Men tend to experience war in a pragmatic way. But while they are off fighting in foreign lands, there is a war going on at home that isn’t spoken of nearly as often – that of the wives and children these men must leave behind. The wife of every soldier struggles to raise a family as a single parent while in constant fear that her family is going to fall apart.
Tim Farrington, author of the best-selling “The Monk Downstairs,” has chosen the 1960s again for his effective new novel, “Lizzie’s War” (No. 2 on the American Booksellers Association’s Book Sense May list). This time he focuses on the Vietnam War, telling the story of Liz O’Reilly, wife of a Marine stationed at Khe Sanh, the site of a famous siege during the war.
Mike O’Reilly is always ready for action and believes in the Marine creed. He is fighting what he believes to be a noble war. Mike will fight for his country at any cost – morality isn’t part of the equation.
The story opens with a pregnant Liz driving her four children in the family’s station wagon through the fiery riots of Detroit in the summer of 1967. Mike has just left for Vietnam. She plods through each day wondering how her life became days of waiting for her husband while her own desires have been swept under a rug. The theatrical career she deserted for motherhood is on her mind.
Despite the seemingly liberal nature of the main characters, it is odd that the rest of the ’60s are never mentioned except for a brief take on birth control. Liz does imagine her children’s teachers to be hippies since her sons are punished for getting into a fight at school because another student called their dad a baby killer. Such iconic moments are there, but for the most part, the era does not feel like the troubled period it was. It lacks a certain essential tone. Farrington also writes with ambivalence toward the war. There isn’t any criticism or praise; it is, in effect, portrayed as meaningless.
Liz passes most her days wishing she wasn’t pregnant, drinking her way through their “Catholic mistake” and fearing the day when two Marines will show up at her door bearing bad news. She tries to keep her family together but struggles: “I can’t even fight racism in the local bluebird troop,” she says at one point.
She feels betrayed by her husband and despises the Marines for all that she must endure alone. With each passing day, it’s clear her sons will follow in their father’s footsteps. Even the Corps’ birthday is an official holiday in the house and celebrated with zeal.
The children have essentially become miniature Marines, obsessed with the Corps. Each day they re-enact the news, throwing grenades and pretending to blow each other up in the backyard. Angus, one of their sons, asks one day, “Do Marines need to know subtraction?” Liz of course answers yes. Her son asks why. She answers, but only to herself: “So you’ll know how many men are left in your platoon if seven of them die.” It’s this kind of bleakness that fills her mind while she tries to remain upbeat for her children day in and day out.
Liz also has taken an interest in a gloomy monk and ex-vet who enjoys drinking as much as she does. One moment between them has Liz lifting her beer and toasting “Semper Fi” while Father Germaine toasts “Sangre Christo.” Ironically, her eldest son looks up to the priest, hoping to be one himself. Liz and Father Germaine ponder separately the notion of having an affair when their gazes linger a little too long.
Most stories about war focus on men at war, rarely portraying a wife’s battle at home. Though both stories are told in “Lizzie’s War,” it is really Liz’s life and her conflicting obligations that we follow. Like Lizzie, we look forward to receiving Mike’s letters, and we wait for his safe return, but it is her war that we care about.
Renée Warner is a freelance writer in Atlanta.
Lizzie’s War
By Tim Farrington
HarperCollins, 416 pages, $24.95
