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Product Description
Product Description
About the Author
Jon Swain left Britain as a teenager. After a brief stint with the French Foreign Legion he became a journalist in Paris, but soon ended up in Vietnam and Cambodia. In five years as a young war reporter Swain lived moments of intensity and passion such as he had never known. He learnt something of life and death in Cambodia and Vietnam that he could never have perceived in Europe. He saw Indo-China in all its intoxicating beauty and saw, too, the violence and corruption of war, and was sickened by it.
Motivated by a sense of close involvement with the Cambodian people he went back into Phnom Penh just before the fall of the city to the Khmer Rouge in April 1975. He was captured and was going to be executed. His life was saved by Dith Pran, the New York Times interpreter, a story told by the film The Killing Fields. In Indo-China Swain formed a passionate love affair with a French-Vietnamese girl. The demands of a war correspondent ran roughshod over his personal life and the relationship ended.
This book is one reporter's attempt to make peace with a tumultuous past, to come to terms with his memories of fear, pain, and death, and to say adieu to the Indo-China he loved and the way of life that has gone for ever.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly wonderful book,
By A Customer
This review is from: River Of Time (Paperback)
I read this book after a three week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia at the end of last year (and having had numerous badly photocopied versions thrust at me on the streets of Saigon!) I had visited many of the places that Jon wrote about and, like him and many many others, was captivated by it all in a way that is difficult to put your finger on. This book is nothing less than a love story but a very sad and poignant one - you can literally feel Jon's heartache as he realises that the countries have been changed forever by the massive political upheaval and events throughout the 1970s, which he witnessed so closely.I think the book spoke to me more because I had recently visited the area but I would like to think that other readers would enjoy it despite having not gone there. It is beautifully written but in an easy style - I read it over a few evenings. It is the sort of book you can't put down but don't want it to end. The circumstances of reading it obviously influenced me greatly but this is definitely one of the best books that I have ever read. Highly recommended.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A heart-rending, thought-provoking biography,
By angela_robson@hotmail.com (Leiden, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: River Of Time (Paperback)
I bought this book while in Phnom Penh and reading it while there, added a poignancy to an already heart-rending experience. The first lines of the book said it all to me because I fell in love with the Mekong myself, and the people who live on its banks. Jon Swain's book River of Time touched me like Cambodia touched me and I came away from the country utterly entranced. The author depicts the lush beauty of these countries excellently, as well as the filth of war with its utter despair and futility. Swain has put into words my own sadness and imcomprehension of the Pol Pot regime, as well as the hope and good humour these people still possess. His power of description is marvellous and I recommend it whole-heartedly to anyone who wants to or has experienced the lands of the Mekong.
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply wonderful,
By
This review is from: River Of Time (Paperback)
Having spent a great deal of time in SE Asia, I picked up this book with some trepidation: since Michael Herr's brilliant "Dispatches" there have been an awful lot of derivative books about gung-ho boys with toys running around getting shot at during the Vietnam War. This though, was different. This does cover the war, and its effects on the region, but the slant is much more personal and thoughful. Swain realises that there is an entrenched culture of beauty and delicacy mixed with a near-veneration for death and auto-destruction. This book has come closer to understanding the people and culture of the area than any other book i can remember. The book's observations of the profound changes which the region has gone through is spot-on. More importantly, this is a love-letter to a lost land, to lost lovers and friends. The passion and deep romanticism are very moving. I can't remember the last time i read a book so sensitive and delicate. If you want to understand what European hubris has done to world, you must read this. Is this travel writing? a love story? a war story? all of them, but it doesnt matter. Read this, and then tell your friends to read it too.
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