Romancing Vietnam: Inside the Boat Country

New York: Pantheon Books, 1991. First American Edition. Hardcover. very good/fair to good. 464 pages, map, list of dates, some wear and small tears to top and bottom edges of DJ. The author was a graduate of Oxford University who became a novelist, a journalist, and a travel writer. Life in post-war Vietnam, based on the author's travels through Vietnam from 4 October 1989 to 3 January 1990. Originally published in London by Penguin Books, 1991. Vietnam as a country outside the myth of the American imagination, a place other than merely a theater of war, a place other than killing fields. Derived from a Kirkus review: This is a first-person account of an extended jaunt through the Socialist Republic of Vietnam attests by an English travel writer. Journalist Wintle spent the last three months of 1989 on a self-imposed assignment to capture ``the real Vietnam,'' i.e., the Communist-ruled nation whose image, he was convinced, had been indelibly blurred by Hollywood's war films. Despite having traversed the dirt-poor SRV from north to south during the dawn of doi moi (an Asian analogue of perestroika), he was reach a few conclusions. His closely chaperoned contacts with the likes of Le Duc Tho, General Vo Nguyen Giap, and Vu Kyprovided some insights, but not really a coherent, communicable perception of either where the country is heading or what it's about. The author's chronological narrative focuses on the frustrations experienced by a Westerner attempting to deal with a closed society. For most readers, this will go a very long way. A trip that the tour guide's scope sadly leaves him too little space and time to provide additional commentary on an intriguing land.