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Saigon
An epic saga of twentieth-century Vietnam hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “the War and Peace of our age”
Joseph Sherman first visits Saigon, the capital of French colonial Cochin-China, in 1925 on a hunting expedition with his father, a US senator. He is lured back again and again as a traveler, a soldier, and then as a reporter by his fascination for the exotic land and for Lan, a mandarin’s daughter he cannot forget.
Over five decades Joseph’s life becomes enmeshed with the political intrigues of two of Saigon’s most influential families, the French colonist Devrauxs, and the native Trans—and inevitably with Vietnam’s turbulent, wartorn fate. He is there when the hatred of a million coolies rises against the French, and when the French Foreign Legion fights its bloody last stand at Dien Bien Phu. He sees US military “advisors” fire their first shots in America’s hopeless war against the red tide of Communist revolution and tries to salvage something of lasting value on a desperate helicopter flight out of defeated Saigon.
At once a story of adventure, love, war, and political power, Saigon presents an enthralling and enlightening depiction of twentieth-century Vietnam.
Joseph Sherman first visits Saigon, the capital of French colonial Cochin-China, in 1925 on a hunting expedition with his father, a US senator. He is lured back again and again as a traveler, a soldier, and then as a reporter by his fascination for the exotic land and for Lan, a mandarin’s daughter he cannot forget.
Over five decades Joseph’s life becomes enmeshed with the political intrigues of two of Saigon’s most influential families, the French colonist Devrauxs, and the native Trans—and inevitably with Vietnam’s turbulent, wartorn fate. He is there when the hatred of a million coolies rises against the French, and when the French Foreign Legion fights its bloody last stand at Dien Bien Phu. He sees US military “advisors” fire their first shots in America’s hopeless war against the red tide of Communist revolution and tries to salvage something of lasting value on a desperate helicopter flight out of defeated Saigon.
At once a story of adventure, love, war, and political power, Saigon presents an enthralling and enlightening depiction of twentieth-century Vietnam.
781 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 17, 1982
915 people are currently reading
2200 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Grey
35 books54 followersAnthony Grey OBE is a British journalist and author. As a journalist for Reuters he was detained for 27 months in China from 1967 to 1969. He has written a series of novels and non-fiction books, including several relating to his detention.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 216 reviews
May 20, 2016
I have read many, many novels about the Vietnam war and most are written from a US perspective, generally anti-war and about the experiences of the young American G.I.'s thrust into a violent, alien world in the 1960's. This is the first one I have read that gives a proper overview of the whole tragic conflict over a period of 50 years. The English author takes us from the roots of the eventual disastrous US misadventure with the brutality of the colonial French towards the as then called Annamese, through the struggles of the nascent revolutionaries to overthrow the French, taking in the 2nd World War when Vichy France handed the country over to its ally Japan, the post war period when Britain connived to enable the French to remain in power, the eventual humiliating defeat and overthrow of the French and the subsequent infamous direct Cold War involvement of the US with the indirect involvement of China and the Soviet Union. The conflict is personalised around the main character of Joseph Sherman, the son of a US senator, who first visits Vietnam as a 15 year old boy in 1923. In that first visit he meets the Devraux, a colonial French family, a peasant Annamese family who work for the Devraux and also a mandarin Annamese family who owe their position to their collaboration with the French. These families, their children and grandchildren form the thread around which the author weaves his dramatic tale. The novel is generally written from no country's particular political perspective and this was the key thing for me. Written in 1982, yes it is eventually anti-war, but the French, British, Japanese, Americans, North Vietnamese revolutionaries and all the various South Vietnamese regimes are ultimately all portrayed as seriously, seriously flawed. The domestic stories of the various families, though at times a little tenuous, are interesting enough but it is the backdrop of the political and military struggle, and the unfolding overall tragedy that that kept me turning the pages.
March 20, 2017
This is cinematic, cheap, tawdry romance. I have quit after eleven chapters, that is to say 3.5 hours of the total 35hrs and 4 minutes. I cannot bear another minute. It is actually possible for me to not finish a book. Yay, Chrissie!
Within these first chapters the wife of an American senator has in sexual ecstasy thrown herself upon their French hunting guide who has just forced himself upon the wife of his Vietnamese employee. The chapter before, the fifteen year old son of the American senator and wife lost his virginity with a Vietnamese native. Oh my....I am enthralled. I hope you hear my sarcasm.
It starts by telling us that many Americans didn't know why they had come to fight in Vietnam. The point of this book was supposedly to explain that. Excuse my French, but this is pure bullshit.
The characters are two-dimensional and the plot predictable.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the audiobook's narration by Gordon Griffin.
I recommend this only to those who are looking for a soap opera with a large dose of "romance".
Within these first chapters the wife of an American senator has in sexual ecstasy thrown herself upon their French hunting guide who has just forced himself upon the wife of his Vietnamese employee. The chapter before, the fifteen year old son of the American senator and wife lost his virginity with a Vietnamese native. Oh my....I am enthralled. I hope you hear my sarcasm.
It starts by telling us that many Americans didn't know why they had come to fight in Vietnam. The point of this book was supposedly to explain that. Excuse my French, but this is pure bullshit.
The characters are two-dimensional and the plot predictable.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the audiobook's narration by Gordon Griffin.
I recommend this only to those who are looking for a soap opera with a large dose of "romance".
September 25, 2019
This book is dusturbing, gripping, and exciting at the same time, the authors show cases his writing talents with such a fascinating book, the story line, is influenced by the true events of war in Vietnam, when reading the book, you quickly fall into the story and get absorbed by the environment which the story is based in (the writers ability pulls you deep into the story), I came across this book by chance in a local charity shop, and now I will certainly be reading more books from this talented author the characters in the story are well defined, with their personality translated from the pages into the readers mind. Such an interesting book, story, really like it, I was attracted to the book by the cover in the 1st instance, but the quality inside passes the quality of the book cover. Really well worth reading, added to my favourites list.
May 30, 2014
I graduated from high school in 1965 so Vietnam was part of my young adult life. I associated it with a callous group of people that killed and maimed my friends and family in an undeclared war. Reading this book has enlightened me on who the people and culture of this country really were and their years of oppression that ultimately created this conflict and the role our own government played. I was a war protester then and I still hate wars that take the youngest and best of any country but there is always a second side to most conflicts. A very long read but worth it for me.
February 6, 2017
I very seldom give five starts to a novel in which the writing is not exquisite - - and Anthony Grey's writing is very good, but not outstanding. However, the scope of the novel and the history it portrayed (and taught me - - and I thought I knew a lot about Vietnam!) were overwhelmingly satsifying to me. The characters are very well drawn (and, yes, I know there are some unlikely intersections of characters, but I got over it) and the scenes and landscape are vivid. Of course this book is about war, and the brutality is, rightly, there as well. This novel showed all aspects and sides of the Vietnam war. I recommend it.
January 5, 2016
I'm not sure how to go about writing a review of such a complex, involved book (which was originally written in 1982, not 2012, as this record indicates). I am astounded by the amount of research and planning that must have gone into writing this book. When I started reading Saigon, I was expecting to read an account of the Vietnam War. I didn't know what I was getting into beyond that. The book actually spans from 1925-1975, providing context for the war and American involvement far beyond what I ever learned in history class, or (according to the book) beyond what Americans of the time understood about Vietnam as well.
The story is told through the lives of members of four families over three generations: the French Devrauxs, the American Shermans, and the Vietnamese Trans and Ngos, who all become acquainted with each other in the 1920s, and whose lives become intertwined over the next 50 turbulent and often tragic years. The characters themselves seem a little uninteresting at times, but I think this actually works in the book's favor, as the character's interpersonal relationships serve more to provide a backdrop for historical events than to drive the plot of the book.
