The Things They Carried

Amazon.com

"They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice.... Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to."

A finalist for both the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Things They Carried marks a subtle but definitive line of demarcation between Tim O'Brien's earlier works about Vietnam, the memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone and the fictional Going After Cacciato, and this sly, almost hallucinatory book that is neither memoir nor novel nor collection of short stories but rather an artful combination of all three. Vietnam is still O'Brien's theme, but in this book he seems less interested in the war itself than in the myriad different perspectives from which he depicts it. Whereas Going After Cacciato played with reality, The Things They Carried plays with truth. The narrator of most of these stories is "Tim"; yet O'Brien freely admits that many of the events he chronicles in this collection never really happened. He never killed a man as "Tim" does in "The Man I Killed," and unlike Tim in "Ambush," he has no daughter named Kathleen. But just because a thing never happened doesn't make it any less true. In "On the Rainy River," the character Tim O'Brien responds to his draft notice by driving north, to the Canadian border where he spends six days in a deserted lodge in the company of an old man named Elroy while he wrestles with the choice between dodging the draft or going to war. The real Tim O'Brien never drove north, never found himself in a fishing boat 20 yards off the Canadian shore with a decision to make. The real Tim O'Brien quietly boarded the bus to Sioux Falls and was inducted into the United States Army. But the truth of "On the Rainy River" lies not in facts but in the genuineness of the experience it depicts: both Tims went to a war they didn't believe in; both considered themselves cowards for doing so. Every story in The Things They Carried speaks another truth that Tim O'Brien learned in Vietnam; it is this blurred line between truth and reality, fact and fiction, that makes his book unforgettable. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

One of the first questions people ask about The Things They Carried is this: Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories? The title page refers to the book simply as "a work of fiction," defying the conscientious reader's need to categorize this masterpiece. It is both: a collection of interrelated short pieces which ultimately reads with the dramatic force and tension of a novel. Yet each one of the twenty-two short pieces is written with such care, emotional content, and prosaic precision that it could stand on its own.

The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves.

With the creative verve of the greatest fiction and the intimacy of a searing autobiography, The Things They Carried is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America's most controversial war. It is also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. Ultimately The Things They Carried and its myriad protagonists call to order the courage, determination, and luck we all need to survive.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book.......2007-09-25

I was forced to read this book for class but I am certainly glad I did. The book gave first person insight on the personal aspects of the Vietnam War, not just the obvious blood and guts. Stories of women snuck in to the base, lost loves, and interaction with the natives all highlighted the other side of war, not just the trenches, although those aspects are illustrated as well. Fascinating read.

review.......2007-09-25

i ordered this book a month ago and it still has not come. i need it for my college class!!!!!

Personal and touching.......2007-09-21

This is a moving book. A beautiful metaphor for a title. "The things they carried" sums up what this is about - the hopes and fears these soldiers brought, and took away, from war.

Tim's style jumps - there are times when you feel like he is "writing like a novel writer", with the usual eloquence, well-thought out structure expected from a great work of fiction. The first part of the book is in this style and is great in it's own way.

However, there are times when you can feel like you are reading his private journal. You can sense that he is not writing for me or for you in that moment, but rather for himself - to remember, to just make sense of it all. In these parts, the writing is so raw and honest it is hard to imagine not being moved. His fears, the sense of hope, and finally the courage, become real. (Specifically the portion where he was contemplating escaping the draft.) Sometimes I felt like I was just reading my own journal because of his voice...those were the most powerful moments and for that alone, worth the whole book.

What soldiers carry on their backs and in their hearts.......2007-09-09

An amazing book that succeeds in portraying what it was like for the ones who were sent to Vietnam. The difficulty of the telling shows through as the story comes out in pieces that ultimately are woven together for an intense read. There are some gruesome scenes and brutal actions that you come to understand are just normal under the extreme circumstances of war. Fantastic storytelling that shares what these soldiers have to carry inside them.

Remarkable.......2007-09-06

This is a must-read book. The Things They Carried constantly forces the reader to question the nature of Truth. Is this real? Could this have possibly happened? Is he lying here? What IS real?
And... in the end... does it really matter?

This book also brings the reader closer to the war in Vietnam, which was a tough time and also, for many, a very confusing time in American History. This book does not, however, present the reader with a historical/political view of the war. No. It brings the reader face to face with the everyday soldier. It brings out some of the horrible realities of the war that future generations could have no clue about.
Finally, this book brings home the message that war is not "romantic." It's horrible. It's bloody. And, all too often there is no glory in war, no honor... IT JUST IS.

Thai: Learn to Speak and Understand Thai with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon and Schuster' Pimslur Language Programs: Comprehensive)

Average customer rating:

You can't do any better than this
About As Flawless As A Language Course Can Get
Disappointing, but probably the best you'll find
Worth Every Cent!
A great course -- only one complaint

Thai: Learn to Speak and Understand Thai with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon and Schuster' Pimslur Language Programs: Comprehensive)
Pimsleur
Manufacturer: Pimsleur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0743544927

Book Description

Comprehensive Thai includes 30 lessons of essential grammar and vocabulary -- 16 hours of real-life spoken practice sessions -- plus an introduction to reading.

Upon completion of this Level I program, you will have functional spoken proficiency with the most-frequently-used vocabulary and grammatical structures. You will be able to:

* initiate and maintain face-to-face conversations,

* deal with every day situations -- ask for information, directions, and give basic information about yourself and family,

* communicate basic information on informal topics and participate in casual conversations,

* avoid basic cultural errors and handle minimum courtesy and travel requirements,

* satisfy personal needs and limited social demands,

* establish rapport with strangers in foreign countries,

* begin reading and sounding out items with native-like pronunciation.

Customer Reviews:

You can't do any better than this.......2007-08-22

Thai is a very difficult language for westerners to learn. And being a tonal language, you have to hear it spoken correctly in order to learn it. You definitely need all 30 lessons that are in the comprehensive program. They will give you a basic understanding of how the language works. It would be nice if pimsleur would come out with further lessons, but until they do you can use this program as a stepping stone into more advanced thai programs.

Note: Some of the reviews here are mistaken when they say this course only has the first 10 lessons. This is the comprehensive program that has the entire 30 lessions in it.

