Despite the ongoing deluge of novels about the two world wars, more recent US military engagements have tended to receive short shrift. Iraq and Afghanistan may not be far enough behind us for literary reflection, but the Korean War has already entered the realm of historical fiction, as has the war in Vietnam. Even the chaotic US exit from Saigon will reach its fiftieth anniversary next year. So the time is ripe for this new novel by Alyson Richman, which follows three lives affected by the Vietnam War in different ways. Find out more from this interview I conducted with the author.
We last communicated in reference to The Friday Night Club, which you co-wrote with Sofia Lundberg and M. J. Rose. Were you already working on The Time Keepers back then?
Yes, I was working on both books at the same time. I traveled to Vietnam for the initial research for The Time Keepers in February 2020, just weeks before the world shut down because of Covid. I was so lucky I was able to make the trip there and learn more about its history and culture, as well as meet many Vietnamese people who had experienced the impact of the war firsthand.
Vietnam seems to be, in a sense, the forgotten war in terms of historical fiction—with some notable exceptions. What made you decide to work that into a novel?
Being an author, people often share their own personal stories with me. Several years ago I learned about a young woman who had fled Vietnam in the late 1970s at the age of eight years old. Her dramatic escape to America and what she endured when her makeshift boat ran out of fuel, and eventually water and food as well, moved me deeply. She also recounted a very painful story regarding a young Vietnamese boy on her boat who had suffered a terrible injury to his arm when the first boat his family tried to leave from capsized; both his parents were lost at sea at that moment. This boy became the inspiration for my character Bao.
Holding this story to my heart, I realized that I wanted to write a historical novel about those who were affected by the Vietnam War by examining the trauma of this time period through multiple lenses. It became my mission to interview Vietnam War veterans willing to share their personal histories with me. Ultimately, I crafted a novel where a Vietnamese refugee’s and a wounded veteran’s lives intertwine against the backdrop of a small suburban town still reeling from its own losses from the war.
The first character we meet is Grace Golden, who actually has no direct connection with the Vietnam War, although she is pivotal to the novel. What can you tell us about her?
While I was doing research for The Time Keepers, I learned about a Long Island community where several South Vietnamese refugees received political asylum through the sponsorship of the local Catholic diocese. I also came to learn of several homemakers in that community who offered to help teach English to these families, and I was deeply moved upon hearing of the bonds that were created through this initiative. There was one woman in particular that I interviewed who was an Irish immigrant, relatively new to this Long Island town herself, and she relayed to me the story of her own childhood tragedy back in Ireland that made her feel compelled to give back to her newfound community in America. I used her as the inspiration for Grace.
Within the first few pages, Grace rescues a small boy. Who is he, and what does it say about Grace that she steps in to help?
Yes, Grace discovers Bao, a young boy who has recently become orphaned after his family escaped from South Vietnam after the war, alone and seemingly lost in the streets of Bellegrove. Grace, who we learn has also experienced personal tragedy during her childhood, is instantly drawn to help the young child. I think this opening scene shows Grace’s deep empathy and her recognition of something she sees in the child that reminds her of her own painful past.
Tell us a little about Bao and Anh, and how they ended up in Bellegrove, NY.
Anh and Bao are two Vietnamese refugees who arrive in America hoping to build a new life. Tragically orphaned after his parents are lost at sea during their escape from Vietnam, Bao is left in the care of his aunt Anh. Together, these two characters must learn to find a way to trust each other and come to terms with the trauma of their pasts.
Another vital connection is between Grace’s husband, Tom, and Jack Grady. Before I ask you about Jack himself, I wondered if you would say a word about the Golden Hours, which is, in a way, the inspiration for your title.
The Golden Hours is a store in the fictional town of Bellegrove that was founded by Grace’s father-in-law, a wounded WWII veteran. The store becomes a central locale for the novel, as it’s where the three male characters—Tom, Jack and Bao—find their lives overlapping, and where all three characters, through working to repair broken timepieces, force themselves to reflect on the past and to forge new lives for themselves. I like to say The Golden Hours is the beating heart of the novel, a place where the trauma of the past is confronted and a new path toward healing is forged.
Anh and her nephew represent one side of the Vietnam conflict. Jack Grady personifies the other. What should we know about him?
Jack is a wounded Vietnam Veteran who lives above The Golden Hours and works there in the evenings when the shop is closed. After having suffered a terrible burn injury to his face, he shields himself from interacting with the general public by keeping mostly to himself and talking about the war with almost no one other than Grace, Tom, and their two daughters. His character and the experiences he has in Vietnam are based on my field research with Vietnam veterans, and I hope I’ve been able to do justice to all that was shared with me to illuminate the pain and isolation that many of these men experienced once they returned home from war.
What would you like people to take away from this novel?
My goal in writing this novel was to look at this war through the varying lenses of those who experienced it. I hoped to create a well-researched, historically accurate, and emotionally authentic novel that showed the Vietnam War through multiple perspectives in order to give the reader an opportunity to learn from those who were impacted by it firsthand. My ultimate aim was to encourage greater understanding and empathy for all those whose lives were permanently changed because of it.
The Time Keepers came out just this week. Are you already on to something new?
Yes! I just finished a novel about Harry Elkins Widener, who was a twenty-seven-year-old budding book collector who perished on the Titanic. Legend has it that he returned to his cabin as the lifeboats were being prepared in order to save a rare sixteenth-century manuscript he had just acquired. I write the novel in the voice of his ghost, who now inhabits the Memorial Library at Harvard that his mother built in his honor. It should come out next year.
Thank you so much for answering my questions!
Alyson Richman is a USA Today and no. 1 international bestselling author. She is an accomplished painter, and her novels combine her deep loves of art, historical research, and travel. She lives on Long Island with her husband and two children. The Time Keepers is her latest novel. Find out more about her and her books at https://www.alysonrichman.com.
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