VIETNAM WAR FICTION

"…it is by reading the fiction—
an act that takes time, reflection and empathetic involvement…
that the essential truth of the Vietnam War can be best understood."
John Clark Pratt

"Bibliographic Commentary"
" Reading the Wind" The Literature of the Vietnam War

Novels about the Vietnam War span a time period of almost 40 years. They are about who fought, those who stayed home, those who returned and those who died; their families and their friends. They are about those who made the political moves. They are about combat itself in Vietnam and in China,Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. They are about the puzzles of cultural differences. Many of the earlier books bewilder as they bombard the reader with horrific imagery or black humor. Many recently published books explore the war’s aftermath, in search of reconciliation. Of them provide a means toward better understanding about a time that continues to affect us all.

Anderson, Kent
Sympathy for the Devil
Doubleday, 1987. 350 p.
Episodic novel of simplicity and realistic detail. Hanson, once a sensitive and liberal college student, enters the Green Berets. The chaos, the art of survival, the hunt and his buddies, Quinn and Silver, consume and stimulate Hanson in this chilling picture of how war can irrevocably change the participants.

Anderson, Robert
Service for the Dead
Arbor House, 1986. 274 p.
In this fascinating and sensitive war story, Marine private Mike Allison tries to make sense of his time in Vietnam. Lying in the hospital recovering from a wound and then heading home with his parents, Mike thinks back on his life in the squad, how good he felt on patrol, the terrible battles, and the other men- their friendship and camaraderie. Mike’s reflections reveal that the war has become the only thing he knows; nothing else is real. He is left with a survivor’s quilt, an empty future and a horrible longing for the war.

Bodey, Donald
F.N.G.
Viking, 1985. 272 p.
A first person chronicle of Gabriel Sauer’s tour of duty. A very graphic, earthy view of life in the trenches. Gabe sees one of his comrades killed less than eight hours after their arrival in the jungle. Things go downhill from there, as he moves from landing zone to landing zone and from Effengee to short-timer. Gabe discusses all aspects of the war, from his physical problems to his squads’s reactions to inappropriate assignments from superior officers.

Bunch, Chris and Cole, Allan
A Reckoning for Kings: A Novel of the Tet Offensive
Atheneum, 1987. 449 p.
This is the war from a common soldier’s viewpoint with a strong, personal perspective, both American and North Vietnamese. The reader experiences the build-up and the initial days of the Tet Offensive, the beginning and the end for American troops in Vietnam.

Caputo, Phillip
Indian Country
Bantam, 1987. 419 p.
Powerful novel about a Vietnam vet who several years after coming home has not resolved painful wartime experiences, especially the death of a boyhood friend. The anger and the passion that he can no longer suppress threaten to destroy all he has grown to love. A suspenseful story with many layers, including an extraordinary portrait of the vet’s wife.

Coonts, Stephen
Flight of the Intruder
Naval Institute Press, 1986. 329 p.
Jake Grafton, a naval aviator, flies the A-6 Intruder on bombing missions over Vietnam. Jake and his squadron buddies have been drawn to flying for a variety of reasons. They cope with the intense pressures through a special brand of camaraderie punctuated by periods of wild release in the bars of Philippines. Although Jake once loved flying with a simple innocence, he suffers from an increasing sense of guilt and frustration over the deaths for which he feels responsible. His feelings lead him into a mission with consequences that will profoundly affect his life.

DelVecchio, John M.
The 13^th Valley
Bantam, 1982. 606 p.
Maps and actual army reports add realistic detail to the story of the taking of a strategic valley as experienced by a handful of soldiers from Alpha Company of the 101^st Airborne. The author intertwines the lives of the soldiers in "Nam" with their pasts and their dreams of the future, showing the friendship and tension between the men as well as the difficulty of reconciling their lives as soldiers with their civilian lives.

DeMille, Nelson
Word of Honor
Warner Books, 1985. 518 p.
Business executive Ben Tyson thinks he has put his Vietnam experience behind him, until a best-selling book alleges that, during the war, he was responsible for the destruction of a hospital and the massacre of civilians. Ben finds himself reactivated and facing a court-martial with two of his own men going back on their word of honor not to talk about the event. Vivid flashbacks and taut courtroom scenes reveal what actually happened.

Dodge, Ed
Dau
Macmillian, 1984. 288 p.
Morgan Preston’s pain ("dau" in Vietnamese) does not end with the horror he experienced during his stint in Vietnam. It continues when he returns to his small Michigan town where he is ostracized by the townspeople, and his symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder land him in the psychiatric ward of the VA hospital. Scenes of graphic sex and violence, all recounted by a detached narrator, create a feeling of futility, even though Morgan ultimately recovers and the ending is hopeful.

Ely, Scott
Starlight
Wiedenfeld & Nicholson, 1987. 195 p.
Combat. Jungle rot. Death. Jackson is so terrified of dying, he gasps for air like a fish out of water. He has 300 days left to serve when Tom Light shows up. The other troops threaten mutiny. No one survives when Light is around. Jackson believes in the eerie property of the starlight viewfinder on Light’s rifle which predicts who will die, so Jackson strikes a bargain with Light. Hallucinations from drugs mingle with the horrors of war in this harrowing account.