About As Flawless As A Language Course Can Get.......2007-07-15

My significant other is from Thailand, and over the course of some shopping excursions into Thai CD/Movie/Book stores I picked up a cheap (~$20) two-CD Thai language introductory course. Over the next few months I tried to press it into the service of educating me and the sum total of what I got out of it, aside from a smattering of arbitrarily-presented and disconnected nouns, was "Where is the beer," "Where is the toilet," and "I love you." Three cheers for The Three Most Important Phrases In Any Language, but it quickly became evident that a better course was going to be needed if I wanted any kind of usable facility with the language.

I sprung for the Pimsleur Thai comprehensive course - somewhere around $170 from one of Amazon's affiliate sellers (above) - and was instantly and intensely relieved at the logical soundness of its presentation. The people who created this course are not people interested in throwing together a hash of arbitrary words and phrases, they are people who *know how to teach* - something of a lost art these days.

After my experience with that horrid first course - and memories of the Spanish and German classes I had in high school, which is to say: hazy - I had started looking specifically for *method* in language teaching as a necessity. A well-thought-out language course ought to match as closely as possible the epistemology we use intuitively when we're learning our native language at ages 0-6.

The language student should be expending his entire mental effort in learning the building blocks of language - nouns, verbs, objects, adjectives and adverbs - while concurrently learning the rudiments of sentence structure and syntax. He should not have to waste an instant struggling against the course itself - in the best-case a language course should be utterly transparent to the user. On that score the Pimsleur Thai course is nothing short of flawless. Learning a new language inescapably requires effort and dedication, but with Pimsleur's course none of that effort is expended in wrestling with shoddy teaching methodology. You *will* see results from this course, and there is an intense sense of both accomplishment and wonder in every new level of understanding you will gain.

The level of complexity advances at a consistent pace; the repetition of new terms and the period of time alotted for providing responses are perfectly designed; variations on phrases and sentences are logically and thoroughly presented. This course's strength is that it is laid out in such a way as to cultivate and reinforce the student's ability to *understand* the language, rather than merely catalog an extensive collection of canned phrases by rote memorization. You will learn basic grammar without a whole lot of head-scratching and learn to alter and apply it to varying situations. That learning, in turn, is reinforced by the fact that previously-learned material is overlapped seamlessly into subsequent lessons, then expanded upon.

The only downside to this course - which, being that I'm only a third of the way through it I can only infer from the comments of others - is that there are as yet no followup, advanced courses. Hopefully Pimsleur will step up to the plate on that in the near future, but I'm thinking that the diligent student will be able to take the rudiments he learns here and gain an advanced, working ability at Thai with some supplementary vocabulary and grammar from books and other courses, and of course with discussion groups and direct immersion in Thai communities, either here or abroad.

I'm amazed at how easily and rapidly I've progressed after my frustration with a lesser course. Presumably Pimsleur's other language courses are this good? 'Can't wait to find out. Based on my own experience I think Pimsleur should get an award for this course. Bravo!

Disappointing, but probably the best you'll find.......2007-06-09

I did a ton of research on Thai language CDs for my honeymoon last year. I needed a CD-only option, as I was using them on my daily commute. This eliminated most of the audio+computer options like Rosetta Stone. While I learned some basics from these CDs, they weren't worth the time I committed to listening to them. Essentially, almost all of the lessons teach you language that would be helpful if you're an American businessman trying to pick up a local woman in a bar. If that doesn't fit your description, I'd avoid these CDs. If it does fit your description, these would be perfect for you!

Worth Every Cent!.......2007-01-02

First, there are some people confused who are writing reviews. This is NOT the short course. It is the longer one.

This method of learning is so fantastic. I have all the lessons on my iPod. I learn as I drive to work. I practice in the gym on the treadmill. The method is based on listen and repeat - no books, flash cards, etc. I am so impressed with how much I have learned. I blow everyone away at any Thai restaurant. They are so excited that "the white guy" speaks Thai!!!

I cannot wait to go back to Thailand and use all I have learned.

Don't waste another minute......buy it...and get started.

A great course -- only one complaint.......2006-12-27

This is a great way to begin learning Thai -- to acquire the essential foundation people need in learning a foreign language. The only complaint I have is that -- once you start seriously looking into the Pimsleur method -- you discover that the complete foundation includes Level I, Level II, and Level III. Each level has thirty 30-minute lessons. And there is no indication of when Level II and Level III are coming.

On the other hand, there is some indication about when the opposite course (English for Thai Speakers) is coming: December 2009.

But this "complaint" only amounts to saying: I want more! This is very useful stuff!

Average customer rating:

white feather/carlos hathcock
Hathcock ultimate Book
Fantastic book
Sniper Heaven
CARLOS HATHCOCK "WHITEFEATHER"

Carlos Hathcock "Whitefeather"
Roy F Chandler
Manufacturer: Iron Brigade Armory Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Vietnam War | Military | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1885633092

Book Description

White Feather is the only authorized biography of Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock II, who was recognized as the most successful sniper in the Vietnam War with more than 93 confirmed kills. The book White Feather is written by brothers Roy and Norm Chandler, who publish military shooting publications through Iron Brigade Publishing, a Jacksonville, North Carolina based corporation. As Marine Sniper, a best seller for nine years relayed his heroism in Vietnam, White Feather covers Carlos' entire career and the other details not found in any other title. Written in true "Chandler" format, this volume covers, from beginning to end, the story and tales of a true Marine Corps legend and last American Hero. As far as biographies go, this book will forever immortalize Hathcock, who passed away Feb. 1999.

Customer Reviews:

white feather/carlos hathcock.......2007-09-24

a very good personnel bio of carlos.he was a ver brave man doing the things we did so well.

Hathcock ultimate Book.......2007-08-29

This is the ulitimate Book on Gunny Carlos Hathcock,and as some of the the funds go to his family,I am honored to buy it.Jarheads buy this book,inside you'll find,This Man Was A Marine,and no, I will not berate this book by comparing it to others wrote before it.the fact that it has the blessing of the Hathcock family is enough

Fantastic book.......2007-08-10

This book cover Gunny Hathcocks' life like no other. Full of facts that you could find no where else.

Sniper Heaven.......2007-04-02

I've been wanting to get this for my husband for awhile. He is a big Carlos Hathcock fan. He wish he could have met him. His dream was and is to be a sniper. Anyone that loves real stories about people in the military would love this book.

CARLOS HATHCOCK "WHITEFEATHER".......2007-03-26

IT WAS THE BEST BOOK THAT I HAVE EVER READ ON THE SUBJECT. BUT YOU MUST READ "MARINE SNIPER" AND "SILENT WARRIOR" FIRST. THIS BOOK CONCLUDES THE TRILOGY.

