Danielle Steel | Through the Shattered Lens

This is a review of another novel from my aunt’s big collection of paperbacks.

First published in 1991, Message From Nam follows Paxton Andrews as she grows up in the 1960s. She goes from being an idealistic, Kennedy-inspired teenager in Savannah, Georgia to being a hardened and brave war correspondent in Vietnam. Along the way, she defies the wishes of her wealthy family, who would rather that she live in a conventional life in Georgia. She goes to college, she protests the war, and she eventually even gets to write a weekly column about the war and how it is effecting both the combatants and the folks back home. She also falls in love with several different men, the majority of whom end up dying in Vietnam. I guess that’s one of the dangers that you run into when you’re a war correspondent. Eventually, the great love of her life also disappears in Vietnam. Is he dead or is he just waiting for Paxton to come and find him?

So, I don’t know about you but when I think of an American author who could deftly capture the intricacies of American foreign policy and the turmoil of the late 60s and the early 70s, Danielle Steel is not necessarily the first name that comes to mind. Steel fills the book with historical detail but it all feels a bit rudimentary. Naturally, the book opens on the day of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and, of course, there are references to all of the other big events of the 60s but the book’s examination of those events don’t go much deeper than acknowledging that they happened and that Paxton was upset about some of them. Even when Paxton goes to Vietnam, it’s an experience that’s pretty much interchangeable with what the reader might expect to see if they were watching a movie about Vietnam as opposed to reading a book about it. There are no details that make the reader pause and think, “I bet that’s what it was really like.” Throughout the copy of the book that I read, Steel continually referred to Vietnam as being “Viet Nam.” Admittedly, I usually make the same mistake before autocorrect jumps in to help me out but, then again, I’ve also never written a novel about being a war correspondent in Vietnam.

I suppose Message From Nam was Steel’s attempt to show that she could write a novel that didn’t take place in a world of glamorous and glitzy rich people but the fact of the matter is that Paxton still comes from a rich family and nearly every man that she meets falls in love with her so this really isn’t that much different from a typical Danielle Steel novel. Indeed, the novel could use a little glamour and glitz. To be honest, the book works best when Steel stop trying to make history come to life in all of its gritty reality and instead, just embraces the melodrama. When the book focuses on people declaring their undying love right before tragedy ensues, it works just fine. Seriously, there’s nothing wrong with being a good romance novelist.

Marshall Everett was an undercover DEA agent who spent years infiltrating the drug cartels of South America. When he got too close to the people that he was supposed to be investigating, he was yanked from the assignment and sent to work for the Secret Service. After he took a bullet protecting the President’s wife, he retired to Paris, a city that is known for being welcoming to former members of American law enforcement.

Ariana Gregory was the daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. When she was kidnapped by communist revolutionaries, she tried to resist the charms of their charismatic leader. But, before you could say Patty Hearst, she was pregnant and brainwashed. Fortunately, she was eventually rescued by the American forces. Unfortunately, her lover died, her father died, and she eventually had a miscarriage. A year has passed and she’s still dealing with the trauma. And where better to deal with trauma than in Paris?

When Marshall and Ariana meet …. THEY SOLVE CRIMES!

Well, actually, they bond over the fact that neither one of them feels as if they belong in their home country anymore. Both of them lost their identities in South America and now, in Europe, they can build brand new identities. They can also fall in love! Yay! Unfortunately, they’re also going to have watch their step because the brother of Ariana’s revolutionary lover is looking to kill both of them.

This a typical Danielle Steel novel, one that I found in my aunt’s collection of paperbacks and which I read two weeks ago. Though I do enjoy a good romance, I’ve never been a huge fan of Danielle Steel’s. Her prose rarely sings. The dialogue rarely crackles. The characters never really feel all that developed. That said, it’s kind of hard not to appreciate the shamelessness of Steel’s plotting. Any romance writer could come up with a story of two lost souls meeting in Paris and finding personal and spiritual redemption through their love. However, it takes a Danielle Steel to make them two lost souls who are recovering from being brainwashed in South America. It takes a Danielle Steel to ask, “What if Donnie Brasco and Patty Hearst met and fell in love?” It takes a Danielle Steel to write about the inner workings of both an international drug cartel and a left-wing revolutionary cell, despite apparently not knowing much about either. There’s an almost random, “just toss it in” feeling to the plot of Undercover that is definitely entertaining.

I guess my point is that, while I was reading Undercover, there were a lot of moments where I dramatically rolled my eyes. (Anyone who has ever watched me read a book can tell you about how much I enjoy rolling my eyes.) But the story held my interest and I certainly didn’t put the book down until I finished it. Whatever else you may want to say about the book and Steel’s style of writing, it definitely got the job done and, it should be noted, I didn’t get brainwashed while reading it. That’s the important thing.