As opposed to the message in the song and movie, “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing,” Martha Voutas Donegan’s 3003 Days of Mike & Me and the Wars Between Us, (1495 Books, 372 pp. $21.99, paper: $2.99 Kindle) shows that love can also be a many-splintered thing.
The book tells the story of her relationship with Michael Creamer, a Vietnam War veteran she knew from high school, which initially is many-splendored. But as the couple’s story progresses, a lot of sadness darkens the happy times.
Mike Creamer enlisted in the Army in 1969 to fight in the war in Vietnam. At about the same time, Martha Donegan joined a few college groups who were protesting the war. After Basic Training, Creamer became a field medic with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam and received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star.
Creamer left the Army, but re-enlisted a few years later. During his second enlistment, he served with the 101st Airborne Division attached to the 187th Infantry Brigade. He was named that division’s Soldier of the Year in 1985.
After college, Donegan began her career in the New York fashion industry creating brands and working on promotional designs and marketing. But, bothered by the treatment Vietnam War veterans received after coming home—and drawn by Vietnam Veterans of America’s Founding Principle: “Never Again Will One Generation of Veterans Abandon Another”—she set out to search for and interview Vietnam veterans, and found Mike Creamer.
The book follows the couple during the 3,003 days (8-plus years) of their rollercoaster-ride relationship. Although they showed a lot of respect for each another, relationships based on dependencies tend to be fragile and become splintered, as theirs did.
For the most part, I found the book to be a hodgepodge of Donegan’s thoughts, worries, and suppositions. She felt Creamer was her soulmate, but I came away feeling that they looked at one another more like vehicles to satisfy each other’s needs.
If you are emotionally romantic, you will love 3003 Days of Mike & Me.
–Bob Wartman
Books in Review II 