The Outside Lands

The Vietnam War is explored in Kohler’s debut novel. Living with their WWII-hero father after the death of their mother, siblings Jeannie and Kip Jackson are left to their own devices. Jeannie marries a young doctor and gets pregnant, while trouble-making Kip impulsively joins the Marines. In Vietnam in 1968, he quickly learns that surviving the jungle means making hard choices and becomes embroiled in a military crime. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Jeannie meets a 16-year-old girl, Lee Walker, who seduces her (sexually and politically) and leads her into the world of antiwar activism, where she is asked to forge medical letters for inductees hoping to be reclassified 4F. Although she is in over her head, Jeannie also tries to help her brother’s defense at court-martial. Although Jeannie, Kip, and Lee are all well-realized characters, the stateside chapters feel overstuffed and melodramatic. It is with the Vietnam War chapters that the author distinguishes herself. You would have to go back to Susan Fromberg Schaeffer’s Buffalo Afternoon to find a novel written by a civilian that so totally captures the nightmarish, psychedelic feel of a war that refuses to be relegated to the dusty pages of history. Agent: David Godwin, David Godwin Associates. (Aug.)