Are you old enough to remember the late 1960s? The Nixon Era? The War in Vietnam? That's what's tearing apart the narrator of Thomas Tabor's Fortunate Son. He's crafted a book that draws readers into the times with specific details that bring the era to life and conflicts that resonate today.

Reed is in ROTC, following in the footsteps of his dad who is a POW. His beliefs are entrenched until campus life, volunteering at a suicide prevention hotline, and his attraction to a lesbian who works there reshape his thoughts.

I've finally gotten to this book after over a year. At first I was concerned that there was too much physical detail that did not enhance the story, but that concern melted as the story progressed. I can't help seeing my own college years at that time in a new light as I re-examine who I was and who I became. This is a great examination of a specific life and how Reed grew inside and outside of college while living in a tumultuous time. Great read--especially for those of us who remember the era because we lived through it. ( )

This novel is set in the Vietnam War protest years of the late 60s-early 70s especially during the Nixon-Kissinger administration where the war of punishment (the fog of war) was extended to Laos and Cambodia. The protagonist, Reed Lawson is a twenty-year-old ROTC cadet at Florida Tech. He has a lean, muscled frame, runs 5 miles a day, and has rigid self-discipline, takes thermodynamics, and he calls everyone who doesn’t agree with the war "commies".

Sounds strong-willed? Well, he is not. He turns out to be a brainwashed wimp who has absolutely no idea what he REALLY wants to do in life. The military? Maybe not. A hippie? Probably not. A man who cares about everyone, including drugged-out street urchins. Never. A solid husband and father. Definitely not.

Reed rooms in Florida State dorm with Adam, a Jewish, intellectual, war protester, biology major. Adam is his most stalwart friend yet Reed really never recognizes that. In fact everyone else (except his mother and sister) routinely insult Reed to which he simply reacts with such rejoinders as "I didn't think of that". Reed takes a full measure of abuse throughout the book yet he just shrugs it off time after time.

Early on Reed spots Jordan Ellis on campus participating in a war protest wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with "Sisterhood is Powerful". Other signs at protest say "ROTC off campus now", "Bombers are killers, not heroes" (a saying with particular meaning since Reed's father was shot down over Hanoi in a punishment bombing raid and was declared MIA).

When he finds out Jordan works at a place called Lifelines he volunteers to work there part time. Jordan's leads off his orientation with the first of a long string of insults: "What are you staring at? Fucking warmonger". Although Reed is enamored with Jordan, she relentlessly lambasts him throughout the book with Reed just taking it with a shrug or no reaction at all.

Jordan explains "the clinic's purpose is to help teenagers, street people, poor people, and others who couldn't find health care' yet it was not a clinic, no medical personnel were present, and they provided no health care onsite. Lifelines was just an emergency hotline (New Crisis Hotline). So, she, and many others that work there, had an inflated view of its usefulness to the down'n'out.

Reed, very shakily, starts out at Lifelines answering calls (with Jordan listening in) but he eventually evolves into a bumbling therapist intending to save...who? Well, at least, Annabel, a troubled, rudderless, Camel-smoking girl, with several suicide-attempt notches on her belt.

One night, when Reed offers to help Jordan, whose beat-up VW won't start, she says "Can you please ditch the macho mechanic thing". "Okay, okay, he says. I just don't want you breaking down in the middle of nowhere". "But if I did, she smirked, "you could ride in on your big white horse and rescue me, right"? How he could continue to pursue such a disgusting shrew is beyond me.

Reed's dad, Cmdr. Frank Lawson, permeates the story to the point that Reed has become neurotic in his irrational feeling that his dad is still alive and will return home. Still, he tells no one but Adam; not even Jordan. Carol, his mother, tells Reed, subtly hinting at his neuroticism, "[We suffer] week after week, month after month of not knowing until it takes over your entire life. Until we have no other life". But Reed is more persistent
Carol: Sweetheart, we all want closure but we may never get it.
Reed: You're wrong. Dad's alive, I'm sure.

In fact, Reed sees ghosts of his father, in such situations as while driving. Ghostly Frank sits in the passenger seat while Reed goes berserk trying to figure it all out.

At one point Jordan says "Fathers deserve only the respect they earn" which triggers a cascade of thoughts in Reed related to his father and his domineering personality. On his last night before going on duty, Frank Lawson said the following to Reed, his son: "Don't go soft one me. And don't be a dumbass shithead". Even Reed's father insulted him at their last goodbye.

From about 30% to 90% (Kindle) this book drags on and on seemingly with no end. For instance, at 56%, "Arriving an hour early for his shift that night, Reed cleaned up the kitchen, wiped the counter, washed the dishes, and scrubbed a grease-caked skillet. Whistling, he finished by mopping the black and white checkerboard linoleum floor". Yawn!

