Postcards from the Past

&quote;Cool, beautiful, intelligent and elegantly arrogant, Dr. Estelle Granger ran the hospital with an iron hand.......I was stunned one morning when she burst into my office, lips trembling with rage and tears streaming from her bruised, swollen eyes......Near collapse she hoarsely implored me, 'You Americans are the big shots now. Can't you do something? Everything is collapsing and nobody is in control! I don't care about myself! It's the patients! It's Vietnam!' Her words troubled me as much as the incident itself. And what she said was true. Nobody was in control. Meanwhile the Viet Cong and the NVA watched and waited.&quote; (Chapter 3 - Terres Rouges). &quote;Postcards from the Past&quote; takes the reader on a journey through time and many places; from Southeast Asia to Europe to the streets of New York City. These are all true stories although some identities and nationalities have been changed. Some are humorous, some poignant; others are filled with intrigue and murder.They are all fascinating tales which chronicle the lives of a diverse collection of people - simple villagers in Java, jaded royalty in Thailand, a 60 year-old maid in Manhattan and a host of other characters including a bunch of jailbirds.