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In Country | Introduction

In Country was the first novel that Bobbie Ann Mason had published. Until just a few years earlier, she had been an unknown college teacher. Her first book of fiction, Shiloh, and Other Stories, was a great critical success. The short story collection earned nominations for the National Book Critics Circle award, the American Book Award, and the P.E.N./Faulkner Award for fiction. Critics and readers awaited the publication of In Country with much anticipation.

The book, which takes place in western Kentucky, concerns a teenage girl's questions about the war in Vietnam, where her father died and her uncle served. Unlike many serious works of literature, which generally avoid current events because they will soon be outdated, the novel has constant cultural references that were fresh when it was published in 1984. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, for instance, which is central to the story, had been dedicated as recently as 1982, and the Bruce Springsteen album that is quoted in the epigram and mentioned frequently thereafter was released in 1984.

In addition to the timely cultural references, the characters that Mason presented also helped her gain a broader audience than many novelists enjoy. These characters do not have their interests and sensibilities formed by reading literature, but, like most Americans, they know life through the references that the consumer culture has given them. McDonald's, Holiday Inn and the shopping mall are all not just abstract, but significant pieces of their lives. In Country, like most of Bobbie Ann Mason's works, succeeds in using the mundane aspects of modern life in a search for greater meaning.

In Country Summary

Part I
Bobbie Ann Mason's novel In Country is the story of Samantha Hughes, known as Sam, and her quest to uncover the truth of the Vietnam War. For seventeen-year-old Sam, the war has particular significance: her father died in Vietnam shortly before her own birth.

The novel is divided into three parts; the first and last parts, written in present tense, frame the middle of the novel, told in a long flashback. As the story opens, Sam, Sam's maternal uncle, Emmett, a Vietnam War veteran, and Sam's paternal grandmother, Mawmaw, are driving from their home in Kentucky to Washington D.C. to visit the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. There is the suggestion that some crisis, reached about two weeks earlier, precipitated the cross-country trip.

Part II
In the second part of the story, the novel slips into past tense and recounts the events of the summer immediately before the trip to the Wall. We learn background information about Dwayne, Sam's father, and about Emmett's return from Vietnam. We also learn about Irene, Sam's mother, and her response to Dwayne's death. Irene has since remarried, has a new baby, and now lives in Lexington.

Sam lives with Emmett. Sam, just graduated from high school, has a boyfriend named Lonnie. She does not know what she wants out of life. Emmett, who is unemployed and who has not worked since his return from Vietnam, cooks for the pair and spends his days trying to shore up the sagging foundation of their house. The two watch a lot of M.A.S.H. on television, and although Sam knows that the television show is about the Korean War, it starts her thinking about the Vietnam War, and about her father.

Sam is worried about Emmett who suffers from acne, headaches, and stomach disorders. She is convinced that he has been poisoned from Agent Orange, a defoliant used during the Vietnam War. At the same time, Sam finds herself increasingly interested in the Vietnam War. She wants to understand Emmett and she wants to know more about her father. Consequently, she begins spending time with Emmett's friends, a group of veterans who breakfast at McDonald's everyday.

Sam also worries about her future. She talks about... ยป Complete In Country Summary