Reed's pursuit of Jordan continues but it is increasingly difficult to understand his persistence. Jordan, who has an intimate girlfriend, says "I don't need a man to make me happy...even if I did, I haven't met a real one yet”, to which Reed says "ouch".

Carol, Reed's mom, receives a letter from her husband, via the Air Force, in which Frank, in very stilted, flowery language, says he is being treated well. Although it could mean Frank is still alive, it appears to be forced and Carol doesn't quite believe it. On the other hand Reed is ecstatic, knows his father is alive (and will return home eventually).

Despite the letter, "...the weight of three years had lifted from [Reed's] shoulders, a formless dread refused to budge. What the hell was wrong with him?" It is clear Reed is extremely neurotic to the point he is now becoming incompetent at life. "Sandy (his sister), Jordan, and Olivia (another Lifelines worker) were right. He was a square, clueless kid whose childhood was a "Leave It to Beaver", "Father Knows Best" TV fantasy".

To add insult to injury, Reed gets Annabel pregnant. After it becomes widely known, Jordan says "You're just like every other asshole on this campus. You raped a drugged-out teenager". Reed, ever meek and confused, says "Wait a minute, let me explain. It wasn't like that". "Don't bother", Jordan says.

Spoiler Alert (doesn't really spoil, we knew it all the time). Reed's mother reads a letter saying "The North Vietnamese sent a new list of POWs with their status to the Swedish Embassy". Next to Frank's name: "Died in captivity". Carol tentatively accepts the outcome but Reed isn't having it: "it's a bunch of lies! The commies are lying, the government is lying, the Navy is lying, everybody [is lying]". Reed storms out of the house, scorning his mother as though she is responsible.

Annabel attempts to drown herself, Reed follows nearly drowning himself when...Annabel saves him: "Quit moving, I've got you". Later, Reed buys a quart of Wild Turkey and careens down the street in a drunken stupor, smashing up his beloved Mustang. So, what does he do? He goes over to Jordan's apartment. She can finally accept him, bloody and disheveled, and they go to bed for the first time. It is clear; Jordan had succeeded in destroying Reed so she decided to favor him with a piddling prize.

The last six paragraphs are inexplicable. It starts with "Years later" yet his Mustang sits "forlornly at the curb". Years later! There's no mention of Jordan, Olivia, Annabel, Adam, Webb, Ross, anyone. He still can't accept his dad's death but "it was another spring day, full of promise, bright and clear". Really!

The only recommendation I can make for this book is to someone of a younger generation who wants to learn about the Vietnam era from the viewpoint of the war protestors. Historical facts are inserted so it is fairly easy to see how the war protest grew with every misstep of the Nixon/Kissinger administration. ( )

Fortunate Son is based in the 1970s with Viet Nam War, the war protests, Nixon, drug culture, sexual freedom, women’s rights, and abortion as the backdrop to this story. The main character Reed Lawson is an ROTC cadet at the university studying naval engineering and hoping to follow the tradition of his grandfather and father a join the Navy.
His choice is complicated because his father’s plane was shot down in Viet Nam and had been missing in action for three years. Secondly, he meets a war protester that he is interested in.

“For three years Reed’s life had run on a single, focused track. Like a photograph with a shallow depth of field, the mystery surrounding his father had dominated the foreground, while all other relationships had receded into the distant background.
Until now.”

He has to do community service at a Suicide & Drug Hot-Line place where his war protester works. While working at the hotline, he became involved with an at-risk teenager by tutoring her. Troubles brew up at home as his mother has become involved with another man, and Reed feels that she is being disloyal to his father. Later on, things become more complicated with the possibility that his dad is still alive.

“Forget Annabel. She needed a real shrink.
Forget Jordan. She had a girlfriend and a past he was powerless to erase.
Forget his mother? No, of course not. But should he condemn her or forgive her?
Running harder and faster, he prayed movement alone would banish his funk and magically usher back his well-ordered, spit-shined life.
Utterly drained, he slowed to a walk and gazed up at billowing, swirling clouds that raced across the sky.
Somber and threatening. Primed to unleash a thunderstorm.”

With the killing of the students at Kent State and the ramping of the war into Cambodia, the anti-war protesters became more active.
He was becoming more ambivalent about his own choices and deciding what to do and believe.

“What to do? His mother was right, but Jordan was too. He felt his father’s presence—watching, judging—as if they were tethered by a nine-thousand-mile cord. Yet Reed heard no voice in his head, no command, no advice. Nothing.”

This is a well-written book with believable characters set in a time that was well researched. The plotline moves well with some back history intertwined with the story, and it is a joy to read. ( )