Though the story spans various conflicts including French colonialism, World War Two, and the Vietnam War, these individual conflicts read as a single decades-long struggle for Vietnamese independence. Through the generations of the four fictional families, we see how nationalism, prejudice, hatred, loyalty, fear, love, etc, can be passed down from generation to generation, motivating actions, affecting familial relationships, and escalating conflict on all sides.
This is a long and somewhat arduous read, but it's well worth it. This book would be appreciated by anyone who wants to gain a full, contextual understanding of the effects of colonialism, American foreign policy, and American involvement in the Vietnam War.
The story is told through the lives of members of four families over three generations: the French Devrauxs, the American Shermans, and the Vietnamese Trans and Ngos, who all become acquainted with each other in the 1920s, and whose lives become intertwined over the next 50 turbulent and often tragic years. The characters themselves seem a little uninteresting at times, but I think this actually works in the book's favor, as the character's interpersonal relationships serve more to provide a backdrop for historical events than to drive the plot of the book.
Though the story spans various conflicts including French colonialism, World War Two, and the Vietnam War, these individual conflicts read as a single decades-long struggle for Vietnamese independence. Through the generations of the four fictional families, we see how nationalism, prejudice, hatred, loyalty, fear, love, etc, can be passed down from generation to generation, motivating actions, affecting familial relationships, and escalating conflict on all sides.
This is a long and somewhat arduous read, but it's well worth it. This book would be appreciated by anyone who wants to gain a full, contextual understanding of the effects of colonialism, American foreign policy, and American involvement in the Vietnam War.
September 23, 2019
Ở VN, cuốn này được dịch thành 4 tập. Mình đọc được tập 3, Sài Gòn - Bùn pha sắc xám.
Nhìn chung thì truyện kể không có gì đặc sắc, nhiều chi tiết hơi khiên cưỡng, lắm drama, nhiều kịch tính, sex cũng có, nhưng siêu nhẹ, nhân vật chưa kịp mần gì đã next qua cảnh khác...
Được cái, đọc mới thấy hồi xưa VN giỏi ghê, và mất mát cũng nhiều ~~ Không khí trong truyện quăng mình vào một cuộc chiến tranh mà bên nào cũng cho là mình đúng, đến khi sai lè ra đấy lại ngó lơ. Truyện thích hợp để hiểu thêm về lịch sử một thời, mà chắc là chỉ có tính giải trí là chính, chứ nhiều cái bịa rõ =,= Cụ thể là đoạn dưới, đọc mà rùng cả mình...
"Thật tình thì đây là một nỗi dày vò không bao giờ nguôi được, bởi vì trước ngày xảy ra chuyện kinh hoàng này, tôi và nàng cùng chung quyết định, là chúng tôi cùng quyết hy sinh từ bỏ hết mọi nỗi vui thú của xác thịt để cùng chung lo cho tổ quốc. Tôi thường lo sợ các thú vui xác thịt sẽ làm cho tôi phí đi sức lực để lo cho việc chung. Vì thế, để tận tâm hết mình với lý tưởng cách mạng, tôi đã dùng dao cắt bỏ đi phần xác thịt mà tôi nghĩ rằng nó sẽ là động lực gây ra nhiều việc vô ích và riêng tư."
Nhìn chung thì truyện kể không có gì đặc sắc, nhiều chi tiết hơi khiên cưỡng, lắm drama, nhiều kịch tính, sex cũng có, nhưng siêu nhẹ, nhân vật chưa kịp mần gì đã next qua cảnh khác...
Được cái, đọc mới thấy hồi xưa VN giỏi ghê, và mất mát cũng nhiều ~~ Không khí trong truyện quăng mình vào một cuộc chiến tranh mà bên nào cũng cho là mình đúng, đến khi sai lè ra đấy lại ngó lơ. Truyện thích hợp để hiểu thêm về lịch sử một thời, mà chắc là chỉ có tính giải trí là chính, chứ nhiều cái bịa rõ =,= Cụ thể là đoạn dưới, đọc mà rùng cả mình...
"Thật tình thì đây là một nỗi dày vò không bao giờ nguôi được, bởi vì trước ngày xảy ra chuyện kinh hoàng này, tôi và nàng cùng chung quyết định, là chúng tôi cùng quyết hy sinh từ bỏ hết mọi nỗi vui thú của xác thịt để cùng chung lo cho tổ quốc. Tôi thường lo sợ các thú vui xác thịt sẽ làm cho tôi phí đi sức lực để lo cho việc chung. Vì thế, để tận tâm hết mình với lý tưởng cách mạng, tôi đã dùng dao cắt bỏ đi phần xác thịt mà tôi nghĩ rằng nó sẽ là động lực gây ra nhiều việc vô ích và riêng tư."
September 12, 2015
First of all, I have to admit that I knew little to nothing about Vietnamese history before I started reading this book. I'd heard of the infamous Viet Cong and knew bits and pieces about the Vietnam war, but that's about it. Vietnam was never a country I found particularly interesting before. But since I'm always interested in books about South East Asia and recent world history, I decided to give this book a try anyway.
And I'm so glad I did! "Saigon" is a truly epic masterpiece the like of which you only very rarely encounter. Though I can't judge whether this is "the War and Peace of our age" since I've never read "War and Peace".
"Saigon" moved me deeply. I was at turns shocked, utterly horrified, incredibly furious, saddened to no end, but also completely and absolutely fascinated and intrigued. More than once I had tears in my eyes and I often had to stop reading for a moment or two to get my feelings under control.
Anthony Grey managed to portray his protagonists' feelings in a way that made me feel their sorrows as deeply as their joys.
The author didn't gloss over anything here. For the most part of the novel Vietnam was at war. Hence there was murder, rape, torture, lots and lots of violence and incredible suffering. What was happening was always obvious, at times also very explicit, and yet Anthony Grey never crossed the line from violence to gore, it was never excessive.
The plot was a perfect mix of historic events and personal destinies, which got me hooked immediately. I could hardly stop reading and I was utterly fascinated till the very last sentence and was sad to see the story end. I found it incredibly intriguing to watch the impact of the historic events on the protagonists' lives.
The protagonists and their destinies are fiction. At the end of the book, Anthony Grey talks about his years of research for this book and his conversations with various experts on Vietnamese history. Now, I can't judge how successfull the research was, but I always felt like the author knew what he was writing about.
Grey's style of writing is definitely sophisticated but it never felt jarring.
I don't think you need any previous knowledge to enjoy this book. Before every new part of the book the author gives a brief summary of what happened between the end and the beginning of the new part. That was very helpful and there was no need for lengthy interruptions of the plot to explain the historic facts. Well done!
Especially in the first part of the book, when Vietnam was still the French colony Annam, there were a lot of French phrases and sentences that weren't translated. Thanks to my somewhat pathetical French I understood most of them, but I still found it a little jarring. Luckily, as the plot moved on, less and less of these French phrases showed up.
A little help with pronouncing the Vietnamese names and words would have been nice as well. I don't speak a single word of Vietnamese, so I always had to guess the pronounciation, which I hate doing.
Other than that, I would've liked a little epilogue on the situation in Vietnam today. That might not have been necessary when the book was first published in 1982, since that was only a few years after the plot ended, but now it's been over 35 years and I'm sure a lot has happened since.
To sum it up, "Saigon" is a truly epic work that doesn't require any previous knowledge about Vietnam. I haven't read many books that managed to touch me and intrigue me so completely. A book for everybody that's interested in contemporary history. You don't need to be a huge fan of Vietnam to enjoy this book!
This was definitely one of the best books I've read this year. Consequently, I just have to give this novel a full five stars. A real must read!
