DEJA 'NAM

About the Book

Deja ‘Nam is a novel of about 80,000 words.  It is written in the first person, with the main character as the narrator.  There are two parts of the book but they form a seamless whole.  One parts takes place in Vietnam in 1970.  The other part takes place in northern Minnesota about ten years later.

The main character, Jamie Lakes, is experiencing frequent, prolonged and vivid “flashbacks” that correspond the the last few months he served in Vietnam.  But he is now home, living and working at the lake resort where he grew up.  His wife Cid is a nurse at the hospital in town.  Their son, Sam, goes to the parochial school in town.

Sam’s fifth grade teacher, Sister Lorenzo, is a nun from Canada, who is at his school participating in a teacher exchange program.  The students love her, but she has brought an agenda with her that sets the school board against her.  Sister Lorenzo wants to teach her fifth graders a “peace curriculum” that includes the teachings of Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Jesus Christ.  The school board thinks this is dangerous and tries to send her packing.  She enlists the help of Jamie and Cid to help her fight back.

Jamie wants to stay out of it, but he also feels that it’s his responsibility to help Sister Lorenzo introduce her fifth graders to the possibility of world peace.  He has seen war, and he does not wish it upon the children.  Some of his flashbacks are violent, but never gratuitous.  Many of his memories are of friendship and kindness in the heart of a war zone.

About the Author

Lee Henschel, Jr. was born in Minnesota in 1947. In May of 1970 he was drafted into the United States Army and was sent to the Republic of Vietnam in October. He served there for one year. Henschel has been a writer since he was twelve. He has written several novels, as well as stories for children, short stories, a newspaper column, and poetry. He is published internationally, from Denmark to mainland China.