Book review :
"Life Dust" is the third novel by Pam Webber featuring the character Nettie, who was first introduced in The Wiregrass. It takes place in 1971 and tells the alternating stories of Nettie and her childhood friend and now fiancé, Andy. It is, at times, heart wrenching, but also uplifting.
The story revolves around two young people separated by the Vietnam War. Andy is a lieutenant in the military and has been sent overseas to lead a platoon of long range reconnaissance operators. His dangerous assignment worries his fiancé, Nettie, who is a nurse-in-training. She’s going through her own struggles concerning hospital politics. That alone can’t keep her mind from worry so she volunteers at an organization dedicated to finding missing and captured soldiers. She also befriends an old man, Mr. Pepper, at the hospital, who has his own painful struggles from the past that he hopes to resolve. Each character learns about what we leave behind in this world and how that life dust changes others.
Nettie's integrity stands out as she avoids revealing what she knows about Mrs. Woods, but how long can she hold out? As for Andy, can he keep his troop safe, and, at the same time, complete his mission? Will Nettie and Andy be together again?
The novel deftly touches on the issues of the times including women’s rights and Vietnam war protests. The descriptions of landscape and flowers of Hawaii are very well done.
An amazingly well researched, historically accurate novel, LIFE DUST is a page turner. For those who lived through this era, it will bring back a lot of memories.
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