In this podiobook: After September 11, 2001, novelist Michael Lund found that the emerging War on Terror recalled aspects of the Cold War in the 1950s. And his experience as an Army correspondent in Vietnam (1970-71) offered clues to the demands a new generation of America's youth would face in the 21st century. Route 66 to Vietnam: A Draftee's Story traces the fate of Mark Landon and other children from Growing Up on Route 66 (an earlier novel in the Route 66 Novel Series) through Southeast Asia and on to prosperous--if troubled--times later in life. Successful highway engineer Mark Landon is irritated by a sore tooth, by a rebellious teenage son, by a daughter's lack of interest in her promising athletic career, by his wife's apparent indifference to his needs, and by Ralph Banister, whose land is blocking the path of the highway Mark must build. Beneath these everyday worries, however, memories of his time in Vietnam are stirring. To survive a mid-life crisis, he begins to fear that he must not only confront the challenges of the present but also the ghosts of his wartime experiences. In doing so he learns surprising things about his wife's past, about his children's abilities, and about Ralph Banister's vision for America.--"an engaging tale that flashes back to the narrator's Vietnam War tour. (The VVa Veteran, January/February 2005, BOOKS IN REVIEW) --"able to reach that place so many of us seek within ourselves." (Route 66 Magazine, Spring 2005 (Volume 12/Number 2) --"not only the most ambitious [book in the Route 66 Novel Series] to date, but it is also the most serious, most challenging and possibly the most rewarding to read . . . " (The Farmville [VA] Herald, April 20, 2005
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