WHAT HARRY SAW

An antipodean tearjerker from Moran (Water, Carry Me, 2000, etc.), this time in the story of a Vietnam vet who messes up his life early on and never seems able to get it straightened out.

Americans were not the only ones traumatized by the war in Vietnam: Harry Hull, born and bred in a suburb if Sydney, was pretty badly torn up by his tour of duty there. A juvenile delinquent after his mother died, Harry joined the army as part of a plea-bargain that kept him out of jail. Most of his time in Southeast Asia was uneventful, but he was laid low one night by a Viet Cong shell. Back home, he took a job as a reporter for the Sydney Herald and there fell in love with a colleague, the lovely Lucy Whitmoor. By this time, Harry had made peace with his father Joe, who retreated into a grief-stricken, alcoholic haze after his wife died. A good thing, too, since Joe soon suffers a stroke and has to be nursed through his final illness by his son. In the meantime, Harry and Lucy go through a rough patch themselves: Lucy' reveals that she’s pregnant and refuses to marry Harry when he offers “to do the right thing.” Dumbfounded by her rejection and alone in the world after the death of his father, Harry turns to his Italian neighbor Bert for advice: “One thing is for sure, the women don't think like us. You wait too long, I believe maybe Lucy would see you in hell before she come back to you.” Bert’s wrong, and Harry does see Lucy again. But the story she tells him of her pregnancy is not what he was prepared for—and adds a final dollop of despair to his hopelessness.

Well-written but cloying: you can almost hear the violins swelling at the end of each chapter.