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Oct 02, 2011

Staci rated it:

My thoughts:
This one punched me deep in my gut....I literally sobbed for 15 minutes after I finished the last page. All of these emotions were swirling within my chest and brain and I needed to release them with a good cry. I am just beginning to understand why my two uncles that served in Vietnam never spoke of their experience. Who would want to revisit those horrors, to have those images dredged up again, to make them real once more? I felt shell-shocked and wounded deep in my soul by th More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

Wow! Can this really be Tatjana Soli's first novel? She pierces right through all the bullshit about war in general and the Vietnam debacle in particular. I've learned to steer clear of most novels about Vietnam because there's usually too much of the macho jungle combat detail. I'm glad I made an exception for The Lotus Eaters. Written by a woman about a woman---a photographer who shows up in Vietnam in 1965 with no idea what she's doing or how it will change her life.
I'm glad I stay More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

Jeffrey rated it:

Finished the Lotus Eaters on May 1. This is a great account of that war that made headlines and dominated the lives of my generation from the late 60s to the late 70s. While I was traveling around the world and living the story of my book, Living Beneath the Radar, I arrived in Bangkok the day the last helicopters pulled out of Saigon, in Vietnam. The author takes the present day reader back to that country leading up to the dramatic end and the chaos that existed in the neighboring countries More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2011

Tasha rated it:

update 9/26/11 as I keep thinking about this rating, it just keeps nagging at me. It is not really a 4 star read, for me. I am bumping it down to a 3. I guess it says something about the book that I am struggling with this rating, even days later. But there it is: a 3 star rating.

This is a hard one for me to review. Basically, I'd rate it a 3.5 stars but since i can't, I'll bump it up to 4 stars. For most of the story, I was turned off by the focus of a love story/triangle. I w More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 08, 2011

Kristen rated it:

This novel is a retrospective look at the lives of American photojournalists during the Vietnam War. I liked the format, starting with a very agitating not-quite ending of the story, and then looking back on all that occurred leading up to that ending. It is a graphic description of the horrors of war interspersed with heart-wrenching acts of humanity.

Shown through the eyes of three different characters: Helen, one of few women photojournalists in Vietnam, young and inexperience More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 19, 2011

Danielle rated it:

Tatjana Soli's The Lotus Eaters is a really marvelous novel--both lush and beautiful but also brutal and heart-wrenching. As much as I got caught up in the story and wanted to keep reading, I found I could only mange it in small doses. The story follows a young American woman who travels to Vietnam in 1963 to work as a photojournalist and gets so caught up in the war she remains until the bitter end.

I've read very little about the Vietnam War save Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carri More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 21, 2011

Florinda rated it:

I ve read a number of novels set during the Vietnam era, but none from the perspective used in Tatjana Soli s debut novel, The Lotus Eaters: that of the press, photographers in-country documenting the war for wire services and publications. Published back in the USA, their work was one of the factors that inspired and drove the anti-war movement...but this novel suggests that some of these journalists were driven by a rather different agenda.[return][return]Helen Adams dropped out of college a More...

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Dec 19, 2011

Karen rated it:

This book follows Helen Adams, a photographer who goes off to Vietnam near the start of the war. Soli does a great job, in my opinion, of showing the change in Adams as she lives and works in Vietnam for twelve years. The author also explores many other personalities of war through the other journalists there, the soldiers Adams goes into battle with, and the Vietnamese people. During her time there Adams has two love affairs, one with an already famous photographer, and then later with his V More...

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Oct 19, 2011

Jean rated it:

Helen Adams is a young college dropout from Los Angeles who makes her way to Vietnam in the mid-1960's to try to flesh out the details behind the Marines' opaque explanation of her brother's death in combat. To gain access to the action, she joins the press corp as a photographer, and thus becomes both witness and participant in the absurdity and horror that characterized the American adventure in that country's civil war. "Sudden and sublime. Sudden and awful. Everything distilled to its m More...

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Oct 17, 2011

Amy rated it:

Love and war, a popular combination in novels, some may say it’s a combination that is overdone. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli however provides readers with a slightly different and revitalizing angle on the topic. The novel opens in April 1975 as the Americans are fleeing Vietnam. Helen Adams, a young woman compelled to get o Vietnam after her brother is killed in action, arrives in Vietnam as an unseasoned war photographer. Before long Helen is photographing combat, learning the language More...

