Book Review
Hello Again, Junie Moon
Junie Moon Rising, by June Collins (Amazon Kindle edition, April 2013)
Review by Beryl Belsky
The main focus of June Collins’ first memoir, Goodbye June Moon, is war-torn Vietnam, where she worked as a booking agent providing entertainment for the US troops there. It ends with her giving testimony before a US Senate committee on the widespread corruption in the army clubs. In Junie Moon Rising, Collins takes up where she left off, just after her testimony, wondering what she is to do with herself.
A phone call from the author and scriptwriter Robin Moore leads to their collaboration on the book The Khaki Mafia and to a love affair between the two. After they part, June leads the high life of a party girl, moving eventually to Florida, where she purchases and lives on a traditional Chinese house boat, throwing wild parties and burning the candle at both ends. Struggling to maintain her lifestyle on the royalties from the book, she hosts a local TV talk show, which gains some popularity.
In addition to a niggling thought that surfaces during her more sober moments − that her restlessness and wild living may be a symptom of the post-traumatic stress syndrome suffered by many Vietnam war veterans − June clings to a long-held desire to adopt an Asian child and is therefore aware of the need to settle down and find a suitable marriage partner, preferably a millionaire. (In those days, the 1970s and 1980s, in the US, one had to be married in order to adopt.) She eventually finds a husband, albeit one that turns out not to be as rich as she first thought. Living together at first in difficult conditions in Alaska, they eventually move to Seattle, but there, too, June has to undergo many trials before she is able to adopt her first child from India. Eventually, she ends up with six adopted children.
The novelty in Goodbye June Moon is June in war-torn Vietnam, a plucky woman in a man’s world who dares in the end to risk all and expose the corruption around her. While Junie Moon Rising lacks that overriding dramatic element, there is no absence of drama, and the motif of adoption, though less vivid than war, weaves in and out throughout it. Her life in Alaska and aboard a king crab fishing trawler, which husband Doug captains in the stormy Bering Strait, demonstrates her continuing gutsy spirit and willingness to take risks. And while she had to tame her nature somewhat as a mother, she would still wake the children at 02:00 in order to go shopping and see a side of life they would not experience during the day.
June’s unconventional and adventurous character makes the sequel to her first book equally engrossing reading. If you were captivated by June’s personality and deeds in Goodbye Junie Moon, then you will enjoy accompanying her on her journey in Junie Moon Rising.
Review by Beryl Belsky
The main focus of June Collins’ first memoir, Goodbye June Moon, is war-torn Vietnam, where she worked as a booking agent providing entertainment for the US troops there. It ends with her giving testimony before a US Senate committee on the widespread corruption in the army clubs. In Junie Moon Rising, Collins takes up where she left off, just after her testimony, wondering what she is to do with herself.
A phone call from the author and scriptwriter Robin Moore leads to their collaboration on the book The Khaki Mafia and to a love affair between the two. After they part, June leads the high life of a party girl, moving eventually to Florida, where she purchases and lives on a traditional Chinese house boat, throwing wild parties and burning the candle at both ends. Struggling to maintain her lifestyle on the royalties from the book, she hosts a local TV talk show, which gains some popularity.
In addition to a niggling thought that surfaces during her more sober moments − that her restlessness and wild living may be a symptom of the post-traumatic stress syndrome suffered by many Vietnam war veterans − June clings to a long-held desire to adopt an Asian child and is therefore aware of the need to settle down and find a suitable marriage partner, preferably a millionaire. (In those days, the 1970s and 1980s, in the US, one had to be married in order to adopt.) She eventually finds a husband, albeit one that turns out not to be as rich as she first thought. Living together at first in difficult conditions in Alaska, they eventually move to Seattle, but there, too, June has to undergo many trials before she is able to adopt her first child from India. Eventually, she ends up with six adopted children.
The novelty in Goodbye June Moon is June in war-torn Vietnam, a plucky woman in a man’s world who dares in the end to risk all and expose the corruption around her. While Junie Moon Rising lacks that overriding dramatic element, there is no absence of drama, and the motif of adoption, though less vivid than war, weaves in and out throughout it. Her life in Alaska and aboard a king crab fishing trawler, which husband Doug captains in the stormy Bering Strait, demonstrates her continuing gutsy spirit and willingness to take risks. And while she had to tame her nature somewhat as a mother, she would still wake the children at 02:00 in order to go shopping and see a side of life they would not experience during the day.
June’s unconventional and adventurous character makes the sequel to her first book equally engrossing reading. If you were captivated by June’s personality and deeds in Goodbye Junie Moon, then you will enjoy accompanying her on her journey in Junie Moon Rising.
