Dear Barbara:

Please forgive me for taking so long to finally get to your new book of stories, "Serious Kissing." You know what it's like being a college writing teacher--it seems there's hardly ever time for anything but student manuscripts. Thank heaven for the occasional summer off!

What struck me most was the intimacy of the first-person voices of so many of the stories. Small wonder that Grace Paley wrote your foreward--you've got the same knack. And you show terrific range. It's hard enough to inhabit the point of view of left-leaning, idealistic, romantic American kids trying to change the world (sort of) in Puerto Rico (In your story "Catching the Last Publico,") but you've gone beyond that to pitch us the voice of Puerto Ricanas as well ("After Death You Still Believe in Love").

In my favorite story, "The Spread of Maoism," you write, "Listen, ludicrous things happen to the young and Maoist." That's a promise that you deliver on with aplomb. Who would imagine that an account of life behind the scenes among the joyless cadres of the Progressive Labor party could be so funny, and human, and endearing? I remember those people from the late 60s and always managed to keep my distance. Readers will share my delight that you evidently didn't (That or you're one heck of an acute researcher!).

There it is: "Serious Kissing" is an intimate, funny, smart read, a short story collection that captures and preserves some of the unlikeliest slices on the left side of the American pie.

Your pal (We did meet once, all those years ago), Rod

this is one of the most biased, misleading books I have ever read. it reports all of the bad things that the south and the americans did, but totally ignores the atrocities committed by the north, like the 10,000 civilians killed in Hue during the 1968 VC offensive, including many who were buried alive. if the author is truly a pacifist, why are these not mentioned?

beyond that, it tends to be repetitive and self-congradulatory.

From her experience living together with the common people, Lady Borton is able to reveal to us the main reason why the Americans failed to win the war in Vietnam. In fact, the war is already lost even before it began. Vietnamese is those special breed of people that's enormously proud of their country & should Americans have learnt about Vietnamese history, then, they would have to think twice before deciding to chip in efforts in assisting the French, & subsequently, to fight against communism. It so happened that after interviewing the common people, they were not fighting the Americans for communism but they simply wanted to win the right to enjoy their lives, to live as a free person with their own people. We also learnt of women's significant contribution towards the cause. Along the way, they lost their loved ones, & many became victims to chemical warfare conducted by the Americans. Surprisingly, many Vietnamese don't have ill-feelings against Americans because they always regarded the American Government differently from the Americans. The book also gives us a glimpse of their cultures (celebration of Tet & New Year), difference beween North & South Vietnam. To make the reading more interesting, there were pictures taken of the author with her new found friends ie. villagers, drawing of villages layouts, map of Vietnam, outline of Vietnam history, description of Vietnamese terms, relevant poems to start every & each chapters written by Vietnamese nationalists & poets. I don't find the book particularly captivating to read as it's quite long winded describing every little details about domestic chores. For those that yearn to feel the essence of villagers' life, perhaps, it's worth the while. Still, this doesn't deter the author's goal of reconciling between the States & Vietnam, & thus, the title of the book, After Sorrow.

Lady Borton holds some strong opinions as I have noted on a recent trip to Viet Nam. In this wonderful book however she holds them in check and expresses everything in the words, experiences and thoughts of others who presumably were there. Reading this in country and in fact in the exact places cited in the book was a moving experience. Borton does not actually take a view on agent orange here although she has one. In fact emphasising that a woman's statements in the text are annecdotal and without statistical foundation is more than fair to other opinions. Nor does she promote communism but rather separates it from the nationalism which won the war for her friends who only begin to thrive when a market economy arrives. This is a wonderful story reflecting what other war participants think and feel in contrast to our own long held ideas.

I enjoy Paley's writings very much, and feel that Judith Arcana has unfortunately misconstrued in a curiously vigorous way. Paley's life is a fascinating one, and one hopes it will be told later by a more discerning critic.