A real-life sequel to Graham Greenes 1955 classic The Quiet American. Fox Butterfield, 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 Carls 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 insiders 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, Carls astonishing story set against the backdrop of unremitting war embraces the enduring hope and indomitable spirit of the Vietnamese people.