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors

Average customer rating:

Looks good!
Recipes that work!
Buy This Book Today!
Wonderful read, disappointing recipes
Excellent recipes, wel written cokbok

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors
Andrea Quynhgiao Nguyen
Manufacturer: Ten Speed Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1580086659

Book Description

When author Andrea Nguyen's family was airlifted out of Saigon in 1975, one of the few belongings that her mother hurriedly packed for the journey was her small orange notebook of recipes. Thirty years later, Nguyen has written her own intimate collection of recipes, INTO THE VIETNAMESE KITCHEN, an ambitious debut cookbook that chronicles the food traditions of her native country. Robustly flavored yet delicate, sophisticated yet simple, the recipes include steamy pho noodle soups infused with the aromas of fresh herbs and lime; rich clay-pot preparations of catfish, chicken, and pork; classic bÃ¡nh mÃ¬ sandwiches; and an array of Vietnamese charcuterie. Nguyen helps readers shop for essential ingredients, master core cooking techniques, and prepare and serve satisfying meals, whether for two on a weeknight or 12 on a weekend.

Customer Reviews:

Looks good!.......2007-09-27

I bought the book for my bf actually (yes! aren't I the lucky one) so I haven't really read it, but at a quick glance it seems like a good book, the dishes look delicious and not too hard to do. Also, Amazon has superb customer service and shipping time!

Recipes that work!.......2007-08-26

Not only is this a beautiful and well-written book, but all the recipes I've tried so far result in very tasty dishes. I actually rarely follow recipes exactly. I am a culinary school graduate and have worked in professional kitchens for over a decade, so I typically look at cookbooks mainly for ideas. For the most part, I don't usually need to know the procedures or amounts of ingredients in much detail. However, when I find an interesting cookbook and buy it, I always start out by following the first few recipes exactly as written as a way to gauge how much skill and effort went into the book. As I said before, the recipes I followed exactly worked very well.

Some of my favorite things I've found in this book are the "basics" like the nuoc cham. For some reason whenever I try to make this particular sauce without a recipe, it doesn't come out quite right, so I really like Andrea's nuoc cham recipe. Another deceptively simple favorite is the beef stir-fry marinade. I wouldn't have thought to combine fish sauce and soy sauce (I usually think of it as an either/or thing). But this is probably the best asian marinade for beef I've tried and I use it all the time now in lots of different applications.

Buy This Book Today!.......2007-06-16

I bought this book a few weeks ago and just cannot put it down. I think I will be cooking my way through it this summer. Vietnamese food is so perfect with hot sticky weather. The flavors are light and bright and savoury.

This is an excellent book for novice cooks as well as experienced cooks. If you have never tried making Vietnamese food at home it is the first Vietnamese cookbook you should own. It is clear and concise. I love that it has a glossary with how to pronounce the ingredient correctly, that makes shopping a whole lot easier. I was really pleased to find a chapter on Charcuterie. In a Vietnamese/Asian grocery you will see these foil wrapped frozen rolls and know that they are used in Pho or Bahm Mi but they are hard to interpret. Now I can make my own.

Some highlights so far have been the incredible corn and coconut fritters, I made a quadruple batch for a party 2 weeks ago and guests were gobbling them up as quickly as I could get them out of the skillet. The shrimp toasts are lighter and crisper than restaurant versions, I made the cucumber and shrimp salad on Thursday evening. The veggies in it are still crisp and when I had more for lunch today the flavors were even better. The Cha Gio I made for the same party disappeared quickly, you just cannot have too many of those things and make a bunch and freeze some to have on hand later. I love stuffed squid and her tip about piercing the tail end with a skewer as a steam vent took all of the frustration of trying to keep the filling in the squid body. Next on my list is her deviled crab. I've not had the book long and pages are already getting spatters. If you are a fan of Asian cooking your cookbook collection is sadly lacking if you don't have this book.

Wonderful read, disappointing recipes.......2007-01-15

Could not wait to get this highly praised book as I love to cook Vietnamese food and have an extensive cookbook collection. I enjoyed every bit of the book-until I tried three recipes one night. One came out just fine-the other two -the beef stew and the egg, shrimp, scallion pancakes were duds. The marinated meat tasted wonderful when browned, but once tomatoes were added to the dish it became just another beef stew. The pancakes had no taste. On the other hand, the water spinach with garlic was first rate. I will try some other recipes and keep my culinary fingers crossed.

Excellent recipes, wel written cokbok.......2007-01-12

This is an excellent cookbook presenting delicious recipes and the best of Vietnamese culture. I highly recommend it to any serious cook!! The best I have even read! Buy it and visit the author's web site!

Average customer rating:

candid memoir of 70-80's American food in the midwest
Is it more a problem of poverty or lack of substance?
Awesome Book
Great book!
a fun, educational and interesting read

Stealing Buddha's Dinner: A Memoir
Bich Minh Nguyen
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0670038326

Book Description

A vivid, funny, and viscerally powerful memoir about childhood, assimilation, food, and growing up in the 1980s

As a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bich Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity. In the pre-PC era Midwest, where the devoutly Christian blond-haired, blue-eyed Jennifers and Tiffanys reign supreme, NguyenÂ's barely conscious desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic seeming than her Buddhist grandmotherÂ's traditional specialtiesÂ—spring rolls, delicate pancakes stuffed with meats, fried shrimp cakesÂ—the campy, preservative-filled Â“delicaciesÂ” of mainstream America capture her imagination. And in this remarkable book, the glossy branded allure of such American foods as Pringles, Kit Kats, and Toll House cookies become an ingenious metaphor for her struggle to fit in, to become a Â“realÂ” American.

Beginning with NguyenÂ's familyÂ's harrowing migration from Saigon in 1975, Stealing BuddhaÂ's Dinner is nostalgic and candid, deeply satisfying and minutely observed, and stands as a unique vision of the immigrant experience and a lyrical ode to how identity is often shaped by the things we long for.

Customer Reviews:

candid memoir of 70-80's American food in the midwest.......2007-09-11

"Stealing Buddha's Dinner" is as much Ms. Nguyen's story as it is mine. Ms. Nguyen reflects back on her childhood memories of TV commericials of Kool Aid, Carnation Instant Breakfast, and Hamburger Helper; her Dutch neighborhood of pork chops and shepard's pie; her grandmother's canh chua and bo xao voi hanh; and as if that wasn't enough, her stepmother Rosa's sopas. Throughout it all, Ms. Nguyen tries to find her identity in all these clashing cultures, desperately wanting to fit in, only to find solace in solitude, TV, and books. But perhaps the greatest mystery is what happened to her real mother.

