Please Write: a novel

by Janette Byron Stone

Catherine has lived a cloistered life dominated by the choices of a tormented mother and an overprotective grandmother. But life is about to change for 17-year-old Catherine when her mother Brenda insists she take a summer job in Kings Cross. Sydney has just opened its doors to American GIs on R&R from the war in Vietnam and Catherine is put in the perfect place to meet them. Reluctant at first, it’s not long before she finds herself charmed by the well-mannered American servicemen and fascinated by the diversity of the Cross, infamous for its mob-controlled nightclubs, prostitutes and drugs. As the GIs come and go, Catherine chooses to spend time with them and ultimately sacrifices a university scholarship. The war is brought closer to home when her cousin and best friend Michael is sent to Vietnam. When tragedy hits a target close to Catherine’s heart, she realizes her life is spinning out of control and that she must make changes.Set in Sydney during the late 1960’s, Please Write is a blend of fiction and non-fiction. The story line is inspired by letters that I, the author, received fifty years ago from Australian friends and American GIs who served in Vietnam. This is not only Catherine’s story of negotiating traps in the journey to adulthood, it is also the soldiers’ story told collectively in the letters they write to her. Often painted with an unsavory brush by individuals, the press, and anti-war groups, the letters—used with permission—offer a refreshing and more accurate representation of who they young men meeting the challenges of an unpopular and un-winnable war. Although Please Write is set in a different time in history, the importance of hope, perseverance and connection in the face of adversity holds relevance for every generation.

308 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 2, 2019

Reviews

[Kathy Maresca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tenderly told, Please Write sweeps the reader away to Sydney, Australia at the time of the Viet Nam war. The author includes real letters she received from soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and through them, the warriors show their vulnerability, loneliness, and their longing for home. I learned so much about Sydney as I read. Did you know the city also had a Whiskey-a-Go-Go? The U.S. had one, but I don't remember its location.

This coming-of-age novel gives us a snapshot of time that changed the world. Although I was a child and then a teen during the war, I was unaware that Australia also sent troops to Viet Nam. Protests were not confined to the United States, and neither was loss.

The universality of the 60's, women at the clubs dancing in cages, drug abuse, and rebellion that defined the generation are at the heart of the story.

This USAF veteran was once an airman who wanted letters from home. Except for my mother's, I seldom got one. If you know someone who is deployed, email makes being a penpal easier these days. Please write.

[John Podlaski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Please Write by Janette Byron Stone, which tells the story of Catherine's coming of age in Australia during the Vietnam War. Raised as a strict Catholic in a sheltered home just outside of Sydney, Catherine gets her first real job at 17 - working in a record store and later as a waitress in a coffee shop in Kings Cross. Australia had recently opened its doors for American soldiers serving in the Vietnam War for R&R and most come to seedy Kings Cross.

It is here that Catherine meets the young American soldiers who long for a female presence and companion who makes them feel at home. Many of those she met continued to correspond with her after returning to the war and back to the states. The author includes many of those actual letters in her story.

When she turns 19, her life changes after a tragic event within the family. This is not a Vietnam War novel, however, if you were a soldier who visited Australia on R&R, it will bring back memories of those days long passed. The author also includes a glossary of Australian terms to English at the end - I recommend you look it over first before reading the story. Highly recommended!

[Roger Evert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable.