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Oct 06, 2011

Shawn rated it:

I enjoyed The Lotus Eaters very much. The author, Tatjana Soli, has gone beyond the limits of War genre, or Thriller genre, and she has succeeded in leading her readers to that place where we can look at our shared truth about today's global society. Soli illustrates woman's search for her place on Earth, and she uses captivating descriptions of Home versus Foreign. In one example, she returns to a foreign land and describes the smell, the green, the humidity, the heat that hits you like a ba More...

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Sep 12, 2011

Marie rated it:

GREAT book. It's 1965 and Helen is a college dropout who's been obsessed w/ the Vietnam war since her brother was killed there, and shows up in Vietnam as a novice freelance photographer. She is a 'scared california girl' who is instantly the butt of many of the other photographers' (almost all male) jokes. With her quick wit and sarcasm she befriends the legendary Sam Darrow. He has been photographing wars for decades and is known for his fanatic behaviors and obsession w/ war. Along with Darro More...

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Jul 14, 2011

Brynne rated it:

There's a hard, dark stone deep within each of us, buried beneath flesh and muscle and gut. Its parched. Thirsty for release. For within its walls it carries memories, pains, struggles and fears. Out of harms way we tucked it. Or so we thought. But slowly it poisons us. From the inside out.

Until we let ourselves be saved. Saved by the gift of an artist's daring.

Tatjana Soli watered my hard, dark stone, transforming its cruel shell to a soft and mushy pulp. She reminded me tha More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 04, 2011

Sara added it

THE LOTUS EATERS: A NOVEL by Tatjana Soli. St. Martin’s Press, 2010. 400. 9780312611576.

With only a high school photography class as experience, Helen Adams becomes a combat photojournalist to understand details of her brother’s death in Vietnam. In 1967, as the only woman photographer in Vietnam, she is hired to capture human interest stories. She quickly meets Darrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who is addicted to capturing the next cover shot, and convinces him to More...

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Mar 08, 2011

Liz rated it:

The tragedy of the Vietnam War never ceases to stagger--this novel spans ten years, flashing back from the American surrender of Saigon in April 1975 to explore the intertwined fates of two Americans and their Vietnamese interpreter. Comprising a romantic triangle are Sam Darrow, a glamorous, jaded, 40ish photographer; Helen Adams, an aspiring neophyte photographer in her early twenties when she arrives to cover the war; and Linh, the son of intelligentsia from the North, whose initial goal is More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 02, 2011

G rated it:

The Lotus Eaters, Tatjana Soli’s debut novel, is quite impressive, but not without its faults. It revolves around neophyte photojournalist, Helen Adams, who we first meet in 1975 in Saigon as the North Vietnamese begin to roll through the city, and the city falls. I guess I shouldn’t call Adams a neophyte photojournalist because she arrived in Vietnam in 1965, an idealistic California girl, fresh out of college, her only previous encounter with war being her father’s tales of fighting in the Kor More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2011

Bookworm rated it:

I started reading The Lotus Eaters at around 10 o'clock one night after I settled into bed figuring I'd wind down my day with about 20 minutes of reading, instead I read for the next two hours unable to put down this intriguing book.

The Lotus Eaters opens up with thirty something American journalist and photographer Helen Adams living in Vietnam. It is 1975 and a war torn Saigon is falling.
Linh is the Vietnamese man who is the love of Helen's life, he too is a photographer.
More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 10, 2010

Bedford rated it:

Much like the Vietnam War itself, this title both repels and draws the reader. Soli’s lyrical prose allows us to see the beauty, the tawdriness, and the devastation that was Saigon at the end of the war. Without skirting the violence of the war, debut novelist Soli captures her audience by offering us an intimate story that revolves around three people. Helen Adams is one of the first women photographers in Vietnam who actually goes on patrol with combat troops. She soon falls in love with the m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 06, 2010

Meredith added it

The first chapter of this novel grabbed me and promised an incomparable story. The rest of the novel never quite fulfilled that promise, but it was a riveting story about love and obsession in the midst the Vietnam war. For the most part it was beautifully written. While the theme might not be highly original, I found the treatment to be engaging and the characters compelling.