It's truly a touching story of what it means to be an American with Asian eyes and black hair.

Is it more a problem of poverty or lack of substance?.......2007-08-29

This book is non-commital yet oddly angry and unsympathetic toward the narrator's kin: an ill-fitting immigrant step-mother, her ill-suited marraige and their whole patchwork family hold much potential for warmth and growth...but achieve none. Through the book I hoped for some grace, beauty or forgiveness - that the young narrator might find a connection to her family, her community or her nation(s).

At times there are glimpes of a connection, but in the end all of her self-pitiful assessments remain: her sisters were mean, father was distant, step-mother was an overly ambitious, class-confused control freak.

I'd hoped to learn that these fabulous, interesting people- her father, sisters, step-mother, and so-called friends (nothing more to her than ineffective stepping-stones to social success) actually had valid motives and had made valiant efforts, but in the end it was simple: they had not understood her and she had not understood them.

Most importantly, I learned that through her young life she'd been miserable. She'd wanted a lot of foods and other things she couldn't have, which was startlingly familiar to me because I was a kid at this time and I was poor too! I wanted all of those fabulous things like potato chips and soda-pop and barbie dolls, and I didn't get any of it either.

So perhaps this book is most eloquent as a story about growing up poor in America. Perhaps the difference between being a second generation immigrant and a fourth generation immigrant isn't so great as the difference between being poor and not being poor.

Or perhaps I read too much into this book, which may in fact just be about an angry girl who didn't know or get what she wanted.

If you're looking for an introduction into this time period and into an overlooked American population, or if you want an overview/example of the history and experience of Vietnamese/American refugee/immigrants, this is a good start...very simple and skimming the surface.

But for some really excellent and available Vietnamese literature, try "Novel without a Name" or "Paradise of the Blind" and for the Vietnamese-American experience, consider Le Ly Hayslip's "When Heaven & Earth Changed Places", for starters...for those who want to start with a little depth.

Awesome Book.......2007-08-23

This is an excellent book about growing up as a first generation american. I really identified witht the authors story. I also really enjoyed her style and all the awesome discriptions of food. Every time I finished a chapter, I wanted to get some pringles or a hostess cupcake. However, the thing I liked the most was that after reading this book, I realized that I was not alone. As a child I always felt different, but now that I am college I have learned to embrace who I am because being different is ok. Buy this book! Its great!

Great book!.......2007-07-05

I thought this book was excellent! Bich's memories of food, books and life in the 80s brought a ton of my own memories back to me. I may go back and read the Little House series again! :-) Very well written and compelling. I immediately passed it on to my mom who enjoyed it as well.

a fun, educational and interesting read.......2007-06-09

Growing up in Wisconsin I remember very well when many Vietnamese came to live in and around our city. Bich Ninh Nguyen brings her experience to life from the immigrants perspective and I felt as if I was there with her all along the way. This is an excellently writen book.

If I Die in a Combat Zone : Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

Average customer rating:

An informative memoir on the Vietnam War
The first step
A Good Time To Revisit the Vietnam Experience
Good, but not his best
A good book

If I Die in a Combat Zone : Box Me Up and Ship Me Home
Tim O'Brien
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0767904435
Release Date: 1999-09-01

Amazon.com

Over time, Tim O'Brien has used both art and artifice to shape his fictional accounts of Vietnam. Award-winning novels such as Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried offer up a surreal view of the war: a soldier who decides to walk to Paris, leaving only a trail of M&M's in his wake; a young man who imports his high-school girlfriend to his base camp high in the jungled mountains, only to lose her to a shadowy squad of Special Forces Green Berets and to "that mix of unnamed terror and unnamed pleasure" that was Vietnam. O'Brien's first account of the war, however, was written in the raw, unfiltered months following his return from Southeast Asia in 1969. If I Die in a Combat Zone has all of the eloquence and attention to language and detail that are a mark of the author's work; what is different about it is its straightforward, unembellished depiction of his personal experience of hell.

"When you are ordered to march through areas such as Pinkville--GI slang for Song My, parent village of My Lai ... you do some thinking. You hallucinate. You look ahead a few paces and wonder what your legs will resemble if there is more to the earth in that spot than silicates and nitrogen. Will the pain be unbearable? Will you scream or fall silent? Will you be afraid to look at your own body, afraid of the sight of your own red flesh and white bone? You wonder if the medic remembered his morphine."

O'Brien paints an unvarnished portrait of the infantry soldier's life that is at once mundane and terrifying--the endless days of patrolling punctuated by firefights that end as suddenly and inconclusively as they begin; the mind-numbing brutality of burned villages and trampled rice patties; the terror of tunnels, minefields, and the ever-present threat of death. Powerful as these scenes are, perhaps the most memorable chapter in the book concerns his decision to desert just a few weeks before he was sent to Vietnam. "The AWOL bag was ready to go, but I wasn't.... I burned the letters to my family. I read the others and burned them, too. It was over. I simply couldn't bring myself to flee. Family, the home town, friends, history, tradition, fear, confusion, exile: I could not run." Tim O'Brien went into the war opposing it and came out knowing exactly why. If I Die in a Combat Zone is more than just a memoir of a disastrous war; it is also a meditation on heroism and cowardice, on the mutability of truth and morality in a war zone and, most of all, on the simple, human capacity to endure the unendurable. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

Before writing his award-winning Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien gave us this intensely personal account of his year as a foot soldier in Vietnam. The author takes us with him to experience combat from behind an infantryman's rifle, to walk the minefields of My Lai, to crawl into the ghostly tunnels, and to explore the ambiguities of manhood and morality in a war gone terribly wrong. Beautifully written and searingly heartfelt, If I Die in a Combat Zone is a masterwork of its genre.

Customer Reviews:

An informative memoir on the Vietnam War.......2007-08-30

This memoir brought me closer than I had been before to the Vietnam War..it was interesting. Another perspective on the Vietnam War.

The first step.......2007-08-09

If I Die...is Tim O'Brien's first book, and his first of many inspired by his tour of duty as an infantryman in Vietnam, 1969-70. Later, more successful books, like Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried, deliberately smudge the line between reportage and invented story (and, in GAC, he takes it all the way to outright fantasy) but this debut is intended as a soldier's field memoir, the facts as O'Brien saw and remembers them, although with much brooding personal commentary added.

