable ways. How many will survive and will America welcome them home with open arms or scheme to save face at the expense of the soldiers they abandoned.

Clark continues the sage of the men who survived and made it home in The Grudge. It has been decades since the Vietnam POW's returned home and each has come to terms with their past and made a new life. But for one government official, the contempt of being forced to help them create these new lives, has never gone away. Twenty years after he was forced to pay the POW's settlement money, he is retired from public office and decides to exact his revenge. He enlist the aide of his loyal zealots and government connections with the IRS and FBI to attack the men. Being law-abiding citizens and holding to their soldier's code of honor, they are forced to take the defensive to remove this new threat. Is there anyone they can truly trust except each other? Will they be able to isolate this new threat before he destroys the lives they have so carefully rebuilt?

When I first received these two books, I was not sure I was going to like them. I love history, but Vietnam is not my favorite era. I was born during the Vietnam war and raised during a time of peace and excess, so it is not easy for me to relate. I watch movies, read books, see historical documentraies of the time, but have never felt drawn into the the lives of those who lived it. These books changed all that. Clark's way of story telling has you walking along side these men. He has created characters and a journey so strong, that you see what they see and feel what they feel. Because he has woven so many real life facts into these novels, one has to question what is real and what is fiction. Having studied political science in college, and having a little knowledge of what certian government agencies and individuals were involved with during that time, I know that many of the things he writes about actually took place. The names and locations may have been changed but many of the events were real.  The stories are powerful and these books are gripping page turners that take you through the gamet of emotions. They are a great read for anyone, but with Christmas just around the corner, they would make a wonderful gift for the men in your lives. Definitely 4.5 out of five medals of honor.

*These books were provided by the author.