And I'm so glad I did! "Saigon" is a truly epic masterpiece the like of which you only very rarely encounter. Though I can't judge whether this is "the War and Peace of our age" since I've never read "War and Peace".
"Saigon" moved me deeply. I was at turns shocked, utterly horrified, incredibly furious, saddened to no end, but also completely and absolutely fascinated and intrigued. More than once I had tears in my eyes and I often had to stop reading for a moment or two to get my feelings under control.
Anthony Grey managed to portray his protagonists' feelings in a way that made me feel their sorrows as deeply as their joys.
The author didn't gloss over anything here. For the most part of the novel Vietnam was at war. Hence there was murder, rape, torture, lots and lots of violence and incredible suffering. What was happening was always obvious, at times also very explicit, and yet Anthony Grey never crossed the line from violence to gore, it was never excessive.
The plot was a perfect mix of historic events and personal destinies, which got me hooked immediately. I could hardly stop reading and I was utterly fascinated till the very last sentence and was sad to see the story end. I found it incredibly intriguing to watch the impact of the historic events on the protagonists' lives.
The protagonists and their destinies are fiction. At the end of the book, Anthony Grey talks about his years of research for this book and his conversations with various experts on Vietnamese history. Now, I can't judge how successfull the research was, but I always felt like the author knew what he was writing about.
Grey's style of writing is definitely sophisticated but it never felt jarring.
I don't think you need any previous knowledge to enjoy this book. Before every new part of the book the author gives a brief summary of what happened between the end and the beginning of the new part. That was very helpful and there was no need for lengthy interruptions of the plot to explain the historic facts. Well done!
Especially in the first part of the book, when Vietnam was still the French colony Annam, there were a lot of French phrases and sentences that weren't translated. Thanks to my somewhat pathetical French I understood most of them, but I still found it a little jarring. Luckily, as the plot moved on, less and less of these French phrases showed up.
A little help with pronouncing the Vietnamese names and words would have been nice as well. I don't speak a single word of Vietnamese, so I always had to guess the pronounciation, which I hate doing.
Other than that, I would've liked a little epilogue on the situation in Vietnam today. That might not have been necessary when the book was first published in 1982, since that was only a few years after the plot ended, but now it's been over 35 years and I'm sure a lot has happened since.
To sum it up, "Saigon" is a truly epic work that doesn't require any previous knowledge about Vietnam. I haven't read many books that managed to touch me and intrigue me so completely. A book for everybody that's interested in contemporary history. You don't need to be a huge fan of Vietnam to enjoy this book!
This was definitely one of the best books I've read this year. Consequently, I just have to give this novel a full five stars. A real must read!
February 2, 2021
A very good historical novel that covers a French family, a US family, 2 Vietnamese families and a host of historical characters in Viet Nam from the 1920's to the fall of Saigon.
August 15, 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This lengthy novel (750 pgs) was published in 1982. It chronicles the history of Vietnam from 1925 until that final airlift closing out the US involvement in the Vietnam War in April 1975 when Saigon fell to Communist forces. The fictional part follows three families, one American, one French, and one Vietnamese.
The Vietnam War was hovering in the background during my late teenage and early twenties years. My hubby would have had to go if he didn’t end up so lucky with the lottery draft. I knew and remembered some of this history, but learned so much more from reading this book. The descriptions of battles and abuse and torture of prisoners makes this a book NOT for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, I enjoyed learning more about all the aspects, points of view, and causes of the Vietnam War.
The 52 Club Reading Challenge - 2023
Prompt #7 - a city or country name in the title
This lengthy novel (750 pgs) was published in 1982. It chronicles the history of Vietnam from 1925 until that final airlift closing out the US involvement in the Vietnam War in April 1975 when Saigon fell to Communist forces. The fictional part follows three families, one American, one French, and one Vietnamese.
The Vietnam War was hovering in the background during my late teenage and early twenties years. My hubby would have had to go if he didn’t end up so lucky with the lottery draft. I knew and remembered some of this history, but learned so much more from reading this book. The descriptions of battles and abuse and torture of prisoners makes this a book NOT for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, I enjoyed learning more about all the aspects, points of view, and causes of the Vietnam War.
The 52 Club Reading Challenge - 2023
Prompt #7 - a city or country name in the title
June 30, 2016
All the reviews I saw of Anthony Grey's Saigon raved about its being America's version of Tolstoy's War and Peace, or a more academic version of one of James Michner's novels. I am not convinced. But it has other values that make it laudable.
The novel has, as its centerpiece, one James Sherman, son of Virginia senator Nathaniel Sherman, and tells the story of his and two other families' interweaving stories, all revolving around Saigon and Vietnam in total. Sherman falls in love with a Vietnamese girl only to lose her to familial politics; his Western family is all but consumed by the war and various ripple effects of the French and American occupations, and a Vietnamese family suffers its own losses, betrayals and conflicts out of the same factors. The book starts with a hunting expedition in 1925, in which all three families are present, but as the book progresses through two wars and years of bloody, senseless violence, Sherman sort of takes center stage, right up until the end, with the fall of the city and the much-referenced helicopter evacuation of the embassy.
Grey's strengths in this narrative rely on plot and progression, as well as fidelity to the historical record. Not that I would know anything firsthand, of course, but his depictions of pivotal events and scenes like the French colonial occupation of the early 20th century, the battle at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, or most particularly the fall of Saigon are clearly based off meticulous research, and his imagery largely succeeds in delivering vivid pictures and sensations of the country, both at its most idyllic and most tortured. His book shines a light on the more sordid and overlooked aspects of our and the West's overall effect on this peasant country that the more mainstream pop culture has tended to overlook.
But the novel suffers from ineffective characterization. The Western figures, for example, are either gallingly shallow or outright caricatures (Grey throws around the word "coolie" enough to make me cringe, as if his reference to the Japanese Army as the "Imperial Nipponese Army" wasn't bad enough). Sherman "falls in love" with Lan, the Vietnamese woman whose beauty will consume him, but to my eyes, Grey doesn't depict her as anything more than every white man's supposed fantasy about Asian women: she's meek yet strong, delicate yet enduring, and Sherman doesn't seem to discover anything substantial about her character for hundreds of pages, though he does rave about her beauty enough.
(Full disclosure: I am a white guy married to a Korean woman who, by any objective standard, is ravishing, although she's as far from "docile" as you can get. Sorry, honey! Don't beat me up.)
For example, when Lan loses a bracelet in the Perfumed River of Hanoi, Sherman manages to wade into the water and retrieve it. What a Galahad! And as if that weren't enough, he uses his Herculean achievement as an opportunity to rave to her about the ardor that led him to such a stunning success in cringe-worthy adolescent diction:
I know I've seen this scene before. In every movie or novel with an East Meets West Vietnam romantic scene. Ever.
This kind of pubescent rhapsodizing isn't much better than what Grey serves up with other aspects of his characters. Joseph debates his hawkish father and brother spouting lines that sound like George Lucas wrote them, and even the Vietnamese characters lapse into heavy exposition in places.
But the story itself is enough to keep one engrossed. We get the brutal French exploitation of Ammanese workers. We get a fly-on-the-wall perspective of the removal of South Vietnamese President Diem in a CIA- and State Department-supported coup, as well as the power struggle between Diem and his brother. We see the appalling self-mutilation of militant Dao Va Lat and his subsequent activism and eventual incarceration, and begin to understand the fervor with which the Vietnamese fought their occupation a bit more clearly. We see the tunnels of the Viet Cong and bear witness to their methods; we march with GIs and bear witness to theirs. We see American intel and Vietnamese interrogation side by side (torture, betrayal, spying, bitter recriminations, murder, et al), with predictably chilling results, and this juxtaposition, coming on top of such deep and informed historical perspective, makes it impossible not to see the war through the eyes of the Vietnamese first and foremost.