More than 30 years after its publication, the book is still quite powerful, reviving the sights and sounds of a war that America decided a while ago not to forget, but rather to remember in a way it finds most convenient. There are still too many people who believe we could easily have "won" Vietnam if we hadn't been "stabbed in the back" by politicians and hippie protestors at home; that is nonsense, much of which O'Brien's book helps disprove. Indispensible works like The Best and the Brightest, and of course The Pentagon Papers, prove how various US administrations allowed themselves to be deluded about the progress the US military might make in solving the political problems of a small SE Asian country. By the time O'Brien arrived as a foot soldier in early 1969, the war had reached a high-level stalemate, was essentially over, and the Vietnamese simply had to wait us out. LBJ and Nixon knew this but they continued to send our soldiers over to be killed and mangled; too precipitous a withdrawal would have hurt their administrations politically.

What O'Brien does so well is dramatize this fatal stall at the personal level. His book is loaded with stories of ranking officers, brave men with Army careers, allowing their commands to ease off in the field, avoid pointless enemy engagements, even file fake patrol reports, especially at night. O'Brien's tour commenced a year after Tet and My Lai occurred, and in their aftermath, as O'Brien tells it, Army morale at even the officer level had sunk so low, and the failure of US goals was so evident, that few Americans wanted to get killed for a misadventure.

What lingers most in my mind is O'Brien's struggle with his own self-loathing: he believed even before being drafted that the war was wrong, and made serious plans to desert the Army, but found himself unable to make that great break, fearful of the reaction he would eventually encounter from parents and the small Minnesota town of his birth. He gave in to tradition, rather than do what he felt to be right, and it seems he has never forgiven himself.

A Good Time To Revisit the Vietnam Experience .......2007-08-02

Tim O'Brien is one of our more gifted, living writers in the genre of war literature, and although IF I DIE IN A COMBAT zone isn't his strongest book, it is certainly worthy reading, especially in the echoing din of George Bush's Iraqi adventure.

A straightforward account from a soldier's point of view, O'Brien's book includes the before, during, and after of his Vietnam experience -- especially the daily grind of soldiering (during) and the soul-searching and debate about fleeing (before) instead of answering the call of the draft. He had a rather quixotic escape plan to Sweden (of all places), but ultimately did his "duty," all along meditating on the nature of sanity, obligation, and patriotism. There are frequent excerpts from Plato, even, as O'Brien explores that ancient philosopher's take on "courage." As his fellow soldiers are killed, O'Brien details the nature of fate and chance, along with the more realistic details of the many ways "Charlie" (the VC) could arrange for you to die.

Here is a typical excerpt in which O'Brien compares Vietnam to the Trojan War:

"But losing [Captain Johansen] was like the Trojans losing Hector. He gave some amount of reason to fight. Certainly there were never any political reasons. The war, like Hector's own war, was silly and stupid. Troy was besieged for the sake of a pretty woman. And Helen, for God's sake, was a woman most of the grubby, warted Trojans could never have. Vietnam was under siege in pursuit of a pretty, tantalizing, promiscuous, particularly American brand of government and style. And most of Alpha Company would have preferred a likable whore to self-determination. So Captain Johansen helped to mitigate and melt the silliness, showing the grace and poise a man can have under the worst of circumstances, a wrong war. We clung to him." -- (p. 145)

Philosophical riffs like this are frequent -- as are accounts of the soldiers' lives (and deaths), their nicknames for killer devices, their fear and superstitions, and their ways of surviving in a strange land where even women and children could, and often did, mean death. The literary weave of abstractions on war and history with specifics on Vietnam itself make for a potent read. You will come out of it not only feeling better educated about what Vietnam was like, but sensing that many of the arguments of the American government and the officers in charge ring as familiarly hollow now (in Iraq) as they did then (in Vietnam). If I could, I'd buy a copy for the President. But I know he wouldn't read it or, if he did, seek meaning from it.

Pro or anti-war, Vietnam or Iraq, you, however, can glean something from this early effort of Tim O'Brien's. Check it out.

Good, but not his best.......2007-04-28

Having read O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" first, this book seemed a bit dry and journalistic in comparison. It started out slow, and never really pulled me in the way the other did. In this book there are flashes of O'Brien's lyrical, dream-like brilliance, but never as consistent or as seemingly tangible as in "The Things They Carried."

In this book, O'Brien brings the reader along with him from the moment he first learns that he is to be drafted until he is on a plane heading home from Viet Nam. He shares his fears, doubts and political views of the war. The book is mostly about O'Brien's experience in the war, and how it changed him and matured him.

Overall, a good book. Probably of particular interest to anyone interested in a personal, almost documentary-style account of O'Brien's experience in Viet Nam. In a purely literary sense, however, the stories in "The Things They Carried" are far better examples of Tim O'Brien's skill as a writer.

A good book.......2007-01-11

A little too in depth for me. But i do recommend that it be read. A good book.

Average customer rating:

Great method
.
Thai for Beginners
So far, so good
Thai for Beginners with CD

Thai for Beginners
Benjawan Poomsan Becker
Manufacturer: Paiboon Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1887521003
Release Date: 1995-04-01

Product Description

An easy to use Thai language textbook designed for either self-study or classroom use. Teaches all four language skills speaking, listening (when used in conjunction with the cassette tapes), reading and writing . Offers clear, easy, step-by-step instruction, building on what has beenpreviously learned. Used by many Thai temples in America. Recommended books to be studied along with Thai for Beginners are Thai for Travelers (a practical Thai phrase book) and Speak like a Thai series by the same author.

Customer Reviews:

Great method.......2007-07-26

I have been a professional linguist in the Korean language for a long time, and I must say that through all the formal training I received, at one of the most prestigious language schools of the country, this series of books rivals that which is taught. Through very minimal "native" contact I was able to learn to read and write a seemingly impossible language. The course is paced well, and as some of the other reviewers have stated flash cards are a must. but if you are someone that is really looking to learn and understand a language then this is a really great series to go with.
My only gripe is that there is romanization (or phonetic spelling) at ALL in this series. It is a ridiculous crutch provided for lazy Americans. DO NOT rely on it for there is as of now NO standardization of pronouncing the Thai alphabet with romantic lettering. do yourself a favor if you are learning Thai, get this book, and NEVER look at the English letters.
The author has done an excellent job writing this series and it rivals that of all the professional/ academic training in the country. I wish one received college credit by just getting this book. It is THAT GOOD.

