Synopses & Reviews
In search of love, absolution, or forgiveness, Charles Boatman leaves the Fraser Valley of British Columbia and returns mysteriously to Vietnam, the country where he fought twenty-nine years earlier as a young, reluctant soldier. But his new encounters seem irreconcilable with his memories.
When he disappears, his daughter Ada, and her brother, Jon, travel to Vietnam, to the streets of Danang and beyond, to search for him. Their quest takes them into the heart of a country that is at once incomprehensible, impassive, and beautiful. Chasing her fathers shadow for weeks, following slim leads, Ada feels increasingly hopeless. Yet while Jon slips into the urban nightlife to avoid what he most fears, Ada finds herself growing closer to her missing father and strong enough to forgive him and bear the heartbreaking truth of his long-kept secret.
Bergens marvellously drawn characters include Lieutenant Dat, the police officer who tries to seduce Ada by withholding information; the boy Yen, an orphan, who follows Ada and claims to be her guide; Jack Gouds, an American expatriate and self-styled missionary; his strong-willed and unhappy wife, Elaine, whose desperate encounters with Charles in the days before his disappearance will always haunt her; and Hoang Vu, the artist and philosopher who will teach Ada about the complexity of love and betrayal. We also come to learn about the reclusive author Dang Tho, whose famous wartime novel pulls at Charles in ways he cant explain.
Moving between father and daughter, the present and the past, The Time in Between is a luminous, unforgettable novel about one family, two cultures, and a profound emotional journey in search of elusive answers.
Synopsis
Luminous, haunting, profound, David Bergen’s page-turning novel about one family and the effects of war will be his breakout book.
In search of love, absolution, or forgiveness, Charles Boatman leaves B.C. and returns mysteriously to the country where he fought twenty-eight years earlier as a young, reluctant soldier. But his new encounters seem irreconcilable with his memories.
When their father disappears, Ada and her brother, Jon, travel to Danang, Vietnam, to find him. Their quest takes them into the heart of a world that is at once incomprehensible, impassive, and beautiful. Chasing her father’s shadow for weeks, following slim leads, Ada feels increasingly hopeless. Yet while Jon slips into the urban nightlife to avoid what he most fears, Ada soon grows closer than ever to her missing father — and strong enough to forgive him and to bear the truth of his long-kept secret.
Bergen’s marvellously drawn characters include Lieutenant Dat, the police officer who tries to seduce Ada by withholding information; Elaine Gouds, the troubled wife of a self-styled American missionary who lives within the expatriate community in Danang; the boy Yen, who follows Ada and claims to be her guide; and Hoang Vu, the artist and philosopher who will teach Ada about the complexity of love and betrayal.
Moving between father and daughter, the present and the past, The Time in Between is a spellbinding, unforgettable novel about one family, two cultures, and a profound journey in search of elusive answers.
About the Author
David Bergen is the author of three highly acclaimed novels: A Year of Lesser, a New York Times Notable Book; See the Child; and, most recently, The Case of Lena S., winner of the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. He lives in Winnipeg.
Reading Group Guide
1. David Bergens writing style is distinctive so plain as to seem “styleless,” yet capable of great eloquence. Choose some sentences or paragraphs that strike you as particularly successful, and analyze what gives them their power.
2. On the surface, this could be described as a sad book. Yet the main characters Charles, Ada, and Jon make emotional or spiritual journeys during the course of the novel, in addition to geographical ones. Describe the inner journeys of these characters. In what ways are they ultimately redemptive?
3. The Bible talks about the sins of the father being visited on his children. Jon tells his sister Ada, “His [Charless] love for you is like a weight that you have to carry” [p. 67]. In what ways does Charless “sin” as well as his love weigh on, or otherwise affect, his children? Describe the different ways Ada, Jon, and their sister, Dell, deal with their father and his love.
