Neverlight

by Donald Pfarrer

Neverlight explores the marriage of Richard and Katherine Vail as Richard fights a war that Katherine comes to abhor. Richard is a volunteer, a naval gunfire officer serving with the Marine infantry in Vietnam. Katherine lives a secluded life with their daughter Terry in the New Hampshire woods.Directing the big weapons, naval guns and Marine Corps artillery, Richard makes his decisions hour by hour -- at incalculable cost.Katherine is tormented by her body’s loneliness and by her horror at the daily drumming of news from the war. If her husband is the good man she believes he is, how can he kill?Richard doesn’t see it quite that way. He asks, rather, If he is the man he should be, how could he place himself anywhere else but with his men?Katherine finds that bathing” in the snow can chill her body but not suppress its longings.Richard finds that the intervals of peace” between combat operations are harder to endure than the fighting. Two powerful forces are pulling him apart, love for his wife and daughter back home, and the rhythm of fight and recovery Vietnam.Donald Pfarrer was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for his service in the Vietnam War. On returning from Vietnam Pfarrer covered the antiwar movement for the Milwaukee Journal . He later wrote extensively for the paper on crime and politics. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the authoir of five novels. He is currently writing a novel about an adulterous love affair in wartime. His next project will be a novel placed within the legal system. More detail can be found at donaldpfarrer.com

283 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I rarely ever just put a book down without finishing it, but sadly did so with this one a little over 2/3 of the way in. Started reading with enthusiasm this novel about a husband fighting in Viet Nam, a wife and daughter back home, and how their marriage and family survives from a "his/her" perspective. However, as the battle scenes deepened so did the military technical jargon, to the point that it was almost impossible for a non-war experienced civilian to follow. Meanwhile, back on the home front the wife and child's experiences, which originally started out interesting and poignant, dissolved into a strange and heavy self-dialogue smothered in the wife's penchant for Socratic method. Maybe its that I was reading the book at a time when I needed something lighter. Just couldn't slog through this one to the end.