........2007-03-14

a definite must-have accompaniment to the book to start out with. I could only imagine teaching myself the sounds of tones I've never heard before without them.

Thai for Beginners.......2007-03-09

Well, it's early days but..so far, so good! It does what it says on the tin! But when you order this book you really must order the CDs as well. I don't think you can hope to success without the CDs. It would be better if both items were advertised together.

So far, so good.......2007-01-22

My son and I wanted to do something together that was extremely challenging and unique. After much thought we chose learning a foreign language and settled on Thai since a good friend at work is Thai and said it's the best asian language to learn. At first we tried learning from the internet from free sites, but after 2-3 weeks we knew lots of phrases and became frustrated with the alphabet and deciphering tones. We finally decided to buy a course but were limited on funds. Becker was affordable (with the additional CD).

We've made it to chapter 2 and are very pleased with the initial results. Finally, the alphabet makes sense! The book assumes you know nothing which is good. The problem with learning from websites is you can quickly become overwhelmed. Buy this book and CD! We use the web only as a supplement. For example, it is difficult to see how to write the mid consonant tone marks in the book and the book shows you how to write the mid consonants, but not the first long vowels. These are easily googled.

Thai for Beginners with CD.......2006-11-02

I have spent about 2.5 years in Thailand since 2001, the longest being 8 months. I had tried other books and spent a brief time when I first arrived working with a teacher in Bangkok. It helped me learn basic survival phrases for taxis and food and meeting people but the true sound of the tones eluded me. I couldn't get the right tone to stick and reading it never worked. In between trips I picked up this book and the cassettes ( I later digitized them to my Mac, this was before the cd was available). If you want to learn a tonal language find something like this. It has a written component so if you get lost in grammar and learning to read helps as well. The key for me was repition. I would listen about 3 to 4 times a week for about an hour. When I returned to bangkok my friends were amazed at the improvement. Occasionally it got me into to trouble because what I spoke I spoke very clearly so people expected me to be bi-lingual. What you have to remember is that it takes time to learn a language, think ahead in terms of a year and what you can pick up.

I have worked through the beginner and intermediate books, I found the vocabulary very useful and there is much more of it at the intermediate level. I have been taking a go at Cantonese as well and I am liking the Pimsleur method. It is all verbal learning but they seem to break things down in a way that sticks. I may pick up the thai version just to compare.

Average customer rating:

A Classic on War
I just Cant
Please--all those who will become warriors--read
"There it is . . . "
Increadible!

Dispatches
Michael Herr
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Vietnam War | Military | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0679735259
Release Date: 1991-08-06

Amazon.com

Michael Herr, who wrote about the Vietnam War for Esquire magazine, gathered his years of notes from his front-line reporting and turned them into what many people consider the best account of the war to date, when published in 1977. He captured the feel of the war and how it differed from any theater of combat ever fought, as well as the flavor of the time and the essence of the people who were there. Since Dispatches was published, other excellent books have appeared on the war--may we suggest The Things They Carried, The Sorrow of War, We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young--but Herr's book was the first to hit the target head-on and remains a classic.

Book Description

"He seems to have brought to this book the ear of a musician and the eye of a painter . . . the premier war correspondence of Vietnam."--Washington Post. "The best book I have ever read on men and war in our time."--John le Carre." . . . Dispatches puts the rest of us in the shade."--Hunter S. Thompson.

Customer Reviews:

A Classic on War.......2007-10-16

In my opinion there are two books on war that stand apart from all others: Stephen Crane's "Red Badge of Courage" and Michael Herr's "Dispatches." In fact, I consider the latter one of the best books ever written. It is soul-level stuff and I can think of few books that have ever so easily transported me to a place and time and left me feeling edgy. There is a reason so much of Herr's material didn't simply ended up in the films "Apocalypse Now" and "Full Metal Jacket" but also became some of the most memorable lines in the films. A brilliant book and one that should be read by anyone concerned about our most recent antics in Iraq.

I just Cant.......2007-09-11

Although I have a fasination with history, This book is just impossible to read. I must say i dislike the writing style. He keeps on and on and you dont get much out of it. I cant read pass page 57...

Please--all those who will become warriors--read.......2007-08-27

There are many who experienced, then wrote, to try to explain the Vietnam War. In tribute, Hunter S. Thompson said, "Michael Herr's Dispatches puts all the rest of us in the shade."

Every person who joins the military "to serve his country". . .(There ARE alternative ways to serve: I chose teaching in Africa for 3 years.). .Every person who may serve in the military, as now, during wartime should read this book before deployment.

You are at risk of barbarity (. . ."We had this gook and we was going skin him". . .) You are at risk of atrocity (. .."Disgust doesn't begin to describe what (our soldiers) made me feel, they threw people out of helicopters , tied people up and put the dogs on them.". .)

The reality, Mr. Herr, later suggests is: if you survive your tour, your problems are just beginning.

e.e. cummings said that memorial statues found in parks should not be built for those who fought so valiantly in war, but for those who said no to service.

"There it is . . . ".......2007-07-06

Any idiot who doesn't think Michael Herr captured the essence of northern I Corps during the Vietnam War in 1967-68 wasn't there, or certainly wasn't out in the boonies. I was. My Marine battalion (2/4) spent most of February '68 patrolling a stretch of dirt road through the mountains called "Highway 9" just a kilometer or two east of Khe Sahn. It was the winter monsoon and it rained constantly for days and nights at a stretch. Almost daily at about 5 p.m. we had to duck into our soggy bunkers with the scorpions, snakes and rodents when the B-52 "Arc Light" bombing raids flew in from Guam to pound the mountain jungles around Khe Sahn. Sometimes they got too close to our perimeters and rocks, pieces of trees and occasional NVA body parts fell onto our positions. Boring? Just when we got bored for a couple of hours, one of our patrols would make contact with some NVA and a furious firefight would break out. You ain't seen dark until you've been in jungle mountains on a cold rainy night with VC probing your perimeter. Read the dialogue! That's exactly how we talked there and then, how we thought, how we acted, etc. Yeah, just about everybody was stoned when they could be - it was a lot easier to get weed than beer or a drink, and you needed something to dull it. Herr was being honest by telling the story from a war correspondent's view (which he was), and ironic in calling reporters there "parasites" which is how the pinhead officers in Central Command saw them. But a lot of of soldiers and Marines were glad those "parasites" were there to tell the real story of what was happening in SE Asia. Herr's admiration for the grunts comes through loud and clear in Dispatches, as did his contempt for the politicians who launched the war - most of whom had never been in combat themselves but were too willing to send millions of young American draftees there to die in an ideological conflict with absolutely no strategic value - and the air-conditioned generals who ran it. Herr captured the insanity of the Vietnam War - the craziness of most warfare. This is the only book I ever recommend to others who want to know what it was like in 'Nam. Sound a little like the war in Iraq today? Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

Increadible!.......2007-06-27

Michael Herr changed the face of journalism forever. The poetic imagery, extremely well done, makes reading about history a completely different thing. When I read the book for the first time, I was completely hooked by the second sentence.
People not framiliar with military lingo may come up upon some confusion. There are many abbreviations and terms that Herr expects the reader to understand. Don't let that stop you, you'll learn them soon enough.
If I had my say, I'd make every American read this book before graduating high school. After all, people are only people, but history always repeats itself.

