Lizzie's War

by Tim Farrington

Book Overview

A family epic laced with authenticity, wit and unforgettable characters. Liz O'Reilly has a husband in Vietnam, 4 kids under the age of 12 (and one on the way), and a burgeoning crush on the family priest. An unconventional love story. It's Summer 1967 and Mike O'Reilly's just shipped out to Vietnam. Liz O'Reilly is trying to keep it all together for their four kids - 6 year old Deb-Deb (who believes she is an otter), 8 year old Angus, Kathie, (who...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006083448X
• ISBN13: 9780060834487
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Poignant portrayal of both fronts--home & combat

As usual, I think the author has excellent insight into human nature. Part of what I think makes him a good writer is the small things the characters do or think that make them seem so real--e.g. usually she used saccharin, but somehow Mike getting blown up made using real sugar seem more appropriate. I mean, when something serious happens we do have thoughts and behaviors like suddenly something like sticking to a diet seems too trivial to be bothered with any more, right? My only complaint about this book is that after doing such a good job showing us what it's like for both halves of the relationship while one is off to war, and mentions the physical aftermath, there's no mention of the emotional aftermath--i.e. Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder. Considering the number of Vietnam vets for whom this was ( & still is?) an issue--homeless vets, vets who are still constantly in & out of vet hospitals dealing wtih it--I think it might have been more realistic to have at least brought it up in someone else, even if he still wanted his romance between the main characters to have a happy ending.

A Beautiful Novel

Tim Farrington is a wonderul writer who understands life so very well--his women, men, and children are so real and so heartbreakingly like our own that we can't help but embrace them too. Lizzie's War is, at its core, a love story. Lizzie's love for her husband, so great that she still loves him in spite of her anger over his refusal to come home from the battlefield until his tour was over. Her love for her children, both alive and in utero, even though she did not want to become pregnant again. Most vitally, Lizzie learns to love herself after she's rediscovered the essence of her soul: this unearthed only after profound sadness and solitude. Farrington lightly skips away from the politics of the US war in Vietnam. He really is writing this novel about a remarkable woman's re-discovering herself after emerging from the refiner's fire. His prose is just wonderful and thoughtful and poignant--if only there were more literary gems like Farrington out there! Another topic Farrington treats with respect is the role of organized religion, specifically Catholicism, in an unfair world. It plays a role in Lizzie's tragedy and triumph, though much more sublime than one would first suppose. What a wonderful read this was! Sit down with this and enjoy a beautiful story of love, discovery, and a family's redemption despite the horrors of a faraway war.

A phenomenal narrative of emotion

Lizzie O'Reilly has to valiantly struggle with being the dutiful officer's wife and mother to their three kids while her husband serves his tour of duty in the Vietnam War. Chapters alternate between Lizzie in the States and Michael in Vietnam. Husband and wife, on separate continents have to deal with life's harsh issues; loss, grief, discrimination, desperation, and tragedy. Their kids grow up all too quickly. Horrified at the thought, Lizzie begrudgingly accepts the fact that the Marines will always play a role in their family's life. Each chapter is an eloquent but hard statement on how a war impacts a family. Each chapter is filled with emotion; notably when their fourth child is born. Their stories combine to create an amazing, well written love story that struggles to survive the dark days of war.

Good writing and reading

This is the new book by Tim Farrington, who wrote a book I really loved, "The Monk Downstairs". I liked this new book, just not quite as much as his other. "Lizzie's War" is the story of Lizzie and Michael O'Reilly and takes place in 1968-69, during the Viet Nam War. He is a Marine officer who is in VN and she is at home in VA with three children, expecting a fourth. The story alternates between her life and his, and is an interesting juxtaposition. I think that Farrington does outstanding character development and did a great job of describing a family that truly is living on the edge. While I wanted to kick Michael for re-enlisting when he had family obligations, at the same time, the author made me understand his reasons. I admired Lizzie, because although sometimes she was "down" (who wouldn't be, in her situation?), she was not a whiner. Well worth reading.

"Life is what happens when you're making other plans"

Tim Farrington's new novel Lizzie's War is all about the emotional and physical scars of war, both in the heat of battle and also on the domestic home front. Beginning with the Detroit riots in the summer of 1967 and ending on Labor Day weekend, 1968, the novel covers a tumultuous time in American history where society was undergoing profound change. The story tells of the sacrifices of an ordinary family when their unbridled, loyal, and thoroughgoing Marine father is shipped off to fight in Vietnam. Switching backwards and forwards between the front lines of war and the steadfastness of home, Farrington weaves a narrative of longing and desire. Liz and Mike O'Reilly must cope knowing that there's a possibility they may never see each other again. Using measured, eloquent and absolutely masterful prose, the author reaches into the hearts of both Liz and Mike, and exposes the complicated reactions to a family that is constantly living on the edge, and where tragedy can randomly strike at any given moment. Both live with loneliness and doubt and with the discomfort and exhaustion of battlefield death and life without one's spouse. Mike faces the violence of a horrifically misguided war, whilst Liz must cope with her own suffering as she attends to the needs of her four children, with one on the way, waiting anxiously for Mike to return. The story is told from the point of view of Liz, Mike, and Father Ezekiel Germaine, a war veteran and eccentric Parish priest who tends to Liz's emotional and spiritual needs whilst Mike is fighting. Liz has been left to contend with her own desires and yearnings. She tries to keep the home fires burning and take good care her children, but she also longs to pick up the theatre career she has abandoned for the demands of motherhood. Liz is a complex, intelligent, and talented woman, who is not only bound by the contradictions of her Catholic faith, but has been forced to put her life on hold for her "husband, for God, and for her country." Liz can handle living with the possibility of Mike's death minute by minute, she can also handle the empty bed, but what she misses is the reality of the depth of their shared life. She's made tenuous peace with the war, with the idiocy of her husband shipping off to protect God and family at the expense of actual wife and kids, and also with the wreckage of her own dreams of getting back into theatre. But Liz is gradually becoming tired of it all - tired of having to justify the indefensible ways of men to children, tired of being a military mother, tired of trying to translate the world's madness and her country's and her husband's into something her son's and daughters could salute. Captain Mike O'Reilly seems to have been born a Marine; he's "a warrior and a believer" through and through. And his remarkably literate and erudite letters back to Liz from the front lines suggest that he's having a kind of love affair with the theatre of war. Liz knows "he would go back int