The Deep Green Sea

By Robert Olen Butler

Book Overview

"A slim, erotic and fable-like . . . book that picks up on many of Butler's abiding themes--the legacy of the Vietnam War, the clash of Vietnam's folklore and mysticism with American manners . . . [Butler is] a writer working to cast a spell." -- 'New York Times' Book Review"In a deceptively understated manner, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Robert Olen Butler introduces us to a pair of improbable modern lovers . . . [he] plants the seeds of a tragedy that will haunt his readers long after they finish this lyrical love story." -- 'People' In 'The Deep Green Sea', Robert Olen Butler has created an incandescent tale of modern love between a Vietnamese woman, orphaned in 1975 when Saigon fell to the Communists, and a Vietnam War veteran, returning from America to seek closure for decades-old emotional wounds. The more they nurture the love between them, the more they learn about each other, the more complex and dangerous their relationship becomes, and what follows conjures classical tragedy, infused with intense eroticism and with Butler's reverence for Vietnamese mythology and history. 'The Deep Green Sea' is a landmark work in the literature of love and war.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802120962
• ISBN13: 9780802120960
• Release Date: July 2013
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

haunting and lyrical

I was immediately pulled into this novel by the short chapters and the earnest voices of the two characters. Ben is a Vietnam War veteran, returning to that country after its inevitable "fall" to communism in order to search his soul and perhaps find some closure. Tien is a young Vietnamese woman to whom Ben is immediately drawn, and has some healing of her own to do. The two begin a very tender (and tentative) love affair which consumes them both.I enjoyed the addition of Vietnamese culture and landmarks, especially because they lent a sense of historical realism to a novel which, with Butler's sparse, poetic prose, may have seemed dream-like without them. The chapters alternate between Ben and Tien's points of view, pulling the reader into their tragic drama and making it impossible to look away even for a second. What I especially liked was that the book truly remains a love story, with Tien and Ben both receiving the closure they've so desperately been seeking (though in not the ways they may have imagined-- or maybe they did). _The Deep Green Sea_ is a sad, touching novel about the aftermath of war, the bonds that bring people together, and unintended consequences. Not everyone will like this book, but I do guarantee that the story won't easily leave you.

a beautiful and moving book

I have never read anything so deeply poignant and beautiful as this love story between Ben and Tien. This was a fabulous, touching book and I loved the weaving-in of Vietnamese culture. I didn't expect the ending, perhaps I was being a bit naive. I highly reccommend this book.

A story about Vietnam and America's Vietnam

This great book by Robert Olen Butler shows more than any other Vietnam book, the experience of an ordinary American soldier returning to Vietnam to figure out why he is returing there. The careful blending with Vietnamese folklore, the points of view of the two main characters, and the whole idea of an American trying to come to terms with why this land draws him so makes for a fantastic read and perspective. One does not want to put this book down, only to read each beautifully written page. Clearly this author has the capability to cross a "monkey bridge" when describing Vietnamese culture and the American experience with Vietnam.

A wonderful, complex love story!

I enjoyed this book tremendously! I read it in one sitting, even though I "knew" the outcome, I couldn't wait to see how it was handled. It was a beautiful, complex story full of history, culture, dreams and fairytales. This was my first Robert Olen Butler book and I can't wait to read another one. I'm always pleased to come across a sensitive love story by a male author. And, this one touches all the senses!

A beautiful piece of fiction

Viet Nam veteran Ben Coles returns to Ho Chi Minh City, a place he knew as Saigon over three decades ago. Ben seeks to find the peace of mind that has eluded him since his combat days. In Nam, Ben meets Le Thi Tien, whose mother, a prostitute to the American soldiers, disappeared in 1975 when the North overran the South. Ben and Tien are immediately attracted to each other and share sexual experiences. However, when they compare their experiences, Ben wonders if Tien, whose father was allegedly an American, could be his child. The duo decides to travel into the countryside in search of Tien's mother who supposedly returned to her small village in order to avoid retribution for hanging out with the Americans from the conquering Communists. THE DEEP GREEN SEA is a well written work of fiction that could easily be considered a great work of art. The scenes involving seventies and nineties Viet Namese culture and society are some of the best prose written in the nineties. The love scene, though brilliantly scribed in alternating voices, seem to take away from the strength of the story line and just slow it down. Robert Olen Butler, winner of a Pulitzer (A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN) knows and describes Nam like no one else and though his latest novel may not win the Pulitzer Prizel it is still a damn good book. Harriet Klausner