Between The Battles

by Helen Nolan

When a young Australian girl travels to the Vietnam war to work as a secretary, she has no idea how to begin to become accustomed to living in a warzone with others like herself. Few in number, and fitting into no category - neither military nor medical, neither local nationals nor US citizens - rules and regulations do not seem to apply to these women working in a warzone. Living by their wits as outcasts in a war-torn foreign land, they are subjected to bombardment and enemy firepower. As she later takes on the duties of a reporter and then civilian personnel officer, she begins to face the horror, brutality and corruption that is at the heart of war. Spanning the spectrum of emotional experiences, she comes to focus on the events between the battles, on the friends and lovers who are drawn closer through their extraordinary circumstances.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

223 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 2005

Reviews

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story entailing a role of Australian civilian women in Vietnam that is not widely know or recognised. It details life of these women in Vietnam in the 1960s, focusing on Helen and her adventures, her friendships and her life in Saigon. The characters draw you in and engrosses you in a era that we hear so much about but don't really know too much of.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was shocked by the Aussie author's flagrant amorality but fascinated by her impressions of life in Vietnam during the war while employed by the US, as well as her survival skills under unthinkable duress. Talk about a lack of Occupational Health and Safety standards on a job! Reading about so much boozing, gambling, sleeping around and constant partying soon became tedious but it was a glimpse into a world I never realised existed.

The book is labeled as fiction but is probably really a memoir. I hope she changed the names in order to protect the people she wrote about, as not everyone would want to be recognised behaving this way once they were back in their home countries. Worth reading as 'a slice of life' during the Vietnam war.