Description - The Bite of the Lotus: An Intimate Memoir of the Vietnam War by Carl Robinson
‘A real-life sequel to Graham Greene’s 1955 classic The Quiet American.’
Fox Butterfi eld, Pulitzer Prize and award-winning journalist
A fabulous, fast-paced and stirring memoir set during the Vietnam War by former American AP and Newsweek journalist Carl Robinson.
Originally a photographic editor and then journalist at the height of the Vietnam War, The Bite of the Lotus shares Carl’s dramatic and personal account of his Vietnam years, including the defining romance of his life
to Kim Yung, and his addiction to heroin.
The Bite of the Lotus takes you on a wild ride documenting the terrors and injustice of the savage war at a local, familial level, and the
repercussions of the horribly flawed U.S invasion of Vietnam, which still resonate. It is also an insider’s view of how the photographers and journalists functioned and somehow survived in this incendiary
environment.
The book includes harrowing accounts of helicopter flights reminiscent of scenes from Apocalypse Now. the camaraderie Carl had with many people who perished covering combat missions, and his drug-fuelled
friendship with Sean Flynn, the estranged son of Errol Flynn, and their many stoned adventures riding motorbikes around the potentially lethal, war-torn and pot-holed landscapes of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
The Bite of the Lotus is a hugely colourful, brilliant and evocative story. Written with such candour and dark humour, Carl’s astonishing story set against the backdrop of unremitting war embraces the enduring
hope and indomitable spirit of the Vietnamese people.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Massachusetts, USA, in September 1943, longtime Australian resident Carl Robinson lived and worked in South Vietnam
as a civilian for the entire Vietnam War between 1964 and 1975. Working for The Associated Press (AP), Carl spent two years at the wire service’s New York headquarters before assigned to Sydney in mid-1977. Fired barely a year later, he stayed in Australia, determined to overcome his embittering Vietnam experience and start a new life for his wife Kim-Dung and their three children.
Since 1995, Carl returns frequently to post-war Vietnam leading tours, lecturing on cruises, organising reunions of former journalists and personal exploration. He is author of Australia and Mongolia: Nomad Empire of Eternal Blue Sky (Odyssey Publications). He lives in Sydney.
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