travel

This is a first person memoir. It engaged me from the start perhaps because I had a draft lottery number that was the next one to be called before the Vietnam War ended. I have always considered how lucky I was and yet still eager to find out and understand the country and the people better. The war was such a turning point in the history of America. It was equally a turning point for the Vietnamese. The narrator takes a bike ride through Vietnam, makes a fortuitous stop in Hue, an old provincial capital city and that too becomes a turning point for his life. A quiet book, well written, enchanting. Enjoy!

I had a hard time finishing this book. No, not in the usual sense where thickness of the prose or my own ennui cause a book to be put down not to be picked up again. I put off finishing this book because I did not want the experience of reading it to end. Jim Sullivan combines a keen eye both for life in Vietnam's city of Hue and his own awakening to the love he has found with Thuy with his marvelous ability to write a story. The result is "Over the Moat," a travelogue not only in the conventional sense but also of human hearts haltingly discovering an affinity for each other. "Your work is both good and original," Mark Twain supposedly once told an aspiring author. "Unfortunately the part which is good is not original and the part which is original is not good." Jim Sullivan has written a good and original book. While it reads like skillful fiction, remarkably, it is not. The book had for me special meaning insofar as I spring from the same soil as the author and, as it happens, am finding his book striking close to home in several respects. And while that certainly makes the book resonate all the more for me, it is no prequisite for any reader who enjoys an engaging story written in language which manages to be both nuanced and unpretentious all the while flavored with some gentle humor. Sa'ch tuye^.t vo*`i or "wonderful book" as one might say in Vietnam.

Over the Moat is an extraordinary story. To call it a "love story" -- which it certainly is -- only tells half the tale. While the reader is soon enmeshed in the lives of Jim and Thuy, there are so many more intricate layers to the story. Throughout the book we are introduced to the people and culture of Vietnam, seen first through Jim's eyes as the outsider and then with his understanding as he is gradually accepted. Over the Moat is rich with descriptions and runs deep with emotion. A treasure to read.