Vietnam war literature

[RyanMB]

I've just finished reading Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson. I was completely swallowed up by the book, I'd be curious to know what anyone else thought of it. I'd love to talk about it.

The main point of this thread, though: can anybody else recommend any books that take place during/in the Vietnam war? Not non-fiction, I think you know what I'm getting at.

Ryan

[Igetanotion]

I don't know of any books, but Yusef Komunyakaa is a poet who has written some poetry about it. You might want to check him out, two of my favorites are called "Facing it" and " You never know" facing it is a post Vietnam poem, and "You never Know" is written during the war.

[RyanMB]

Yeah, I've got dinky dow, it's great, hopefully I can find some books too!

[aeroport]

Tim O'Brian's books, perhaps? I haven't read any, so I can't recommend, but I think they take place during that period.

[nebish]

Fiskadoro by Denis Johnson features the evacuation of Saigon;
Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
both Dispatches and If I Die in the Combat Zone are superbly poetic evocations of the conflict.
..As everywhere, however, Tree of Smoke fails to record or suggest any of the reality experienced by the Viet Cong ... American writers invariably reduce the opposition to homicidal fanatics.

[pussnboots]

I just finished a book called "The Unwanted" by Kien Nguyen. Its a memoir and I would reccommend reading it. Its about a boy who has a Vietnamese mother and his father was an american. He describes his life growing up a half breed ( this is what he was called) and what he and his family had to endure before, during and after the fall of Saigon. It was a very moving book.

[bluelightstar]

You certainly need to read Tim O'Brien's books, especially The Things They Carried. If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home is also really, really interesting and compelling.

[RyanMB]

Thank you everyone. I've noted each and everything here on my "to pick up" list, intrigued by it all. Any more suggestions would be very welcome.

[ClickForth]

okokok

[ben.!]

I'd recommend Dispatches by Michael Herr as good Vietnam War literature. Part memoir of the war, his long, lucid weaving prose really gives you the feeling that you are in the vietnam war. The book's characters provided the basis for Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket.

Really awesome book, on the back of my copy it's described as "Beyond politics, beyond rhetoric...its materials are fear and death, hallucination and the burning of souls. It is as if Dante had gone to hell with a cassette recording of Jimi Hendrix and a pocketful of pills: our first rock-and-roll war, stoned murder." ... "We have all spent ten years trying to explain what happened to our heads and our lives in the decade we finally survived - but Michael Herr's Dispatches puts all the rest of us in the shade."

Really good book, damn hard read though. It's speculated he wrote a lot of it while high on drugs, as were many of the soldiers in the Vietnam War.

[ben.!]

I'd recommend Dispatches by Michael Herr as good Vietnam War literature. Part memoir of the war, his long, lucid weaving prose really gives you the feeling that you are in the vietnam war. The book's characters provided the basis for Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket.

Really awesome book, on the back of my copy it's described as "Beyond politics, beyond rhetoric...its materials are fear and death, hallucination and the burning of souls. It is as if Dante had gone to hell with a cassette recording of Jimi Hendrix and a pocketful of pills: our first rock-and-roll war, stoned murder." ... "We have all spent ten years trying to explain what happened to our heads and our lives in the decade we finally survived - but Michael Herr's Dispatches puts all the rest of us in the shade."

Really good book, damn hard read though. It's speculated he wrote a lot of it while high on drugs, as were many of the soldiers in the Vietnam War.

[n_maw]

When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him.

It's been a long time since I read this one, but I remember it being very enlightening.

[byquist]

I vaguely remember being in a scene from a play called, "Private Wars," a 1-act maybe, but it was good literature. And I once saw a very funny one-act called, "Next." The battle-axe nurse is calling guys in for physicals for enlisters in the war. All she could say was, "Next!" Very funny.

[Skipping Record]

The majority of Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus was set during the Vietnam War. That is what sets it distinguishes it from the others in my head.

[B-Mental]

I read a book called Fields of Fire...can't think of author. My uncle was in Viet Nam and said no other book came close to the way it was. That must have been 26 years or so ago....

[Dazeysdad]

Several titles come to mind....

12, 20, and 5: A Doctors Year in Vietnam.... John A. Parrish MD... 1st person memoir of draftee MD with USMC hospital in Phu Bai before, during and after Tet 68

The 13th Valley.... John M. Delvecchio... Fictional account of 101st air-mobile ops in Central highlands early 70's... excellent small-unit imagery

The Street Without Joy.... Bernard Fall... Scholarly account of French Indochina conflict and beginning of US involvement

Hell In a Very Small Place.... Bernard Fall... Account of siege of Dien Bein Phu... Classic required reading about Vietnam War

The Quiet American.... Graham Greene... Fictional account of early US involvement during French Indochina war

Hope these are of help...

[NCHH]

I'm a Vietnamese. And that's why i feel useful if you're interested in Vietnam war literature :D . Many of you know about it, but just one side of this war. Have you ever read any communist writers' work? It may give you a fair opinion about what actually happened on my homeland. ;)

[Vincent Black]

well even though it's autobiographical, "Vietnam" by Hugh Lunn is a great book, he was an Australian reporter during the war and offered some very valuable insights.

[EricP]

I don't think that anyone has mentioned Ron Kovic's "Born on the Fourth of July" or Daniel Ellsberg's "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers". I would recommend both.