Doubtless this was the author's effect. Not a stunning observation I'm making here, I know, but I still wind up in the odd debate over the U.S. role in this country, and "historical perspective" is still scorned much more than I think it should be at this point. Grey doesn't come off as biased or judgmental, but his thesis (if this novel could be said to have one) seems, to me, indisputable: American never really knew what the hell it was doing in Vietnam because it didn't know Vietnam. The broad historical tapestry upon which Grey weaves his characters' stories is what really makes the book worth reading, and as proxies for the country itself, you really want to see what happens to these characters.
Most of it is bad. But then, if we're shooting for realism when it comes to Indochina in the 20th century, what else should we expect?
The novel has, as its centerpiece, one James Sherman, son of Virginia senator Nathaniel Sherman, and tells the story of his and two other families' interweaving stories, all revolving around Saigon and Vietnam in total. Sherman falls in love with a Vietnamese girl only to lose her to familial politics; his Western family is all but consumed by the war and various ripple effects of the French and American occupations, and a Vietnamese family suffers its own losses, betrayals and conflicts out of the same factors. The book starts with a hunting expedition in 1925, in which all three families are present, but as the book progresses through two wars and years of bloody, senseless violence, Sherman sort of takes center stage, right up until the end, with the fall of the city and the much-referenced helicopter evacuation of the embassy.
Grey's strengths in this narrative rely on plot and progression, as well as fidelity to the historical record. Not that I would know anything firsthand, of course, but his depictions of pivotal events and scenes like the French colonial occupation of the early 20th century, the battle at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, or most particularly the fall of Saigon are clearly based off meticulous research, and his imagery largely succeeds in delivering vivid pictures and sensations of the country, both at its most idyllic and most tortured. His book shines a light on the more sordid and overlooked aspects of our and the West's overall effect on this peasant country that the more mainstream pop culture has tended to overlook.
But the novel suffers from ineffective characterization. The Western figures, for example, are either gallingly shallow or outright caricatures (Grey throws around the word "coolie" enough to make me cringe, as if his reference to the Japanese Army as the "Imperial Nipponese Army" wasn't bad enough). Sherman "falls in love" with Lan, the Vietnamese woman whose beauty will consume him, but to my eyes, Grey doesn't depict her as anything more than every white man's supposed fantasy about Asian women: she's meek yet strong, delicate yet enduring, and Sherman doesn't seem to discover anything substantial about her character for hundreds of pages, though he does rave about her beauty enough.
(Full disclosure: I am a white guy married to a Korean woman who, by any objective standard, is ravishing, although she's as far from "docile" as you can get. Sorry, honey! Don't beat me up.)
For example, when Lan loses a bracelet in the Perfumed River of Hanoi, Sherman manages to wade into the water and retrieve it. What a Galahad! And as if that weren't enough, he uses his Herculean achievement as an opportunity to rave to her about the ardor that led him to such a stunning success in cringe-worthy adolescent diction:
Joseph felt the familiar breathless sensation constrict his throat, and he took hold of her hand suddenly and pressed it to his lips: "I did it because I love you, Lan! I love you very much. I knew the moment I saw you praying at the tomb--you're so pure and good, so beautiful. I want to be with you always--to protect you and take care of you. I never want to leave your side."...To his surprise, she said nothing; he thought he felt her body tremble once, then she detached her hand gently from his grasp and half turned away to steady herself with one hand against the larch tree.
"I feel a little dizzy, Joseph," she said softly, pressing her other wrist against her brow in a little gesture of distress. "Perhaps it's all that incense..."
I know I've seen this scene before. In every movie or novel with an East Meets West Vietnam romantic scene. Ever.
This kind of pubescent rhapsodizing isn't much better than what Grey serves up with other aspects of his characters. Joseph debates his hawkish father and brother spouting lines that sound like George Lucas wrote them, and even the Vietnamese characters lapse into heavy exposition in places.
But the story itself is enough to keep one engrossed. We get the brutal French exploitation of Ammanese workers. We get a fly-on-the-wall perspective of the removal of South Vietnamese President Diem in a CIA- and State Department-supported coup, as well as the power struggle between Diem and his brother. We see the appalling self-mutilation of militant Dao Va Lat and his subsequent activism and eventual incarceration, and begin to understand the fervor with which the Vietnamese fought their occupation a bit more clearly. We see the tunnels of the Viet Cong and bear witness to their methods; we march with GIs and bear witness to theirs. We see American intel and Vietnamese interrogation side by side (torture, betrayal, spying, bitter recriminations, murder, et al), with predictably chilling results, and this juxtaposition, coming on top of such deep and informed historical perspective, makes it impossible not to see the war through the eyes of the Vietnamese first and foremost.
Doubtless this was the author's effect. Not a stunning observation I'm making here, I know, but I still wind up in the odd debate over the U.S. role in this country, and "historical perspective" is still scorned much more than I think it should be at this point. Grey doesn't come off as biased or judgmental, but his thesis (if this novel could be said to have one) seems, to me, indisputable: American never really knew what the hell it was doing in Vietnam because it didn't know Vietnam. The broad historical tapestry upon which Grey weaves his characters' stories is what really makes the book worth reading, and as proxies for the country itself, you really want to see what happens to these characters.
Most of it is bad. But then, if we're shooting for realism when it comes to Indochina in the 20th century, what else should we expect?
December 16, 2022
Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam, written by the talented author Anthony Grey, is a fascinating historical fiction novel, deeply inspired by true events though embellished to tell a story, to give explanation to the war many people today still do not understand the true reasons behind. I, personally, found this book very enlightening and even though at times it was deeply disturbing, I greatly enjoyed reading it. It shows a great deal of perspective, from all sides, the French, the Americans, the Chinese, and of course the Annamese (Vietnamese), as unbiasedly as possible. If I may, here is the backdrop leading up to the point where the story of Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam takes place...
Originally called Nam Viet, or the Land of the Southern Viet People, the country became An Nam, by the conquering Chinese nation, meaning The Pacified South. For many centuries the Chinese occupied An Nam, calling it’s people the Annamese. During these eleven centuries, the people of An Nam absorbed much of Chinese culture, philosophy and religious beliefs and teachings. Eventually, they became an independent nation again with the collapse of the Tang Dynasty. Afterwards, the nation resisted future invasions from the Mongols, and quite a few Chinese emperors seeking to rule over them, but they could not fight off powerful European troops, and at last fell under French dominion.
The French were seeking to create the French Indochinese Union. They ruled the colony with an iron fist, governed the Annamese people as if they were property, created plantations in order to export valuable resources such as rubber, rice and coal back to Europe. For years this exploitation of the An Nam people and its freedom and national resources was left unchecked. All the while, the French openly claimed to the world, that they were on a "mission civilisatrice", a mission to civilize the uncivilized, and claimed to be there to help, educate and protect the defenseless country. Saigon is the city with which our story begins, the booming coastal city teeming with life and trade, in the year 1925...
"Vietnam's heady tropical landscape captivates fifteen-year-old Joseph Sherman on a hunting expedition to French colonial Saigon with his family in 1925. He is lured back again and again by his enduring fascination for the country and for Lan, a beautiful Vietnamese mandarin's daughter he could never forget. Over five haunting decades Joseph's life becomes deeply enmeshed with Vietnam's turbulent, war-torn fate - until he attempts to salvage something of lasting value during the final desperate helicopter scramble to flee defeated Saigon.