Average customer rating:

A Book that Will Stay With Me
Fantastic Book!
boring book
Heroics by non heros amidst the banality of life
Irrelevant to me

Prayer for Owen Meany
John Irving
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0688077080

Amazon.com

Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy with a strange voice who accidentally kills his best friend's mom with a baseball and believes--accurately--that he is an instrument of God, to be redeemed by martyrdom. John Irving's novel, which inspired the 1998 Jim Carrey movie Simon Birch, is his most popular book in Britain, and perhaps the oddest Christian mystic novel since Flannery O'Connor's work. Irving fans will find much that is familiar: the New England prep-school-town setting, symbolic amputations of man and beast, the Garp-like unknown father of the narrator (Owen's orphaned best friend), the rough comedy. The scene of doltish the doltish headmaster driving a trashed VW down the school's marble staircase is a marvelous set piece. So are the Christmas pageants Owen stars in. But it's all, as Highlights magazine used to put it, "fun with a purpose." When Owen plays baby Jesus in the pageants, and glimpses a tombstone with his death date while enacting A Christmas Carol, the slapstick doesn't cancel the fact that he was born to be martyred. The book's countless subplots add up to a moral argument, specifically an indictment of American foreign policy--from Vietnam to the Contras.

The book's mystic religiosity is steeped in Robertson Davies's Deptford trilogy, and the fatal baseball relates to the fatefully misdirected snowball in the first Deptford novel, Fifth Business. Tiny, symbolic Owen echoes the hero of Irving's teacher Günter Grass's The Tin Drum--the two characters share the same initials. A rollicking entertainment, Owen Meany is also a meditation on literature, history, and God. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

Owen Meany, the only child of a New Hampshire granite quarrier, believes he is God's instrument; he is.
This is John Irving's most comic novel, yet Owen Meany is Mr. Irving's most heartbreaking character.
"Roomy, intelligent, exhilarating and darkly comic...Dickensian in scope....Quite stunning and very ambitious."
LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"John Irving is an abundantly and even joyfully talented storyteller."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKR EVIEW

Customer Reviews:

A Book that Will Stay With Me.......2007-09-05

I read this book at the recommendation of a friend who said this was one of the top three novels she'd encountered, and I couldn't agree more! I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who wants to enjoy a richly written, inspiring and very satisfying "good read."

Fantastic Book!.......2007-08-26

Great book! This is so well written and refreshing. It has held my
interest and enabled me to picture everything Irving has written.

boring book.......2007-08-23

my son had 2 read this 4 school i think it was very boring and all over the place u cant make heads or tails where their going in this book also if schools have to seperate church & school this should not have to be read

Heroics by non heros amidst the banality of life.......2007-08-06

It was 4a.m. on a work day when I finished, closed, set the book down, and wept. Not just a tear, but buckets, the rest of the house asleep leaving no witnesses to this unexpected and potentially embarrassing event. Very uncharacteristic of me. I couldn't recall a similar reaction in all my reading ... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
This book on my short list of favorite (fictional) books - meaning books that I would actually read a second time (along with such unlikely books as Crime and Punishment (Dostoyefski), and The Name of The Rose (Umberto Eco), both of which I have read several times). I realize that individual preferences are intensely personal, but reading some of the other reviews I see that this particular book is one that evokes a passionate response by quite a few people (a number of people regard this as their favorite book). This usually points to the book's ability to touch on universal themes of the human condition. But it's not for everyone - personal preferences, you know. Irving is not a prolific author, but a disproportionate number of his books have been made into movies. This book was the basis for Simon Birch - an enjoyable but not great movie (much smaller in scope and theme than the book.)
Irving weaves a story where unlikely characters - in particular a small deformed boy with a squeaky voice - do unlikely things with unexpectedly good consequences. This book is the opposite of a heroic epic where the world is made better by the brave efforts of great people doing great things. In this book, small broken people stumble through life, playing, working, doing inconsequential things, but after it all, redemption comes in a single brief act that leaves a tiny corner of the earth much better than it would otherwise have been, and personal meaning in life is not in the banality of a life lived, but the unexpected opportunities at altruism.
As to why I wept, I'm still not sure. I certainly came to care about the characters. A sign of a good author. Irving's style is appealing - I like long stories since they give more opportunity for character development via embedded stories that don't necessarily advance the plot. Perhaps it was late and I was tired - like some other reviewers, I got to the point where I could not put the book down and had to finish reading it in a single go. I'd be interested to hear whether anyone else had a similar experience.

Irrelevant to me.......2007-08-04

I know most of you adore this book and definitely will think this review is not helpful, but I didn't like this book.

I believe the reason for this is that its satirical cuteness, which I think is the driving force, fails to cross the generation/culture cap and its appeal and irony is restricted to those who have a personal place in their minds for having experienced it in some way and can actually be personally relieved to deal with it in such a strange context as this book.

Owen Meany is definitely universal. I have a friend just like him, just as small and extrahumanly obsessed and strange (minus the religiousness, he can recite Old Norse poetry though). But much of this book just isn't.

It twists around the things which are important for America in a way that's so totally convincing and makes you see how innecessary and ridiculous it all is which is totally relieving if you actually have to hold on to and value those things because of some personal/cultural obligations. But if you've long ago dismissed them, religion and politics and great men and such, not in the teenager sort of way, but actually let them have no significance in your thought, then much of the appeal is just gone. That's my theory anyway.

Or said otherwise, it's like reading satire from some totally irrelevant historical period and geographical location. Like 1100's Turkish countryside or something. Even if you knew all about that place, if you didn't think like a person from there, it hardly appeals on a personal level.

