Snake's Daughter: The Roads in and Out of War

Gilberg, a teacher and writer, was 17 when her father was killed in Vietnam. After she and her siblings received the Congressional Medal of Honor on his behalf, Gilberg tried not to think about her father, taking a stoic, ""military"" approach to his death. However, years later, when she visited the Vietnam War Memorial with her husband and child, she realized she needed a deeper understanding of her father and what had happened to him. She started by looking at old family photographs but soon placed ads in military publications to find soldiers who had served with ""Snake."" Gilberg received letters, calls and photographs from many people, and, through this book, she retraces her own life, recalling the countless moves and new schools she endured as a military brat; the family squabbles as her parents split up; and her unwillingness to see her father as a hero in an unpopular war. Through this intimate journal, Gilberg is able to gain some acceptance of her father's death. Gilberg's research into her family history is an extraordinary accomplishment, but the book is so personal and specific to her life as an army brat that it is likely to appeal mostly to readers who, like her, know the displacement and anxiety of life in a military family. (May)