First published in 1982, it has stood the test of time as critics predicted, and is now providing a new generation of readers with insights into that historic conflict - and its tragic echoes in Iraq. It has since become a bestseller in 15 countries and in eight other languages." -Book Blurb
Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam was really informative, richly painted, epic tome of a novel. It is in no way light reading however, as it is nearly one thousand pages long. I think my copy has roughly 980 pages. While this book is a fascinating, beguiling, and very distressing read, (as well as being well written) it also has its downfalls. In the minds of some, this book focuses too much on overly dramatized themes, such as the cliché romance aspect where Joseph "falls in love" with an Annamese girl simply because of her beauty, charm and soft-spoken manner. Of course, some may argue there is a pure love between them but frankly he knows nothing of her personally or her heart. In fact, he knows her a mere few days before confessing his undying love for her. There is no two ways around it being a love at first sight, sappy, mushy, puppy-kinda-love. So, yes, there is definitely drama, but I feel it was meant to add realism and warmth to an otherwise dry history book.
The same goes for the scenes of brutality, torture, rape and war descriptions, while in a different regard. While those things certainly happened, we are allowed to know some of the victims of such tragedies and therefore feel for them more deeply. Most of the violent, sexual, hateful things portrayed are for illuminations sake only, to portray scenarios that very likely happened, which sparked rebellions and led to the war.
There were only a few minor aspects, such as the incident between Mrs. Sherman and Captain Devraux for example, and Dao Van Lat’s scene of self-inflicted body mutilation, that I felt could have been toned down or left out or at least not focused on so much. There were a few such scenes that really didn’t seem to belong. That might give a book a feeling of gratuitous, melodrama when for the most part, it is far from that.
I think the story of Saigon really captured me because of the rich culture, history, and vivid portrayal of the people of An Nam, now turned Viet Nam. The landscapes, scenes and images are so poignantly described as to leave lasting impressions with the reader. Some readers might feel as though no one character is truly the main character of this book, or that the characters are not really relatable enough, however vividly portrayed or described. It is, indeed, difficult to feel a strong connection to many of the characters in this novel. The characters may feel secondary to the overall story. But....
That very aspect allows me to make this point. Viet Nam is the true main character. Viet Nam is the heart and soul of this book, or is meant to be the primary focus. The character of Viet Nam itself, as a nation, however complex or flawed, is the character with which we are intended to relate to and to understand. That is my personal impression after reading this novel.
An Nam, later turned Viet Nam, and its people is what makes this book a powerful read. Their many struggles and hardships brings light onto a topic none seem to remember or speak of. So for the book being so firmly based in history and the authors devotion to enlighten the world on the mysteries surrounding the subject, I greatly appreciated this book. For those things alone, it is worth the read. But I would highly recommend this to readers with slightly stronger stomachs, who are interested in Vietnamese history, and the Vietnam war. I would recommend this for mature readers, however.
[CONTENT & TRIGGER WARNING BELOW...]
[OFFICIAL RATING: 4.5 STARS]
[CONTENT NOTE: Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam contains quite a bit of graphic disturbing content such as violence and abuse, disturbing war scenes, racism and aryan idealism, slavery, child cruelty, torture, dark sexual situations, graphic animal abuse/murder (graphic descriptions of hunting and the killing of animals, as well as a graphic portrayal of taxidermy preparation, skinning, tanning which was described vividly) underage sexual encounter and prostitution (two young boys, while intoxicated with a potent drink, use rural Annamese girls for sex, one losing his virginity. They technically pay for them. The scene is brief but fairly detailed.) voyeurism, adultery (a main female character has graphic relations with a French Captain after she witnesses him raping a married Annamese woman, and her child overhears their heated encounter. The scene is pretty detailed and extended.) a few other scenes of rape (later another french guard rapes a young Annamese girl that he forces to live with him as a mistress) genital/body mutilation (an Annamese man, after a scene of lovemaking, presumably castrates himself and passes out from the pain. The scene is shocking and happens suddenly but is not overly described) There is a love scene between the main character and an Annamese/Mandarin girl, but is more tender than explicit, and is fairly brief. He intends to marry her. There are many descriptions of gore, disturbing depictions of violent war scenes, many of the torture scenes are very vivid etc. as well as mentions of alcohol, betel chewing and smoking.]
Originally called Nam Viet, or the Land of the Southern Viet People, the country became An Nam, by the conquering Chinese nation, meaning The Pacified South. For many centuries the Chinese occupied An Nam, calling it’s people the Annamese. During these eleven centuries, the people of An Nam absorbed much of Chinese culture, philosophy and religious beliefs and teachings. Eventually, they became an independent nation again with the collapse of the Tang Dynasty. Afterwards, the nation resisted future invasions from the Mongols, and quite a few Chinese emperors seeking to rule over them, but they could not fight off powerful European troops, and at last fell under French dominion.
The French were seeking to create the French Indochinese Union. They ruled the colony with an iron fist, governed the Annamese people as if they were property, created plantations in order to export valuable resources such as rubber, rice and coal back to Europe. For years this exploitation of the An Nam people and its freedom and national resources was left unchecked. All the while, the French openly claimed to the world, that they were on a "mission civilisatrice", a mission to civilize the uncivilized, and claimed to be there to help, educate and protect the defenseless country. Saigon is the city with which our story begins, the booming coastal city teeming with life and trade, in the year 1925...
"Vietnam's heady tropical landscape captivates fifteen-year-old Joseph Sherman on a hunting expedition to French colonial Saigon with his family in 1925. He is lured back again and again by his enduring fascination for the country and for Lan, a beautiful Vietnamese mandarin's daughter he could never forget. Over five haunting decades Joseph's life becomes deeply enmeshed with Vietnam's turbulent, war-torn fate - until he attempts to salvage something of lasting value during the final desperate helicopter scramble to flee defeated Saigon.
First published in 1982, it has stood the test of time as critics predicted, and is now providing a new generation of readers with insights into that historic conflict - and its tragic echoes in Iraq. It has since become a bestseller in 15 countries and in eight other languages." -Book Blurb
Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam was really informative, richly painted, epic tome of a novel. It is in no way light reading however, as it is nearly one thousand pages long. I think my copy has roughly 980 pages. While this book is a fascinating, beguiling, and very distressing read, (as well as being well written) it also has its downfalls. In the minds of some, this book focuses too much on overly dramatized themes, such as the cliché romance aspect where Joseph "falls in love" with an Annamese girl simply because of her beauty, charm and soft-spoken manner. Of course, some may argue there is a pure love between them but frankly he knows nothing of her personally or her heart. In fact, he knows her a mere few days before confessing his undying love for her. There is no two ways around it being a love at first sight, sappy, mushy, puppy-kinda-love. So, yes, there is definitely drama, but I feel it was meant to add realism and warmth to an otherwise dry history book.
The same goes for the scenes of brutality, torture, rape and war descriptions, while in a different regard. While those things certainly happened, we are allowed to know some of the victims of such tragedies and therefore feel for them more deeply. Most of the violent, sexual, hateful things portrayed are for illuminations sake only, to portray scenarios that very likely happened, which sparked rebellions and led to the war.
There were only a few minor aspects, such as the incident between Mrs. Sherman and Captain Devraux for example, and Dao Van Lat’s scene of self-inflicted body mutilation, that I felt could have been toned down or left out or at least not focused on so much. There were a few such scenes that really didn’t seem to belong. That might give a book a feeling of gratuitous, melodrama when for the most part, it is far from that.
I think the story of Saigon really captured me because of the rich culture, history, and vivid portrayal of the people of An Nam, now turned Viet Nam. The landscapes, scenes and images are so poignantly described as to leave lasting impressions with the reader. Some readers might feel as though no one character is truly the main character of this book, or that the characters are not really relatable enough, however vividly portrayed or described. It is, indeed, difficult to feel a strong connection to many of the characters in this novel. The characters may feel secondary to the overall story. But....
