The Healer's War

by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Book Overview

Winner of the Nebula Award: "A brutal and beautiful book" that follows the surreal, fantastical journey of a Vietnam War nurse (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). A literary departure for acclaimed fantasy... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553282522
• ISBN13: 9780553282528
• Release Date: October 1989
• Publisher: Spectra Books
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

The Healer's War

The book was absolutely gripping. It is hard to believe that the writer of the Fairy Godmother books could produce such an emotionally overwhelming book of the horrors of the Vietnam war. You know the book is fiction, but you wonder just "how much" is really ficiton. E. A. Scarborough pulls you kicking and screaming through desperate war situations that you know, deep inside, must have been real, yet she makes it bearable with her "healing hand" of magic and mystery. Had I known beforehand what the book was about, I would never have read it. I was sick of the Vietnam war ages ago when it happened. But, Scarborough made me relive it with her, sometimes sobbing, sometimes livid with fury, and I wound up reading all night a book that years ago, I would have scorned. She is quite a lady, and a genius to have pulled *me* into her coils.

Paints a vivid, detailed picture

Being born in the early '80s, I never experienced what the Vietnam War was like for Americans, military and civilian. To me, Vietnam was "just another war"; another chapter in my history textbook. Until I came across The Healer's War. The Healer's War is pure fiction, set in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. The plot revolves around a mysterious amulet that the main character Kitty "inherits" from one of her patients. (She's a nurse in Vietnam.) As time progresses, Kitty realizes the true healing power of the amulet. Although fiction, this book paints a vivid picture of Vietnam during the war. The conditions the soldiers had to tolerate, and the daily battles is described in excruciating, almost explicit detail. The Healer's War gave me a view on Vietnam that no textbook or history class could offer. I will never look at the Vietnam War the same way again, and I now hold a respect for those that served in it. This book is a must-read.

Speculative fiction about a nurse in Vietnam.

This is an excellent novel about a nurse serving in Vietnam during the war (the author was also a nurse in Vietnam). A Vietnam veteran myself, I recommend it highly. The main character, Lt. Kitty McCulley, is having a difficult time with her nursing responsibilities and with her interactions with others. An elderly Vietnamese holy man gives her an amulet which allows her to see the "auras" of others. It helps her guide herself through the war and helps her find herself in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and Ms. Scarborough's writing (note the five stars I awarded) and I recommend the book to everyone (the publisher should be shot for letting it go out of print). However, I do have a bone to pick! What makes this novel so different can be seen by the fact that it won the 1988 Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of the year, the Nebula Award being given by the Science Fiction Writers of America. I loved the book; but, it was not the best science fiction novel of 1988. It's excellent speculative fiction and I'm certain that is the reason the members voted for it; but, I'm sorry Ms. Scarborough, every few years the SFWA seem to go off on a tangent. Nevertheless, because it has won the Nebula, it is now incumbent that all serious students of science fiction literature read "The Healer's War." But then, they should read it anyway.

Wow, a fabulous well written tale!

Such a wonderful hopeful story set in such a horror-filled time. Ms.Scarborough's writing is so real and humorous I couldn't help but be pulled into the story to feel alongside her characters. This book I simply did not want to put down.

A painful but glorious book by a superb author

Having no desire to read anything about the Vietnam War, I nevertheless picked up this book because I love the author's work, and because it was good enough to win the Nebula Award! Once I read the first sentence, I couldn't put it down. Even in this hard look at the war from a nurse's point of view, Scarborough's humor and deft touch shine through. It helped us to understand family members who came back from Vietnam forever changed and lost. The book is brutally honest and touchingly gentle, and merits more than one reading. A true "must-read" for everyone.