Average customer rating:

Strong narrative accompanied by deep meaning
BACK TO NAM
Good
Too Stars
excellent

Up Country
Nelson DeMille
Manufacturer: Vision
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0446611913

Amazon.com

In Up Country, Nelson DeMille cannily revives the army career of Chief Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, the cynical, hardworking Criminal Investigation Division man who was forcibly retired after solving the high-profile killing in The General's Daughter. Brenner's called back to investigate the murder of a young army lieutenant by his captain. The catch is, the crime took place during the heat of the Tet Offensive, and the only living witness was a North Vietnamese soldier who described the incident in a 30-year-old letter that has only recently come to light. Soon Brenner, a Vietnam vet, is on an ostensible nostalgia tour of his old stomping grounds. The trip immediately turns dangerous as he heads "up country" to search for the letter writer, accompanied by a gorgeous American businesswoman, who's hiding more than even the smartest CID officer could imagine.

DeMille, who saw his own tour of duty in Vietnam (and even found a letter on a dead Vietnamese soldier), intersperses historical facts and chilling political possibilities with enough local color to provide some serious flashbacks for his fellow veterans. To non-vets the book may seem very long, but the payoff at the end is worth a couple hundred extra pages. --Barrie Trinkle

Book Description

In Up Country, Nelson DeMille cannily revives the army career ofChief Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, the cynical, hardworking CriminalInvestigation Division man who was forcibly retired after solving the high-profile killing in The General'sDaughter. Brenner's called back to investigate the murder of a youngarmy lieutenant by his captain. The catch is, the crime took place during theheat of the Tet Offensive, and the only living witness was a North Vietnamesesoldier who described the incident in a 30-year-old letter that has onlyrecently come to light. Soon Brenner, a Vietnam vet, is on an ostensiblenostalgia tour of his old stomping grounds. The trip immediately turns dangerousas he heads "up country" to search for the letter writer, accompanied by agorgeous American businesswoman, who's hiding more than even the smartest CIDofficer could imagine. DeMille, who saw his own tour of duty in Vietnam (and even found a letter on adead Vietnamese soldier), intersperses historical facts and chilling politicalpossibilities with enough local color to provide some serious flashbacks for hisfellow veterans. To non-vets the book may seem very long, but the payoff at theend is worth a couple hundred extra pages. --Barrie Trinkle

Download Description

The last thing Paul Brenner wanted to do was to return to work for the Army's Criminal Investigative Division, an organization that thanked him for his many years of dedicated service by forcing him into early retirement. But when his former boss calls in a career's worth of favors, Paul finds himself investigating a murder that took place in Vietnam thirty years before. Now, returning to a time and place that still haunts him, Paul is swept up in the battle of his life as he struggles to find justice.

Customer Reviews:

Strong narrative accompanied by deep meaning.......2007-08-06

Up Country is the first novel I have read by Nelson DeMille, and it is a very strong first impression. As the son of a man who served in Vietnam, I have always held a fascination with that particular war, but yet I feel like I have never really understood much about it. As DeMille was a lieutenant in Vietname, he not only writes this novel with a strong, suspenseful narrative, but he also finds plenty of appropriate moments throughout the novel to speak to the reader about the experiences of those who served in Vietnam, and how their lives were affected.

The novel follows former army investigator Paul Brenner. He is called by his former boss to go to Vietnam to investigate a murder that took place there in 1968. The murder involved the killing of a lieutenant by the captain of the same company, and it was witnessed by a wounded North Vietnamese soldier, who proceeded to write a letter to his family about the incident. When an American soldier gets a hold of the letter, it eventually finds its way to the American government. As Paul's investigation moves closer to its resolution, he realizes how much this murder means to the American government, and starts to wonder if he is in over his head.

While there are some slight lulls in the middle of the novel, and some of the dialog between Brenner and his female companion seems a little pedestrian, the novel overall is a solid read that not only provides a good mystery, but can also provide some deeper meaning if the reader happened to be a Vietnam vet.

BACK TO NAM.......2007-07-10

Two difficult things to take in: 393 reviews, and 40 some people only grudgingly allowed the book 1 star.

With all the reviews here all I will say is this book has the same characters somewhat as The General's Daughter, and though it is not a sequel the two books fit together well in continuance. The author served in Viet Nam and returned there for a visit prior to writing the book. Closure, well I don't know, but I am glad he revisited and wrote the book.

Finally, after 7 years this book still reads well and for me was an enjoyable read.

Semper Fi.

Good.......2007-06-22

This is a long book with very little action considering it's length. Paul Brenner a retired military police officer is sent on a mission in Vietnam (present day). He is to find a north Vietnamse man who witnessed a murder 30 years ago. Sounds simple? Well Paul takes us on a tour of Vietnam before we meet the man he is searching for. Along the way Paul talks about his experiences in Vietnam and provides lots of historical information. Great Stuff!! I was in Vietnam in the early 90s and did not know about a particular indigeneous people that played a role in this novel. The development of tourism after America resumed diplomatic relations with Vietnam is a amazing. Susan Weber the love interest in the novel provides insight on why some people become expatriots in far off places.

Most of the book deals with Paul and Susan touring Vietnam and then going up north to find the witness to a crime. They know where the man is but, it seems to take them a long time to get to their destination.
I listened to this on casset with Scott Brick as the narrator.
Brick is wonderful. This is a great audio book for the car because when at times I drifted off I didn't miss much action just descriptions of events, places , and feelings. I would recommend this novel to anyone interested in Vietnam

Too Stars.......2007-05-21

So the U.S. Army sends an immature and wise-cracking, retired 50-something Vietnam vet back to Vietnam for a dangerous secret mission in a totalitarian police state. In the former Saigon, he teams up with a with a beautiful Harvard MBA twenty years his junior, who falls madly in love with the aforementioned sarcastic jerk over dinner. I don't buy it. Neither should you. The author seems to be living out a mid-life crisis in this yawner. The book is TOO long, and the characters are too incessantly sarcastic and witty. The witticisms get old. Furthermore, the protagonist gets way too sassy with innumerable Vietnamese officials, and never gets jailed or deported. It's amazing! No, it's all just way too unlikely. Too insufferably "John Wayne." Instead of this silly book, read Philip Caputo's Vietnam memoir "A Rumor of War," which is profound and brilliant.

excellent.......2007-05-18

witty. funny. serious. satirical.
yes, i did skip over some dreaded dialogue.
overall, nelson deMille is always a good read!!

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