That very aspect allows me to make this point. Viet Nam is the true main character. Viet Nam is the heart and soul of this book, or is meant to be the primary focus. The character of Viet Nam itself, as a nation, however complex or flawed, is the character with which we are intended to relate to and to understand. That is my personal impression after reading this novel.
An Nam, later turned Viet Nam, and its people is what makes this book a powerful read. Their many struggles and hardships brings light onto a topic none seem to remember or speak of. So for the book being so firmly based in history and the authors devotion to enlighten the world on the mysteries surrounding the subject, I greatly appreciated this book. For those things alone, it is worth the read. But I would highly recommend this to readers with slightly stronger stomachs, who are interested in Vietnamese history, and the Vietnam war. I would recommend this for mature readers, however.
[CONTENT & TRIGGER WARNING BELOW...]
[OFFICIAL RATING: 4.5 STARS]
[CONTENT NOTE: Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam contains quite a bit of graphic disturbing content such as violence and abuse, disturbing war scenes, racism and aryan idealism, slavery, child cruelty, torture, dark sexual situations, graphic animal abuse/murder (graphic descriptions of hunting and the killing of animals, as well as a graphic portrayal of taxidermy preparation, skinning, tanning which was described vividly) underage sexual encounter and prostitution (two young boys, while intoxicated with a potent drink, use rural Annamese girls for sex, one losing his virginity. They technically pay for them. The scene is brief but fairly detailed.) voyeurism, adultery (a main female character has graphic relations with a French Captain after she witnesses him raping a married Annamese woman, and her child overhears their heated encounter. The scene is pretty detailed and extended.) a few other scenes of rape (later another french guard rapes a young Annamese girl that he forces to live with him as a mistress) genital/body mutilation (an Annamese man, after a scene of lovemaking, presumably castrates himself and passes out from the pain. The scene is shocking and happens suddenly but is not overly described) There is a love scene between the main character and an Annamese/Mandarin girl, but is more tender than explicit, and is fairly brief. He intends to marry her. There are many descriptions of gore, disturbing depictions of violent war scenes, many of the torture scenes are very vivid etc. as well as mentions of alcohol, betel chewing and smoking.]
April 10, 2024
Saigon is an older book written by an English man, which makes it more nuanced than if it was written by an American. I didn't know the entire history of Viet Nam from the 1920's through the 1970's, but this book tells through its fictional story the history of the United States causing so much death and destruction in ''fighting communism" and how Americans were lied to during this period by our presidents.
April 24, 2025
Vietnam comes across as a town where you bump into those you know. Once you’re over that, it is very insightful about the history of Vietnam. I’ve visited the country a few times and wished I had read it before the visits
February 15, 2020
Saigon is one of those books that has the ability to change the way you view something. I was a child during the Vietnam War so my memories are mostly what was on the nightly news and what the adults around me said. So, to understand more of the history, especially the history from the Vietnam perspective was enlightening. The story of Joseph Sherman and his family was compelling and the characters were well written and relate-able. Both the North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese were written in ways that were sympathetic and terrible, portraying both the goodness of humanity and its evil. It was easy to fall into either loving or hating characters.
Saigon is a huge book (over 700 pages) so it took some commitment to read. It covers the colonial period from 1925 until the end of the Vietnam War with detailed history told through the eyes of the characters. Like some other large books which is to be expected when covering such a span of years. I particularly enjoyed the development of Joseph from his idealistic youth to his realistic and yet genuine seniority.
I picked up this book as it was recommended reading for travelers to Vietnam and the reading was definitely enhanced by understanding the geography and having met the people of Vietnam, most of whom are too young to have any war memories at all. In truth, I wasn't looking for a book about the war, but I suppose it's impossible to include Vietnam's history in the mid-20th Century without it. Saigon provided not only a retelling of the war, but a deep dive into the many years that led to the tragedy of so many lives lost.
Grey did a great job of writing an epic tale. I'll probably put more of his novels on my to-read list.
Saigon is a huge book (over 700 pages) so it took some commitment to read. It covers the colonial period from 1925 until the end of the Vietnam War with detailed history told through the eyes of the characters. Like some other large books which is to be expected when covering such a span of years. I particularly enjoyed the development of Joseph from his idealistic youth to his realistic and yet genuine seniority.
I picked up this book as it was recommended reading for travelers to Vietnam and the reading was definitely enhanced by understanding the geography and having met the people of Vietnam, most of whom are too young to have any war memories at all. In truth, I wasn't looking for a book about the war, but I suppose it's impossible to include Vietnam's history in the mid-20th Century without it. Saigon provided not only a retelling of the war, but a deep dive into the many years that led to the tragedy of so many lives lost.
Grey did a great job of writing an epic tale. I'll probably put more of his novels on my to-read list.
May 11, 2016
At first I thought that including the word "epic" in the title was a bit much. But the story is epic in fact. In 1925 a Virginia Senator visits Vietnam, then a French colony, with his family. Joseph, then 15, falls in love with the country and it marks him for life. We basically follow him, a French family. and a Vietnamese family through from then until the US pullout in 1975. The novel is divided into 8 parts which chronicle the quest for independence and the maturation of Joseph. At times it felt that the coincidental convergence of stories was a bit forced, and in a few spots the tale stumbled forward and then dipped into backstory. It becomes predictable that paths will cross, yet the author does a fine job of weaving together the strands and making them plausible. Ultimately a fine read. Got to know Joseph well. Originally published early 1980s.
May 31, 2025
When I first read through this book about 20 years ago I read all of the nearly 800 pages in less than a week and those 800 pages stayed with me for years. After rewatching China Beach and rereading Home Before Morning I had to give this book another read through. I'm always worried about reading about an old favourite years later cause I end up wondering what was I thinking? And while I looked at certain scenes differently as a 43 year old than I did as a 23 year old overall the book holds up.
We follow the history of Vietnam for 50 years, from a hunting trip in 1925 to almost the literal last helicopter leaving the embassy in Saigon in 1975. We follow a Vietnamese family, a French family and an American family although our main character is Joseph Sherman since he's literally the only original main character left standing at the end.
First to the places that didn't age well for me and there was a few. Joseph losing his virginity to what if it had been a woman would've been rape, only for his mother to be turned on by the father of the French family raping a Vietnamese woman and waiting for her turn to sleep with him.
Then there was his romance with Lan which was an odd where he loves her madly but doesn't say exactly what made him love her so much. He just describes her as beautiful. He turns out to be a creepy pervert sleeping with numerous Asian women young enough to be his daughter and cheats repeatedly on his wife until their marriage ends. He then remarries a girl the exact age as his daughter. He's a creepy guy.
But once past the creepiness the book is an excellent history of the country known as Vietnam. From French colonial days, to the American war. We get to know many characters, from the rebels who fought for a free and united Vietnam, to those who supported the French and Americans, even famous historical figures like Ho Chi Minh, Big Minh and Ngo Din Diem, the book shares them all. It's often disturbing, families are torn apart, many lives are lost, Joseph is the only one we see right through the book to the end. I think at least one character is lost in every section of the book. The ending is tense and suspenseful right up to the final page, the final sentence and while a few parts were kind of dry, for most of the book it was a gripping story.
We follow the history of Vietnam for 50 years, from a hunting trip in 1925 to almost the literal last helicopter leaving the embassy in Saigon in 1975. We follow a Vietnamese family, a French family and an American family although our main character is Joseph Sherman since he's literally the only original main character left standing at the end.
First to the places that didn't age well for me and there was a few. Joseph losing his virginity to what if it had been a woman would've been rape, only for his mother to be turned on by the father of the French family raping a Vietnamese woman and waiting for her turn to sleep with him.
Then there was his romance with Lan which was an odd where he loves her madly but doesn't say exactly what made him love her so much. He just describes her as beautiful. He turns out to be a creepy pervert sleeping with numerous Asian women young enough to be his daughter and cheats repeatedly on his wife until their marriage ends. He then remarries a girl the exact age as his daughter. He's a creepy guy.
