When I was in High School, I read a wonderful book, In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason. I don’t remember how I happened across it; I’m thinking it was a review in a magazine that I adored. It was later made into a movie, but I never saw the movie. It is one of those books that the impressions of it stayed with me much more than plot lines (but I did remember that they were driving in an old VW bug with a transmission that kept slipping and they had to hold it into gear). Recently, my friend Philippa (who I may get to meet this summer, yay!) mentioned that she is taking a Summer Literature Class, and that one of the books was this one. I immediately ordered it from Paperback Swap, and had the pleasure of re-reading it.

I was struck by a lot of things on the re-read – while the part with the VW transmission was there, the road trip was a lot less of the story than I remembered. What was truly striking was the basic storyline – a girl whose father died in VietNam deals with her loss by trying to understand the sensations of the war, and what it did to a generation of men. There were parts that I identified strongly with from her perspective – her teenage years being in the same decade as mine. There were parts I identified with strongly as an adult – the veterans and her mother are my age now.

I find it to be a particularly poignant and relevant book now as we have a generation growing up dealing with another war, and how it resonates and reverberates across domestic issues and politics as well as how we as a society deal with returning veterans (not well, as I see often in the newspaper, this recent story being a case in point). I’ll be interested in hearing what Philippa’s class thinks of it, and I’m thinking I should put the movie in the queue. And, Philippa, I’m planning on reading Beloved too.

On that 80s note, and with an awareness of passing the torch from my generation to the next, the other morning I awoke to a 17year old sitting there asking, “Mom, how did you roll your jeans in high school? I need to know for History Class?” Urg.

And, in one last 80s note, today’s word of the day

brummagem (BRUM-uh-juhm) adjective

Cheap and showy.

noun

Something that is counterfeit or of inferior quality.

[After Brummagem, a dialectal form of Birmingham, UK, where counterfeit
coins were produced in the 17th century. Brummie is a nickname for someone
from Birmingham.]

(photo credit )