[Dale Dapkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mistakenly mistook the title of this book, Please Write, as a happy invitation to push on with my own stalled writing. I admit, I've been waiting for such encouragement after well-meaning friends and relatives have asked me to please STOP writing. My son has come right out and said, “You know Dad, there's still time to leave something behind that isn't a piece of psychotic clap-trap. I mean who wants to read about that burnt swamp you grew up in. . .or Yetis? Really!”
Now here’s Jan’s book encouraging me to continue doing what I love doing. I have to admit, I was predisposed to liking Jan’s book. And I certainly did.
I expected this author to write something more pedestrian than this, something like I would write. Such a wonderful surprise to encounter absolutely beautiful writing telling a gripping story, the kind of story that grabbed my cheeks like Catherine’s grandmother might grab them. And she just never let go. I could put PLEASE WRITE down for a while because I had to eat, and my life is terribly exciting and I have a lot of things to do. But I always went back to the dog-eared page I’d left off, and know I'd get teleported back to Vietnam war era Australia where I would wander and wonder at life with Catherine as it unfolds like a rose. In the past I have abandoned books somewhere between a third and a half way through. Not Jan's. I'm a sucker when it comes to reading about the magical euphoria that happens when young people fall in love. I love this book. Is that too revealing? . Am I addicted to intimacy?
I love Please Write because there's no gratuitous violence, murder, or mayhem trying to keep my manly attention. I should say that I am not against such manly things, ( I liberally season my own writing with blood and guts just to take attention away from my weak vocabulary ) Pegging the story to the useless war in Vietnam also gets me going because it not only claimed the lives of friends, but wounded and divided America.
.About two-thirds of the way through Please Write, I think it was page 208, I read one of the best young love scenes I've enjoyed in a long time. It captures the sweet emotional flavor of passion we've all experienced. Jan captures them with purity and sincerity. Soooo. . read this book. And Jan, Please Write. . more.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please Write transports the reader back to the Vietnam era and explores the changing landscape of the world through the eyes of a teenage girl in Sydney. Catherine breaks away from the comfort of her mother's home and the security of schoolgirl life to a harsher reality. A new job in the notorious Kings Cross neighbourhood, paired with friendships and sprouting romances with young American GI's expose her to fear, loneliness, and loss. While common ground for all young people, these emotions are compounded by the Vietnam war and the conflicting sense of duty and uncertainty that these young men face. Over cups of coffee and tea, long walks, and most poignantly through letters, we come to appreciate the coming of age of young people from both sides of the world and a generation grappling for meaning and connection amidst the cruel realities of war.

[Ayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading Stone’s book. It mixed together real experiences and memories with some fiction to create a wonderful story! It really gives you an idea what it would have been like to be Catherine and immersed with American Soldiers while they were on R&R. I always appreciate a book with real experiences as it makes for the best stories that hold my attention compared to complete fiction which is harder for me to immerse myself in. I like knowing that in a book written with real experiences I am vicariously feeling and seeing what they did. I am definitely going to be re-reading this novel in the future! I encourage others considering this novel to pick it up today and read it and share more thoughts. These stories are ones that deserve to be shared and passed along to others.

[Rusty Hodgdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a child of the 60's, and thus of the Vietnam War. That war took a chunk out of my heart, and my psyche, so when I ran across this novel, containing actual letters from several of those young men who served in that war, I had to read it. I was never disappointed, and was at times inspired and awestruck by their words. Yet the real plum is the author's meticulous, flowing prose. This is really a story about a young woman who was also supremely affected by the war. But it is much more than that. It is a story about a young woman's coming of age in her own right, sensitively portrayed and explained. I enjoyed being transported into a different culture (Australian), and loved the local expressions and idioms. I highly recommend this superbly crafted work.

[Joanna Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poignant debut novel.
This is a fascinating coming of age novel of an innocent teenage girl in 1960s Australia, based loosely on the author's own life. Beautifully written, Stone brings to life what Sydney was like during the Vietnam War, flooded with young U.S. servicemen on furlough. The letters she exchanges with them are often poignant and enlightening. Stone offers valuable insights into how they felt about being in Vietnam, far from home and their loved ones in what was perhaps the most unpopular war the U.S. ever fought. Her correspondence with these young men offered them an empathetic connection at a time when they needed it most. Well worth reading!

[Julia Balko · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful coming of age story.

I loved this beautifully written book. Janette Byron Stone has written a gem of a novel about a young Australian woman, Catherine, who is transitioning from childhood to adulthood during the confusing time of the Vietnam War.

Among other things, I loved Ms. Stone's use of letters from GIs Catherine met during their brief R & R stays in Sydney, and from Catherine's cousin, an Australian, who also served in Vietnam along with many of his countrymen.

This is a novel about the shared human experience. This is a novel with richness and depth. I want more from this author.

