1. David Bergen's writing style is distinctive - so plain as to
seem "styleless," yet capable of great eloquence. Choose some
sentences or paragraphs that strike you as particularly successful,
and analyze what gives them their power.
2. On the surface, this could be described as a sad book. Yet
the main characters - Charles, Ada, and Jon - make emotional or
spiritual journeys during the course of the novel, in addition to
geographical ones. Describe the inner journeys of these characters.
In what ways are they ultimately redemptive?
3. The Bible talks about the sins of the father being visited on
his children. Jon tells his sister Ada, "His [Charles's] love for
you is like a weight that you have to carry" [p. 67]. In what ways
does Charles's "sin" as well as his love weigh on, or otherwise
affect, his children? Describe the different ways Ada, Jon, and
their sister, Dell, deal with their father and his love.
4. Discuss the various possible meanings of the title, The
Time in Between.
5. Tomas Manik and Hoang Vu are visual artists; Vu is also a
writer, as is the elusive Dang Tho. Each has a different status in
society. Consider these differences and discuss what Bergen is
saying about the Artist and how he is regarded in Vietnam, as
opposed to in North America or in Europe. Discuss in what ways
being an artist has shaped Vu's and Dang Tho's lives.
6. David Bergen writes that Ada Boatman has been "given some
sort of gift" from Vu, her Vietnamese lover. Discuss Ada and Vu's
relationship. What do you think the gift was?
7. The Boatmans are an American/Canadian family temporarily in
Vietnam; the Goudses are Americans planning a longer stay. How do
these characters try (or not try) to understand something of
Vietnam? What assumptions do they arrive with? What, if anything,
does Vietnam teach them? At one point, as she leaves Vu and returns
to Danang, Ada becomes "aware that a window had been flung open
onto a view of an alien and foreign place, and then, just as
suddenly, it had closed" [p. 232]. What brings Ada to that moment,
and do you think the author is making a general point about
Westerners in foreign cultures?
8. David Bergen says he doesn't see his book as a war novel. But
how would you describe the book's relationship to war? Are
Charles's experiences universal wartime ones? Could they have taken
place equally plausibly in, for example, World War I or II, or the
American Civil War? Or is there something about his killing of the
boy, particularly, that seems specific to this war?
9. The Vietnamese veterans of the war, as well as the civilians,
deal with their memories of the war quite differently than the
Americans do. How would you characterize these differences, giving
instances from as many characters on both sides as you can?
10. The Time in Between is concerned with conflict on
two vastly different levels - the Vietnam War and the struggles
within the Boatman family between spouses, between parents and
children, and between siblings. Discuss these conflicts. Does
Bergen suggest any connection between the public and private
struggles in the novel?
11. Charles Boatman carries a terrible secret for years, but
he's not the only person in the novel with a secret. The Boatman
family has its share, some of which have been revealed before the
trip to Vietnam, some of which come to light later. So, too, do
Elaine and Jack Gouds. Discuss these various secrets, and their
connections to the book's themes.
12. Structurally, The Time in Between is unusual in
that the body of Charles Boatman is found about one hundred pages
before the end of the book. The "quest" in the novel, in that
sense, ends early. Or does it? What significant things happen after
the discovery of the body - and can only happen, as a matter of
fact, once Charles's fate is known?
13. The most prominent of the five senses in this novel is that
of smell. How does Bergen use the sense of smell in the story, and
why does it seem so important?
14. There are two blind characters in this book - the blind
soldier befriended by Kiet in the Vietnamese novel Charles reads,
and the blind American veteran Ada meets in a cafe. When Charles's
body is found, fish have eaten his eyes. What is the significance
of blindness in The Time in Between?
15. Charles tells his children stories while they sit in the
bunker he builds, and Ada believes that "each successive story was
like a piece of thread, and she was collecting those pieces" [p.
39]. Stories play a crucial role in this novel: the various
versions Charles tells about his war experiences; the story that
Kiet tells to save his life in the Vietnamese novel-within-a-novel
(another story in itself); the life stories that characters do and
don't want to tell or hear. What is the author saying about the
role of stories in our lives, and in the lives of the book's
characters?
16. When Ada disbelieves Elaine Gouds's description of her
relationship with Charles, "She saw that sex could leap out of
nowhere and obscure a person, make them stupid" [p.191]. Who else
does this happen to in the novel? How do various characters in the
novel approach sexuality?
17. "Safe" is an important word and concept in The Time in
Between. Characters promise to watch over each other and their
belongings. Charles builds a bunker to keep his children safe.
Having read Bergen's novel, what kinds of safety do you think he
believes are possible?
18. "Nothing better for trust than hunting," Charles says, as he
invites Tomas to go hunting with him [p. 98]. In the novel, there
are several acts of violence against animals. How do they connect
with the main story and its themes?
19. The young Vietnamese boy, Yen, tells Ada that "everybody
wanted something that they couldn't have" [p. 9]. What are the
characters' impossible wishes? Are the things that Yen tells Ada,
or shows her, about herself?