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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
Powerful. Absolutely powerful. A gateway of anecdotes and imagery that is incomparable.
cool GIs hang out at the base camp smoking pot, listen to cool music, get laid and stare out into the jungle
A real marvel of a book, especially the first part is a breathtaking, stylistically ambitious attempt to describe the hellish experience of war.
The book was especially fascinating for me after having recently read "The Unwomanly Face of War" by Swetlana Alexeiewitch, which tries to describe the female experience of war. In contrast, Herr's book has an exclusively male point of view and pays hommage to such typical war tropes as unconditional friendship, the hightened mode of existence and the precise movements of troops.
Not only an astonishing, honest look at the madness of the Vietnam War, but also on war in general and about the men it creates.
The book was especially fascinating for me after having recently read "The Unwomanly Face of War" by Swetlana Alexeiewitch, which tries to describe the female experience of war. In contrast, Herr's book has an exclusively male point of view and pays hommage to such typical war tropes as unconditional friendship, the hightened mode of existence and the precise movements of troops.
Not only an astonishing, honest look at the madness of the Vietnam War, but also on war in general and about the men it creates.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
The author wrote about the Vietnamese people in a way that felt dehumanising and racist. This is the main complaint. I’ve read other books by American actors in the Vietnam war who recognised the prejudices they and their fellow actors had and the general racist motivations in the war itself - this book was devoid of that completely.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, War
Moderate: Suicide
Great non-fiction representation of the Vietnam War.
Well, this book won't soon leave me. Herr's writing is poetic and raw. It took me a while to get past the military acronyms with which I was unfamiliar, but once I let that go, I felt immersed in his experience.
I still have more Vietnam war lit to read, but I know that this will by far be one of my favorites.