4. Discuss the various possible meanings of the title, The Time in Between.
5. Tomas Manik and Hoang Vu are visual artists; Vu is also a writer, as is the elusive Dang Tho. Each has a different status in society. Consider these differences and discuss what Bergen is saying about the Artist and how he is regarded in Vietnam, as opposed to in North America or in Europe. Discuss in what ways being an artist has shaped Vus and Dang Thos lives.
6. David Bergen writes that Ada Boatman has been “given some sort of gift” from Vu, her Vietnamese lover. Discuss Ada and Vus relationship. What do you think the gift was?
7. The Boatmans are an American/Canadian family temporarily in Vietnam; the Goudses are Americans planning a longer stay. How do these characters try (or not try) to understand something of Vietnam? What assumptions do they arrive with? What, if anything, does Vietnam teach them? At one point, as she leaves Vu and returns to Danang, Ada becomes “aware that a window had been flung open onto a view of an alien and foreign place, and then, just as suddenly, it had closed” [p. 232]. What brings Ada to that moment, and do you think the author is making a general point about Westerners in foreign cultures?
8. David Bergen says he doesnt see his book as a war novel. But how would you describe the books relationship to war? Are Charless experiences universal wartime ones? Could they have taken place equally plausibly in, for example, World War I or II, or the American Civil War? Or is there something about his killing of the boy, particularly, that seems specific to this war?
9. The Vietnamese veterans of the war, as well as the civilians, deal with their memories of the war quite differently than the Americans do. How would you characterize these differences, giving instances from as many characters on both sides as you can?
10. The Time in Between is concerned with conflict on two vastly different levels the Vietnam War and the struggles within the Boatman family between spouses, between parents and children, and between siblings. Discuss these conflicts. Does Bergen suggest any connection between the public and private struggles in the novel?
11. Charles Boatman carries a terrible secret for years, but hes not the only person in the novel with a secret. The Boatman family has its share, some of which have been revealed before the trip to Vietnam, some of which come to light later. So, too, do Elaine and Jack Gouds. Discuss these various secrets, and their connections to the books themes.
12. Structurally, The Time in Between is unusual in that the body of Charles Boatman is found about one hundred pages before the end of the book. The “quest” in the novel, in that sense, ends early. Or does it? What significant things happen after the discovery of the body and can only happen, as a matter of fact, once Charless fate is known?
13. The most prominent of the five senses in this novel is that of smell. How does Bergen use the sense of smell in the story, and why does it seem so important?
14. There are two blind characters in this book the blind soldier befriended by Kiet in the Vietnamese novel Charles reads, and the blind American veteran Ada meets in a cafe. When Charless body is found, fish have eaten his eyes. What is the significance of blindness in The Time in Between?
15. Charles tells his children stories while they sit in the bunker he builds, and Ada believes that “each successive story was like a piece of thread, and she was collecting those pieces” [p. 39]. Stories play a crucial role in this novel: the various versions Charles tells about his war experiences; the story that Kiet tells to save his life in the Vietnamese novel-within-a-novel (another story in itself); the life stories that characters do and dont want to tell or hear. What is the author saying about the role of stories in our lives, and in the lives of the books characters?
16. When Ada disbelieves Elaine Goudss description of her relationship with Charles, “She saw that sex could leap out of nowhere and obscure a person, make them stupid” [p.191]. Who else does this happen to in the novel? How do various characters in the novel approach sexuality?
17. “Safe” is an important word and concept in The Time in Between. Characters promise to watch over each other and their belongings. Charles builds a bunker to keep his children safe. Having read Bergens novel, what kinds of safety do you think he believes are possible?
18. “Nothing better for trust than hunting,” Charles says, as he invites Tomas to go hunting with him [p. 98]. In the novel, there are several acts of violence against animals. How do they connect with the main story and its themes?
19. The young Vietnamese boy, Yen, tells Ada that “everybody wanted something that they couldnt have” [p. 9]. What are the characters impossible wishes? Are the things that Yen tells Ada, or shows her, about herself?