I didn’t know what revenant means when I started this book; the author waits until chapter 33 to tell us. “A revenant can be someone long forgotten and now remembered,or someone returning after a long absence; it can also mean a ghost.”

The ghost in this case is a nameless disabled World War I veteran who never came home to his family. The main character, a 15 year old girl Betsy, sets out to learn his name, and thus to get him home before he becomes a literal ghost.

World War I happened in Europe from 1914 to 1918 although the United States didn’t enter until 1917. This story is set in 1973, a time when there were still many living WWI veterans who were by then in their 70’s and 80’s. In 1973 the United States was embroiled in another war, the Vietnam war.

Betsy’s older brother Nathan served in the Army, Vietnam, as did my husband (1970). We were surprised to learn the character Nathan is based on a real person, who was the uncle of Mr. Kaufman’s late wife.

Captain Richard M Rees was killed in action and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross on December 15, 1973 while performing duties as a member of a Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC) team in South Vietnam, as part of the Paris Peace Talks. The unarmed team came under attack in an area near Saigon while searching for the remains of an Army crewman who was presumed to have died when his helicopter was shot down in a rice paddy nearby. The site was thought to be secure and authorized, but later the Vietcong denied having been notified of the team’s activities.

Like Captain Rees, Nathan is killed in action in Vietnam, leaving Betsy and their heartbroken parents to cope with his loss in differing ways. Betsy’s grief leads her to become a candystriper volunteer at a local VA (Veterans Administration) hospital, where her life intersects with a wounded veteran in a complex and compelling way.

Into this mystery, Scott Kaufman inserts a menagerie of other characters- a head nurse with a secret, an assortment of wounded veterans, a pot dealing hospital orderly, and a conniving politician with a longsuffereing wife. He weaves a complex story through which their lives intersect.

Most people know and understand what war does to countries- changing boundaries, toppling governments, destroying infrastructure, wasting the land, bankrupting economies. Revanants speaks to the human cost for communities, families, and individuals-driving families apart, killing dreams, interrupting plans, wounding bodies and emotions, and destroying hope. On a global scale, wars may be justified but in Revenants it is futile, wreaking havoc on these people’s lives.

The narrative reads as if it had been written in the 1970s with the vernacular and historical references of that era (which I can attest to since I lived it). The author bluntly expresses his disdain for wars and the governments that wage them. This may offend some readers, as may the way he portrays and refers to ethnic characters, especially the lone Black character (referred to as a Negro, as he would have been in 1973). While this sounds offensive to 21st century ears, it serves to set the stage and preserve the impact of the book's message.

So with that caveat, I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about and understand that difficult era in our history, through which many of us spent our youth. The WWI vets are all long deceased and the Vietnam vets are now in their 70s. We can only hope they will eventually find the respect and peace that the “Great War” veterans were denied.

As a NetGalley reviewer, I received a digital copy of this book and agreed to write a review.

A very engaging, emotional story. I loved getting to know this story and exploring their lives and interpersonal dynamics.

*May contain mild spoilers*

"I know now Betsy will be all right. She will again see the sweetness of life through its mysteries revealed to her for we do not live our lives in straight lines but in circles bewildering to us as a maze, our present lives, circling our past, all the while circling the present and past of those we love, which, with luck, is where mine and Betsy's converge. Then we two will each in turn have completed our own Odysseys home."



I received an ebook copy of "Revenants" from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Reading the synopsis of this book, I hoped that my lack of familiarity with Homer's "The Odyssey," upon which "Revenants" is based, wouldn't stunt my understanding too much. I don't believe it did, although I kind of wish I had read "The Odyssey" first.

Betsy is a high school student with a promising future, but she lets that all go following the death of her older brother in Vietnam. On the verge of failing school, she is assigned a volunteer position as a candy striper at the local VA hospital. There, she meets and befriends young men who left the war with maimed bodies and minds. In caring for her patients, a part of her seems to heal from the loss of her brother.

She also sets out to learn the identity of a hospital stowaway who's been tucked away in the hospital attic since World War I. Her mission to get him home is met with opposition from a corrupt Congressman whose personal agenda goes deeper than most people realize.

I really, really enjoyed this book, even though the author tended to ramble a lot. He uses such vivid imagery that I felt like I'd been sucked into the story. This is not a book about war itself, but about the way it impacts soldiers and their loved ones.

The only character that seemed poorly developed was Congressman Hanna. I felt like Kauffman painted him too much as a stereotypical villain, to the point that I half-expected Hanna to have a greasy, curly mustache that he twirled with his finger. Otherwise, I really felt a connection with the rest of the characters. It's amazing to see how Betsy goes from a grieving little sister at the end of her rope to a woman who cares so much for wounded troops that she almost loses her mind.

"Revenants: The Odyssey Home," is an epic journey of a novel that fans of multi-layered historical fiction are sure to enjoy.

A nice take on The Odyssey. It mixes genres wonderfully. A good read.