But once past the creepiness the book is an excellent history of the country known as Vietnam. From French colonial days, to the American war. We get to know many characters, from the rebels who fought for a free and united Vietnam, to those who supported the French and Americans, even famous historical figures like Ho Chi Minh, Big Minh and Ngo Din Diem, the book shares them all. It's often disturbing, families are torn apart, many lives are lost, Joseph is the only one we see right through the book to the end. I think at least one character is lost in every section of the book. The ending is tense and suspenseful right up to the final page, the final sentence and while a few parts were kind of dry, for most of the book it was a gripping story.
September 2, 2018
Second read, and still captivating.
This long, full book follows the life of one US citizen from age 15 until somewhere in his 60s. His life story is inextricably tangled up with the history of what has become the nation of Vietnam, and so his story provides the author with a perfect way to tell that tragic story.
I probably first read this book in the 1980s when Vietnam still loomed large in my life; since then, as that shameful chapter in my nation's history has receded from memory, I have come to appreciate how much the course of my life was determined by my responses to US actions in Asia.
Rereading the book, while refreshing this awareness, also gave me a chance to enjoy the author's fluent story-telling -- something I fear I missed during the first read. For those of us who lived through the Vietnam war years (and who had friends who didn't) there is still pain and embarrassment, but Grey's narrative helps me understand the inevitability of the US's involvement, and our tendency to repeat the same mistakes. I can't help thinking that if a new generation of US decision makers read and understood this book, we might be able to become a nation helping humanity evolve away from warfare.
This long, full book follows the life of one US citizen from age 15 until somewhere in his 60s. His life story is inextricably tangled up with the history of what has become the nation of Vietnam, and so his story provides the author with a perfect way to tell that tragic story.
I probably first read this book in the 1980s when Vietnam still loomed large in my life; since then, as that shameful chapter in my nation's history has receded from memory, I have come to appreciate how much the course of my life was determined by my responses to US actions in Asia.
Rereading the book, while refreshing this awareness, also gave me a chance to enjoy the author's fluent story-telling -- something I fear I missed during the first read. For those of us who lived through the Vietnam war years (and who had friends who didn't) there is still pain and embarrassment, but Grey's narrative helps me understand the inevitability of the US's involvement, and our tendency to repeat the same mistakes. I can't help thinking that if a new generation of US decision makers read and understood this book, we might be able to become a nation helping humanity evolve away from warfare.
November 29, 2020
3.5/5, but I round it down 😬.
It takes about ~50/60% of the book until the historic events start overshadowing the wafer-thin cardboard and cliché characters. Unfortunately, you cannot do without the first half of the book either, but the pace increases and the unfolding historic events start taking a more important role over the characters. With it, the book becomes more legible (even if the author could in my opinion have done with a few tips and pointers from Zinsser's "On Writing Well"), entertaining, informative, impressive, shocking, and overall good. In the end, it felt like a narrative version of Netflix "The Vietnam War" documentary.
It takes about ~50/60% of the book until the historic events start overshadowing the wafer-thin cardboard and cliché characters. Unfortunately, you cannot do without the first half of the book either, but the pace increases and the unfolding historic events start taking a more important role over the characters. With it, the book becomes more legible (even if the author could in my opinion have done with a few tips and pointers from Zinsser's "On Writing Well"), entertaining, informative, impressive, shocking, and overall good. In the end, it felt like a narrative version of Netflix "The Vietnam War" documentary.
February 26, 2022
Excellent read! In this outstanding example of historical fiction, the historical side represents the jewel of the crown; the fictional part is ok and, not without some flaws, plays the role of adding colour and texture on what would be a cold and aseptic description of the actual events. Saigon does that very well, especially in the part telling the chaotic and complex developments between July and September of 1945 - that not even the specialised textbooks cover in such great detail, as well as the hectic days leading to the fall of Saigon.
I am an avid reader of non fiction books regarding Viet Nam, both the French Indochina part (for those interested, I recommend “Embers of War” by F Logevall) as well as the American war, and I found Saigon extremely accurate and well researched plus providing a very balanced view on the tragic and controversial events of that period.
I mentioned some flaws in the fiction part of the story: at its centre we find four families, one American, two Vietnamese and one French. Their members happened to meet in Viet Nam in 1925 for a hunting expedition and since then they keep stumbling on each other for three generation in the most unlikely manners and places. I guess this is what is required by a saga, but I couldn’t help finding the device a little implausible.
Yet, this does not detract from the fact that Saigon remains a very ambitious, highly epic and genuinely engrossing piece of historical fiction.
I am an avid reader of non fiction books regarding Viet Nam, both the French Indochina part (for those interested, I recommend “Embers of War” by F Logevall) as well as the American war, and I found Saigon extremely accurate and well researched plus providing a very balanced view on the tragic and controversial events of that period.
I mentioned some flaws in the fiction part of the story: at its centre we find four families, one American, two Vietnamese and one French. Their members happened to meet in Viet Nam in 1925 for a hunting expedition and since then they keep stumbling on each other for three generation in the most unlikely manners and places. I guess this is what is required by a saga, but I couldn’t help finding the device a little implausible.
Yet, this does not detract from the fact that Saigon remains a very ambitious, highly epic and genuinely engrossing piece of historical fiction.
March 23, 2024
This long, long book gives an objective overview of the tragic, complex history of Vietnam and her people from 1925 onwards. Vietnam's turbulent history is intertwined with the (mostly) fictional lives of some who were involved in its history, both from the American and Vietnamese perspectives. An unforgettable, heart wrenching book. Highly recommended.
June 3, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. A great story with a historical background. Just the kind of book I like
December 13, 2022
This book was terrible, I actually returned it to Audible. I am traveling to Vietnam and found this book recommended as providing a good historical fiction account of Vietnam in the 1900s. I powered through three hours hoping it would get better. Until I could no longer ignore the offensive characterizations of the Vietnamese people and women. What triggered me? The romanticized French big game hunter/colonist raping a Vietnamese woman, when the American married woman shows up and patiently waits her turn to jump in his bed. Ugh.
March 1, 2024
An epic family tragedy set against Vietnam’s own tragic history. Wrought with emotion and well-researched, "Saigon" never sags despite its hefty story spanning fifty years. You brace yourself, as characters you’ve grown accustomed to fall. In the end, you’ll be exhausted, like the remaining characters, but satisfied. And Vietnam is a happier place now. It deserves it.
November 16, 2019
I first stumbled onto this book by accident; as I was writing a paper on the US involvement in Vietnam and the Viet-Minh, I kept reading excerpts from different chapters within the book. The writing struck me as beautiful and captivating, so I bit the bullet and bought this 1000 page novella. Anthony Grey did not disappoint.
I’d go as far as to call this book the War and Peace of our era; it tells the life of individuals within the context of a war that still shapes our lives today. Each person, whether American, French or Vietnamese, has a story to tell that is both heartbreaking, morally wrong, righteous and complex. In some ways it helped me understand the ludacricy in trying to choose sides of who was right, and who was wrong, within the Vietnam conflict -- and on a broader context, the intricacies of what makes people move to action.
Anthony Grey’s writing seems effortless in its descriptions and story-telling. While he can write beautifully descriptive passages on the Viet jungle and the palaces within Saigon, so will he describe the casual and indifferent starvation of the Northern Vietnamese. It struck me deeply every time Grey decided to discuss or depict a tragedy. But like any good writer, he knows how to balance. Not everything is heart wrenching, and not everything is mundane. Much like real life, Anthony Grey manages to strike the fine line of casual reality, and the dramatic telling of an epic novel.
