Rating: 
Summary: Interesting take on the ramifications of Viet Nam
Review: In light of the way views and attitudes about Viet Nam and Viet Nam vets are slowly changing, it is interesting to read a book written in the early 80's about a girl whose father didn't come back. This is a coming of age novel--both for the girl and her Viet Nam vet uncle. As Sam learns more about the war and her father's part in it, those readers who did not go to war or were not alive at the time, gain a deeper appreciation for the sacrifices and struggles of Viet Nam vets today. There are many interesting juxtapositions of the different kinds of vets, the non-functional to the highly functional. Each carries baggage from that war. But Sam also carries baggage, perhaps the load her father never brought home. Touching and poignant, I enjoyed it tremendously.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting take on the ramifications of Viet Nam
Review: In light of the way views and attitudes about Viet Nam and Viet Nam vets are slowly changing, it is interesting to read a book written in the early 80's about a girl whose father didn't come back. This is a coming of age novel--both for the girl and her Viet Nam vet uncle. As Sam learns more about the war and her father's part in it, those readers who did not go to war or were not alive at the time, gain a deeper appreciation for the sacrifices and struggles of Viet Nam vets today. There are many interesting juxtapositions of the different kinds of vets, the non-functional to the highly functional. Each carries baggage from that war. But Sam also carries baggage, perhaps the load her father never brought home. Touching and poignant, I enjoyed it tremendously.
Rating: 
Summary: This was a nice story about finding yourself
Review: In this book by Bobbie Ann Mason, a young girl named Sam Hughes struggles in life to find out about her father,and the history of the Vietnam War. I read this book for a 12th grade Honors English class, and at first did not care for it. I did not think there was too much of a point to be honest. Towards the middle, the plot thickened and we discovered that Sam is not an ordinary teen. Taking care of her uncle who suffers from flashbacks and possibly Agent Orange, and dealing with a boyfriend she really doesn't care for anymore, made my every day problems, such as college, seem unimportant. I felt a lot of simalarities with Sam towards the end. She may have been a teenager in the 70's or 80's.....the problems were that of an everyday 90's teen. She takes care of those she loves, like we all do, and she is faced with college choices, like where to go, and what to do with her life. In the beginning, I didn't like this story at all......but the plot left me eager to find out more about Sam and her life. I was very satisfyed with the choices Sam Hughes made in the end....they were realistic to the story, and they made her happy in the end.
Rating:
Summary: It's 1984 all over again
Review: It's hard for me to believe that a book written in 1985 is a period piece, but that's how I reacted to it. It seems so removed from today. Have we come so far in our dealing with the Vietnam War that a 14-year-old book seems dated? Have we finally welcomed the returning vets? Have we settled the issue of POWs and MIAs? Have we forgiven ourselves? This story was disturbing at times--Sam's "wild" life with her Uncle Emmett, her romance with Tom the vet, her father's war journal. If I had read this in 1985, I think I would have felt passionately about Sam's search to know her father. Instead I found myself reminiscing about M*A*S*H re-runs, Atari games, and Bruce Springsteen videos. These references made the story out-of-date, not timeless.
Rating: 
Summary: Mason's Best
Review: Mason's first and most widely known novel, In Country is also her most evocative and enduring work. She captures not only the legacy of Vietnam for a daughter left behind, but also a small-town Kentucky life that's quickly slipping into the past. Perhaps the most nearly perfect representation of teenager caught between her hometown and popular American culture.
Rating:
Summary: Mason's Best
Review: Mason's first and most widely known novel, In Country is also her most evocative and enduring work. She captures not only the legacy of Vietnam for a daughter left behind, but also a small-town Kentucky life that's quickly slipping into the past. Perhaps the most nearly perfect representation of teenager caught between her hometown and popular American culture.
Rating: 
Summary: In Country was boring!
Review: Overall, I did not think In Country was very interesting. While I believe that the Vietnam War is a fascinating event in history, I felt that the story was told in such a way that it seemed almost boring. Bobbie Ann Mason spends the majority of the book talking about the life Sam and Emmett live in the small town of Hopewell and their daily routines rather than talking about the war itself. The most interesting parts were those where Sam interacted with other Vietnam veterans and got to hear some of their experiences. However, her search for information about her father could have been told in a more exciting way. As a reader, I didn't really feel emotionally involved with the story. For example, I couldn't have cared less when Sam found her father's journal. In fact, at some points I found the story so boring that it took me almost a half hour to read a chapter. I do not recommend this book. In my opinion, the author had the oportunity to write something intriguing but instead has written something with little imagination. If someone wants to read about Vietnam, they are better off looking some place else. Reading In Country was definitely not a pleasurable experience.
Rating:
Summary: More good, solid work from Bobbie Ann Mason.
Review: People who read for plot only, as have, apparently, some of the previous reviewers, are missing many other elements of the novel, any novel. Bobbie Ann Mason often writes about the Southern female and her transformation through discovery. Exactly what that woman discovers changes from story to story, but Sam is definitely one of Mason's dynamic Southern females. I am sorry, too, that some reviewers don't seem to appreciate Mason's use of contextual details to provide a landscape against which these transformations take place. I just really appreciate her willingness to refer to anything from Pop Tarts to Avon Products. That's the environment within which many of us do experience our lives. And Emmett? He's my uncle ... or my cousin . . . or my brother . . .
Rating:
Summary: A fine evocation of the post-Vietnam era
Review: Readers of Nancy Drew (and Bobbie Ann Mason's scholarly analysis of the well-read series of "girl mysteries") will recognize the underlying structure of this wonderful novel about the aftermath of Vietnam. Set in a rural Southern community, the story follows the attempt of its young heroine Sam to solve the mystery of her father, who died before she knew him, a casualty of the war. Meanwhile, her curiosity is piqued by her uncle Emmett who did return from that war, but is still haunted by it and languishes in a kind of noncommunicative and prolonged bout with post traumatic stress. Independent and single-minded, like Nancy, Sam looks for clues and tries to piece them together. There are photographs, letters, and mementos to collect and ponder. Eventually, she tries to simulate the experience of being "in country," spending a night in the swamp, hoping to recreate for herself the fear and bravery of the young soldier far from home who was her father. Finally, it is a family trip to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., that brings them all closer to resolution. And while it may not solve a mystery, or the conundrum of the Vietnam War itself, they are drawn closer to the enigma of human life and the need to honor the past while also letting go of it.
Rating:
Summary: Another one about the legacy of Vietnam
Review: Sam Hughes, whose father was killed in Vietnam, lives with her uncle Emmett, a veteran who may be suffering from exposure to Agent Orange. College-aged Sam goes through the usual crises of those her age: picking a college, getting a summer job, breaking up with her high school boyfriend - and then along comes Tom, one of her uncle's friends, and Sam's emotions run up another hill of the roller coaster.
In Country RI carries the legacy of Vietnam into the culture of the 80s and is a beautiful portrait, lovingly rendered, of that era.
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