I found this to be an incredibly interesting and absorbing book. My book group just had a 2 hr discussion about the main characters, the events of history that it covers, etc. It seems from previous reviewers here, that the bad American accent of the narrator was a more important point than the book's content. That is a pity, since it is an excellent book about an interesting time - that is, Vietnam as the French were exiting and America was beginning to go in (before the troops actually were there). I didn't like the reader either - from his bad American accent (and his possibly bad Vietnamese accent, I wouldn't about that), to his very quick, monotone voice. However, if I am rating the book itself, I would strongly recommend it.

I knew the American accent would be bad, but I still wasn't prepared for how bad it was. Alden Pyle is a Harvard grad who grew up in Boston. I don't think the narrator has the foggiest idea of what that means.