Helen Adams is one of the first female photojournalists in Vietnam during the mid-sixties. She went to Vietnam More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 15, 2010

Deborah rated it:

"The Lotus Eaters" is the first novel for the author, Tatjana Soli. The title refers to a passage in Homer's "Odyssey", which the author quotes at the outset of the book and it serves as an appropriate metaphor for the photojournalists of the Vietnam War or any war.
The book's cover doesn't do justice to the story.
Watching the Vietnam War from our living rooms and looking at the photos plastered almost daily in magazines and newspapers, you began to wonder who c More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 04, 2010

Literary Feline rated it:

I watched the film The Hurt Locker recently. I have had difficulty putting my thoughts onto paper about it and so you haven't seen a review. One thing in particular that stood out for me, however, was the scene where Staff Sergeant James is grocery shopping, followed by a scene of him trying to talk to his wife about his experiences in the Iraq War as she prepares a meal. These are very revealing scenes. The soldier goes from intense and life threatening situations in Iraq to the every day mono More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 29, 2011

Jinky rated it:

(3.5)

This is an investment kind of book. You invest the time and heart and it will pay off. A technically tedious read for me but the perseverance to finish the book was worth it. A superb debut by Ms Soli. She captured a searing perspective of a historical event by telling the story through the fictional lens of a camera and heart of outsiders.

In this novel fashion, humanity amidst a war was played out through Helen's point of view that span a decade. I got a tast More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2011

M rated it:

I found this on a take shelf at work and it sat on my bookshelf there for about 6 months before I brought it home one night, on a whim. I wish I would have done so sooner... It was really, really good.

I hadn't read any historical fiction set during the Vietnam War prior to The Lotus Eaters but reading this novel made me feel like I was there. It was unputdownable. The kind of book that will ruin your life until you turn the last page. The hardcover jacket is misleading. It alludes to More...

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May 09, 2011

Michelle rated it:

Gorgeous novel centered on a female photographer in the Vietnam War. It is difficult to really critique this book because it is so beautifully written and powerful and I cannot do justice to its richness. This is a “war novel” but so much more. The characters from the (initially) green Helen to the dashing Darrow to (my favorite) the conflicted Linh are multilayered and believable, even if the characters are aggravating at times. I do wish the author showed more of Annick. She is introduced earl More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 14, 2010

Susan rated it:

3 1/2 stars.
All they now wanted was to stay where they were with the Lotus-eaters, to browse on the lotus, and to forget all thoughts of return.
Homer, The Odyssey as quoted in The Lotus Eaters.

In chapter one, photojournalist Helen Adams is preparing to leave Vietnam during the 1975 evacuation. Chapter two starts in 1963 with Linh, a former Vietnamese soldier, now an assistant to photojournalist Darrow. Both eventually meet Helen and become her friends, her life, and V More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2010

Serena rated it:

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli takes place in Vietnam between 1963 and 1975 and becomes a journal of Helen Adams’ evolution into a photojournalist from a young woman chasing the ghosts of her father and brother. The Vietnam War was one of the most controversial in American history, and journalists were on the front lines of the battles — political and physical.

“When they were fired on, the advisers called down airpower, but it dropped short, falling on them and civilians. A free More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 18, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

"This is what happened when one left one's home - pieces of oneself scattered all over the world, no one place ever completely satisfied, always a nostalgia for the place left behind. Pieces of her in Vietnam, some in this place of bone. She brought the letter to her nose. The smell of Vietnam: a mix of jungle and wetness and spices and rot. A smell she hadn't realized she missed."

What a beautifully poetic and sad novel... This is one of those novels that I need time to re More...

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May 30, 2011

Belinda rated it:

I suspect this will be made into a movie, and the previews will use words like "gritty" and "unflinching". That will be a pity if so, because "The Lotus Eaters" starts there, and goes on to territory that I've rarely experienced in my reading choices as an adult. Helen Adams is a naive, 20-something amateur who wanders into Vietnam in the mid '60s, seeking work as a photographer as she also seeks to wedge her way into the most manly of men's worlds: war.

Wh More...

3 comments like

Oct 02, 2010

Jessica rated it:

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli follows female photo journalist Helen Adams from her arrival to the Vietnam War to its eventual end. This is a story of grief, cruelty, and love found during the war.

The first few chapters were hard for me to get through. I didn't think I would be able to form an attachment to any of the characters with the way that it started out. Everything seemed so disjointed. But the more I read the better the story became.

I liked the unfolding love More...

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Aug 22, 2011

Judy rated it:

This is more of a 4 1/2 star book just because the love stories are not quite believable to me, but the writing is strong with powerful descriptions. This novel is set during the time of the Viet Nam War and opens with the evacuation of the Americans and the angst of the Vietnamese who sided with us but are being left behind to the Viet Cong.

The three main characters are an American male photographer who has earned his kudos by getting his photos on the cover on Life magazine and ot More...

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