Cheap In Country (Book) (Bobbie Ann Mason) Price

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Customer Reviews of In Country

An excellent, entertaining work of literature
With so many bad contemporary novels hitting the best seller lists these days reading In Country was a breath of fresh air. Mason creates well-rounded, unique characters. Sam and Emmett are unlike any other characters that I have ever read about. Furthermore, the plot is original and insightful. I always enjoy reading about a place that is diffeerent from my own environment. Mason captures what life in a small Southern town is really like. Furthermore, I really appreciate learning new things frm a book. I walked away from this novel feeling more informed about the Vietnam war. Overall, In Country is a wonderful reading experience. Mason is a phenomenal writer.

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In Country
Samantha Hughes was the daughter of a Vietnam veteran. She never knew her father, since he died before her birth. She struggles in life to find out about her father, and the history of the Vietnam War. Samantha lives with her uncle Emmett, who also served in Vietnam. Emmett is friends with Tom, Earl and Pete, three other Vietnam vets who, like Emmett, all have problems of one kind or another that relate to their war experiences. Through the book, the reader finds out that Sam is not an ordinary teen. She has to take care of Emmett because he suffers from Flashbacks, and deals with a boyfriend she does not really care for anymore. She is also faced with the everyday choices that a teen has to make, such as what to do with her life.
Samantha becomes obsessed with finding out about her father and his experiences. But, Emmett and the other veterans do not want to talk about the war. Sam pushes everyone to attend a dance honoring the town's veterans, but Pete and Earl get into a fight, Emmett disappears, and Tom takes Sam home for an unsuccessful engagement. When Sam reads her father's diary, she begins to understand what his life and death meant. Sam and Emmett come at least temporarily to terms with the war in their lives after their trip to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial.
I really enjoyed this book because I was able to relate to Sam as a teenager and the problems that come along with those years. Also, Mason was very descriptive throughout the entire book, which helped me create a movie in my mind while reading. The character of Samantha was well thought out because of the fact that I know if I had lost my father as she did, I Furthermore, from what I know about the Vietnam War from U.S. History, Mason hit the bulls eye with her information. It was a great book and I reccommend it to anyone who enjoys sitting down in a quiet spot to read an enjoyable book.

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a book i keep coming back to
somehow, "in country" (i have no idea why this lists it as "in country ri" - what the eff is "ri"? it's certainly not on my book cover, nor have i ever seen it listed as that...) anyway, "in country" is a book i constantly find myself thinking of and coming back to. as a girl who first read this book when she was a year younger than the main character sam and last read it when she was a few years older than sam, i can't help but indentify... i think the historical questions, the 80's pop culture, and explicit descriptions of the actuality of every day life are truly amazing... i cry every time i read the book. there's something so desperate and yet so fresh and hopeful about sam hughes. i would recommend this book to anyone, but especially any girl in her late teens, or like me, early twenties.