[Randi Pearl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touching and personal

Poignant story of a young girl’s relationship with GIs on leave from the Vietnam War in Sydney — how she prided comfort and understanding to them at a very difficult time.

[Judi Winters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are you looking for a journey through lilting language and lush landscapes of the mind? Janette Byron Stone’s Please Write brings a new perspective to the Vietnam War through the distant eyes of a young woman’s coming of age. For America, Nam was a war that took place on the other side of the world; never touching our borders but scorching our eyes with daily images of the atrocities. It was a real-time movie script. Janette Byron Stone captures a slice of life unknown to the American audience.
Kings Cross, a rough and tumble inner-city locality in Sydney, Australia, was invaded by American troops who were flown there for R & R. Stone’s memoir-esque narrative (related through the eyes of Catherine her protagonist) tells of days spent waitressing in this notorious red-light and entertainment district and the ongoing connections she made with the American and Australian troops through the lost art of letter writing. Each letter punctuates the steppingstones that young men and women, regardless of cultural background, experience. She is able to relate the trials and tribulations of their lives with her own; a young woman touched by divorce and desperately trying to balance a maturing need to separate from her mother, yet, clinging to the traditions and morals dictated by her Granny. Please Write is revealing in its passion and insights into the dreams, aspirations, fears, and realities of the young men who steadily found their way to the Cross, escaping the nightmare of war and relishing in their good luck to have survived.
The war devoured our young men whole. It spat them out and sent them home irreparable and disfigured both physically and emotionally. These young men were seeking a semblance of the homey solace they knew stateside, as opposed to the raw sexual experiences other soldiers sought in the Asian destinations. Juxtaposed against the backstory of war, Catherine’s tales of succor, offering the unusually compassionate ear, certainly demonstrates for us what the world needed then, and still yearns for today, a dish of Granny’s comforting potato and gravy and larded leg of lamb. Food is the loving knot that ties generations.
Please Write leaves you with that balance between the bitter and the sweetness of life, that only a true master of the literary word can elicit. Having never been to the Cross or even Australia, Stones descriptive elements enable the reader to visualize the welcoming Aussie culture, mannerisms, and locales from King’s Cross to Wagga Wagga (where I have learned the crows fly backward). It is like a semi-sweet Swiss chocolate. You cannot just pop it in your mouth hoping that the moment of total dissipation will satiate; it is a good read, a love story with life, that must be savoured.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I got into the rhythm of the novel, I was struck by how well Janette Stone evoked the 1960s in Sydney, Australia, a place and time unfamiliar to most of us. A place that seemed to pride itself on self-sufficiency.

The women in this novel are tough- often bitter. Sometimes they make terrible mistakes with grave consequences but there isn’t a single, thin-skinned mimosa among them. And (spoiler alert) not a single one of them resorts to murder…..

The narrator, Catherine, seemed set up for tragedy. She had a violent alcoholic mother who told her to “turn off the bloody waterworks,” when her father abandoned them and started a new family across the pond. Only the beleaguered granny seemed able to recognize if not focus on her curious, intelligent, and capable granddaughter. Yet somehow they all muddled through, not believing the world owed them anything. In 1960’s Sydney, Australia, life was expected to be difficult.

When 17-year-old, naïve Catherine takes a job in a record shop at the notorious King’s Cross in Sydney, Australia, she experiences the larger world of 60s music, sees a strip joint for the first time and gains a little ready cash. But all of this is eclipsed by the arrival of American GIs. These impossibly young men are poignant figures on a sojourn before being shipped off to the brutal war in Vietnam. They have money to spare and no one begrudges a soldier a little harmless fun at the strip joints or bars and so Catherine, a good girl, gives them her address and they begin to correspond by letter.

I was surprised by the genteel tone of the letters. I expected steamy promises of love-maybe even a 60s version of sexting, but instead, these letters were equivocal, questioning and over all, respectful.

As such, they read as genuine letters from men of that era who didn’t have the language or nerve to express what they felt. What they left unsaid reveals their age, and something more important: their generosity. These men did not want to burden Catherine with horrific descriptions of the fighting. Also, it’s easy to imagine them in the evening taking out paper and pen to escape into the sacred everydayness of a life they hoped to return to.

