Perfect Ice [Paperback]

Erik Thorvald grew up in small-town America where his father, Harold, is a university dean. Appearances to the contrary, the Thorvald family of four drifted into a relationship devoid of love and understanding between children and parents despite auspicious early years highlighted by a joyful memory of skating together on perfect ice in a secluded glen. When Erik is drafted and sent to Vietnam in 1969, he reflects on his family s dysfunction during nights of staring into blackness, contrasting with the intensity of combat. When he meets Thuy, a local woman, and falls in love, it s a new dimension to merely surviving. After his army stint and an MBA he returns to Vietnam to marry Thuy and stays on. While doing field work he is captured as a POW and escapes. But with Reunification comes retribution and a re-education camp where Erik s resourcefulness is called upon once more.