I recommend this book to anyone. Just be aware it is quite long and very dense. But otherwise a fantastic and emotional read.
I’d go as far as to call this book the War and Peace of our era; it tells the life of individuals within the context of a war that still shapes our lives today. Each person, whether American, French or Vietnamese, has a story to tell that is both heartbreaking, morally wrong, righteous and complex. In some ways it helped me understand the ludacricy in trying to choose sides of who was right, and who was wrong, within the Vietnam conflict -- and on a broader context, the intricacies of what makes people move to action.
Anthony Grey’s writing seems effortless in its descriptions and story-telling. While he can write beautifully descriptive passages on the Viet jungle and the palaces within Saigon, so will he describe the casual and indifferent starvation of the Northern Vietnamese. It struck me deeply every time Grey decided to discuss or depict a tragedy. But like any good writer, he knows how to balance. Not everything is heart wrenching, and not everything is mundane. Much like real life, Anthony Grey manages to strike the fine line of casual reality, and the dramatic telling of an epic novel.
I recommend this book to anyone. Just be aware it is quite long and very dense. But otherwise a fantastic and emotional read.
January 30, 2017
Taking on a book of this length was an endeavor I was not sure would pay off, but Anthony Grey did not disappoint in producing a wonderful narrative covering 50 years of Vietnam's turbulent history. Grey tells the story of Joseph Sherman, an American of privilege, and his relationship with Indochina, stretching from 1925 to the climax of the Vietnam conflict in 1975.
The story of Joesph's life, and the people and events that shape it, seems effortlessly mixed with the historical events and cultural nuances of Vietnam. Grey approaches all of the key historic events during the Franco-Vietnamese War, the Pacific War, and the American Conflict in Vietnam. Having dutifully done his research, Grey provides great detail throughout the piece, luring you into Joseph's captivating world with intrigue, passion, and thrills.
With such a wide scope of events and characters to work with, it is not entirely surprising that some things may have been more difficult to establish; chief among these being any real ability to develop an emotional connection for anyone beyond Joseph. At times the antihero, and, more often than not, just a man doing what he thinks best (despite how flawed), Joseph is an overall good companion to have on this literary journey. The other characters, while meaningful to him, can be seemingly less meaningful to the reader (or, at least to me).
The string of large scale conflicts, twist and turns, romances, drama, and surprising fates leads one to see parallels between Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam and other works, such as A Game of Thrones. If you are considering this book, do not be put off by its length or the author’s colossal undertaking; it is a thrilling read that will leave you in love with what Vietnam once was, and enthralled by its evolution into the country it has become.
The story of Joesph's life, and the people and events that shape it, seems effortlessly mixed with the historical events and cultural nuances of Vietnam. Grey approaches all of the key historic events during the Franco-Vietnamese War, the Pacific War, and the American Conflict in Vietnam. Having dutifully done his research, Grey provides great detail throughout the piece, luring you into Joseph's captivating world with intrigue, passion, and thrills.
With such a wide scope of events and characters to work with, it is not entirely surprising that some things may have been more difficult to establish; chief among these being any real ability to develop an emotional connection for anyone beyond Joseph. At times the antihero, and, more often than not, just a man doing what he thinks best (despite how flawed), Joseph is an overall good companion to have on this literary journey. The other characters, while meaningful to him, can be seemingly less meaningful to the reader (or, at least to me).
The string of large scale conflicts, twist and turns, romances, drama, and surprising fates leads one to see parallels between Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam and other works, such as A Game of Thrones. If you are considering this book, do not be put off by its length or the author’s colossal undertaking; it is a thrilling read that will leave you in love with what Vietnam once was, and enthralled by its evolution into the country it has become.
November 10, 2013
This long and detailed saga of 20th century Vietnam follows 3 families, one French, one American and one Vietnamese through decades of that country’s turbulent and troubled history. It centres around young American Joseph Sherman from 1925 when he visits French Indo-China for the first time to his last visit at the end of the Vietnam war. As traveller, soldier and reporter he is uniquely placed to reflect the key political, military and social changes and challenges that faced Vietnam as it moved towards independence.
Essentially an adventure story, with the required romance thrown in, this book cannot claim to be great literary fiction. The characters sometimes verge on caricature, the plot is often contrived and the coincidences too frequent, but if you enjoy a complex and compelling tale, but one where you can effortlessly absorb historical fact at the same time, then this one is for you. If you prefer rather more subtle writing, then perhaps not. However, it’s certainly informative and enlightening about Vietnam and as such has much to recommend it.
Essentially an adventure story, with the required romance thrown in, this book cannot claim to be great literary fiction. The characters sometimes verge on caricature, the plot is often contrived and the coincidences too frequent, but if you enjoy a complex and compelling tale, but one where you can effortlessly absorb historical fact at the same time, then this one is for you. If you prefer rather more subtle writing, then perhaps not. However, it’s certainly informative and enlightening about Vietnam and as such has much to recommend it.
June 2, 2020
I am a sucker for sweeping, grand, historical epics, I mean Shogun by James Clavell is arguably my favorite book of all time in the fiction genre, and this book scratches that itch. The book is ostensibly about Joseph Sherman and the 5 decades of his life that become inexorably linked with Vietnam. As in the best historical fiction it’s not entirely accurate but contains enough history where you’re likely to learn some things and broaden your perspective, and also adds in those dramatic elements of love and loss and suffering that help to make it compulsively readable. I often struggle with books nearing 1000 pages in length as I feel the subject matter isn’t epic enough to justify the length. Well this book is a bit over 800 pages and I think it deserves every page. I’ve seen it compared to War and Peace, and while I don’t necessarily agree I do think the comparison helps to explain the grand scale and the high regard people have for this book.
See where this book ranked in the 25 fiction books I read in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjaKv...
See where this book ranked in the 25 fiction books I read in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjaKv...
March 2, 2020
Well, I'm tossing in the towel on this one. I wanted to get the Vietnamese history lesson this book could provide, but I just couldn't stomach the cruelty (graphically described torture and demeaning sexual activity). The book is also written in a style that was just putting me to sleep - too much telling, not enough showing. It was written in a different time, when a certain writing style was used and there was too much fixation on racial and gender cliches. Some of the characters spoke and acted in a way that seemed unrealistic, especially some of the young male characters. The European boys thought and spoke as though they were 10 years older and the Vietnamese boys were written as though they were six when they were actually 11 and 13. Anyway, with 650 pages to go (this thing has 812 pages!), I just couldn't see the point of further annoyance. I also realized that there would be plenty of graphic war scenes to come and I couldn't get through a viewing of The Deer Hunter without sobbing. Life is too short...
April 23, 2014
Since Saigon (the city, not the novel) is part of my "coming of age" DNA, I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, I couldn't get beyond the first 50 or so pages; neither the characters nor the story pulled me in.
The characters seemed mere vessels for expounding the history and culture of Vietnam. Those topics were well researched and interesting, but not what I was looking for in a novel.
Although the book was touted as the "WAR AND PEACE of our time," I never got a sense of major conflict or drama (or even foreshadowing) in the opening pages. There just wasn't enough there to keep me reading. Also, I'm not a big fan of novels written in the omniscient viewpoint, which Grey used.
Perhaps I'll give SAIGON a try again someday, but at this moment, it didn't work for me.
The characters seemed mere vessels for expounding the history and culture of Vietnam. Those topics were well researched and interesting, but not what I was looking for in a novel.
Although the book was touted as the "WAR AND PEACE of our time," I never got a sense of major conflict or drama (or even foreshadowing) in the opening pages. There just wasn't enough there to keep me reading. Also, I'm not a big fan of novels written in the omniscient viewpoint, which Grey used.
Perhaps I'll give SAIGON a try again someday, but at this moment, it didn't work for me.
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