But Catherine is able to read through the lines and this creates a rich backdrop for her developing feelings of gratitude at her own freedom of choice.

This is a subtle and rich coming of age tale set at a strange time and place that does not clonk you on the head, but gently leads the reader through the joy of choice in a world where so few have that privilege.

A wonderful read.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art form of letter writing is on shaky ground with current-day ephemeral email communications. In Janette Byron Stone’s, “Please Write, A Novel,” letters written by soldiers offer threads that weave together vital history with a coming-of-age story. The novel takes place in Sydney, Australia, an R&R “hot spot” for American soldiers during the Vietnam War. The main character, Catherine, lives, attends college, and works in Sydney where she also becomes a tour guide, friend, and listener to G.I.s who have just arrived from combat for a few days of safety and rest. Following their return to war, she corresponds with many of the American soldiers. Stone’s writing includes fresh images that bring Catherine’s experiences alive to the reader. With pencil in hand, I found myself underlining notable phrases such as “…questions hung on door knobs like clothes to be worn.” And “ …her voice grated with the gravel of Saturday night’s beer and cigarettes,” and “Memories were nothing more than expired calling cards left behind on someone else’s soul….” Stone immerses the reader smack into the middle of the story with striking poetic imagery. Perhaps the best line of the book is summed up when she writes, “More than just an account of his experience in Vietnam, his words were the legacy that would stay behind as a testimony to his being.” This book not only preserves firsthand history but also offers beautiful writing in its richest form.

--Annette Langlois Grunseth author of “Combat and Campus: Writing Through War”

[Ward R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

R&R. Rest and Relaxation to escape from war, any war. Author Janette Byron Stone presents soldiers, lovers, and friends during visits by US soldiers to her Australia during the Vietnam War. Her insightful writing flows smoothly and is a good read for a parent, a sibling, a partner, or a friend who may have a friend at war.

[Betty Bush · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a young woman growing into adulthood. As she meets and writes letters to young American soldiers on leave in Australia from Vietnam the main character gains insight and control of her own life.

[Patty Patten · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Vietnam War was a time that caught many of us by surprise, and this novel brings into focus much of our collective loss of innocence. Catherine is a teenager growing up in Sydney who takes a job in a sketchy part of town where she meets soldiers on leave from Vietnam and a collection of characters from the edges of society. You feel her sense of wonder and excitement and watch as letters from the soldiers and these experiences, along with growing family dysfunction, steal those tender parts of childhood we all so fondly remember.

Integral to this compelling life drama is the exquisite prose of the author, gentle and poignant, sprinkled with words from the context of Australian life. I highly recommend Ms. Stone's amazing novel, a trip to youth and a time and place everyone should visit.

[Janette Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well this is embarrassing, I've rated my own book! In order to clarify the importance of the letters in the story I'll take this opportunity to add a few words about the importance of the letters and their role:
Set in Sydney during the late 1960’s, Please Write is a blend of fiction and non-fiction. The story line is inspired by letters that I, the author, received fifty years ago from Australian friends and American GIs who served in Vietnam. This is not only Catherine’s story of negotiating traps in the journey to adulthood, it is also the soldiers’ story told collectively in the letters they write to her. Often painted with an unsavory brush by individuals, the press, and anti-war groups, the letters—used with permission—offer a refreshing and more accurate representation of who they were: young men meeting the challenges of an unpopular and un-winnable war. Although Please Write is set in a different time in history, the importance of hope, perseverance and connection in the face of adversity holds relevance for every generation.

[Military Writers Society of America (MWSA)]

MWSA Review

Please Write gives a wonderful view of the Vietnam War from the Australian point of view. The letters tie the thoughts of young servicemen in Vietnam with those of Catherine, left behind to come into adulthood in a strange time in Australian history. Vivid descriptions allow the reader to step into Catherine's shoes, feeling her desires and her pain. I highly recommend Please Write.

Review by Dawn Brotherton (February 2022)