A review by mburnamfink
Remembering Heaven's Face: A Story of Rescue in Wartime Vietnam by John Balaban

5.0

This book beggars description. It is haunting, lyrical, utterly personal, as Balaban takes us through an often hidden side of the war. A Conscientious Objector who goes to Vietnam to understand the conflict that is tearing his country apart, Balaban meets CIA agents, doomed heroin rock-and-rollers, dedicated doctors and nurses, paper-blooded bureaucrats, and mystical monks. He fights in the Tet Offensive, spends months helping get wounded children to America for reconstructive surgery, and then returns with his wife to record Vietnamese oral poetry. The small details, story, and quiet introspection of this book are a picture into a forgotten world.

Everybody should read this book.