Fuller, Jack
Fragments
Morrow, 1984. 256 p.
A vivid account of wartime experience and a friendship between two men. Morgan and Neumann volunteer for a special mission’s team. Neumann is charismatic, a leader, a legendary for his exploits. He "adopts" a village, rebuilds it, gains the villagers trust and falls in love with a village girl. But the reality of war is portrayed grimly when Neumann commits an atrocity. A disillusioned Morgan returns home and seeks the truth about what happened.

Greene, Graham
The Quiet American
Viking, 1955. 249 p.
The uninvolved life of a jaded British-war correspondent in Saigon is upset by a young America government agent who falls in love with the correspondent’s Vietnamese mistress. The American is full of good intentions, but his naivete leads to trouble. This novel, written at a time when mostAmericans had difficulty knowing where Vietnam was, remarkably foreshadows the chaos that followed.

Groom, Winston
Better Times Than These
Summit Books, 1978. 411 p.
The Vietnam War as experienced by Bravo Company, a cavalry regiment, is filled with atrocities, wretched living conditions, incompetent leadership, threats of mutiny, worries about war protest at home, and strong personal relationships between the key players. By following many characters and events, first during the trip across the Pacific on a navy transport, then during battles through jungles and mountains which result in death and destruction followed by exhaustion and numbness, the reader experiences an engrossing view of the daily life of a soldier in the Vietnam.

Halberstam, David
One Very Hot Day
Houghton Mifflin, 1967. 216 p.
This is the story from the early days of the Vietnam War, when Americans were acting as advisors for Vietnamese troops. There is Captain Beaupre, an overweight and tired lifer, looking forward to retirement-just 18 months away. His Vietnamese counterpart is Captain Dang, who smiles, does nothing, and takes credit for what little Beaupre does. Their lieutenants are Anderson, a serious and ambitious West Pointer, and Thuong, proud, able and uncomfortable with the Americans. The action covers one day; one operation with unexpected results that will change the lives of all involved forever.

Hastings, Michael
The Unknown Soldier: A Novel of Vietnam
Macmillian, 1986.
Ordered to destroy all records of the designated Vietnam Unknown soldier, Walt Meredith, a tracker of MIAs for the Pentagon, disobeys. Recent findings in the case to indicate foul play in the soldier’s battlefield death. At the risk of ruining his personal life, Walt perseveres in his quest to identify the Unknown. Madness, murder, love, honor and patriotism all play roles in this intriguing novel.

Heinemann, Larry
Close Quarters
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974. 336 p.
Philip Dosier comes to his unit in Vietnam as a replacement for a man KIA. Naïve and nervous, Dosier asks what that means. Working as part of an outfit that maintains and operates trucks, armored personnel carriers, Dosier is initiated in no time to the callosity and dehumanization of war: crude language, racism, unethical body counts, corpse mutilation and murder. Finally all he wants to do is…"Kill and burn and rape and pillage…" until there is nothing left.

Heinemann, Larry
Paco’s Story
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1974. 336 p.
The soul survivor of a devastating Viet Cong attack returns to civilian life as a dishwasher in a small town café. His tale of horror is rendered in graphic detail by a hip-talking narrator, a dead soldier who speaks to the reader from beyond the grave. The author uses language like a weapon, and the effects are often harrowing.

Jacob, John
Long Ride Back
Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1988. 320 p.
For Travis Jones, the war did not end when he was shipped back home. Flashbacks, nightmares and various jungle diseases linger. Surviving in the "80"s means piecing together his experiences from Vietnam, his protests at the University of Illinois in the seventies and his encounters with friends who cannot comprehend the war.

Just, Ward
Stringer
Little, Brown & Co., 1974. 199 p.
Stringer, a civilian intelligence agent, is on a last mission working with the Army. Along with Price, a by-the-book Army man, he has traveled deep into the enemy territory to plant some very delicate electronic sensors that will guide the bombs to destroy the enemy’s supply convoys. When things go wrong, cool and efficient Stringer finds that this is not only a physical journey, but a journey of the mind and soul as well.

Kalb, Bernard and Marvin
The Last Ambassador
Little, Brown & Co, 1981. 276 p.
Besides being a collector of fine porcelain and having a beautiful and influential French-Vietnamese lover, Ambassador Hadden Walker is concerned about his place in history. Saigon is his last assignment, the culmination of a brilliant career. Daughter Suzanne loves an embassy official at odds with her father about the role of the U.S in South Vietnam. She also worries about the future of two special Vietnamese orphans. Military reports lead to conflicting interpretations of enemy troop movements and their purposes. Then, the worse happens, and thousands try to claw their way out.

Mason, Bobbie Ann
In Country
Harper & Row, 1985. 245 p.
Samantha’s ‘Sam’ Hughes never knew her father; he was killed in Vietnam before she was born. Her Uncle Emmett went to Vietnam after her father’s death and he came back. Now Sam is 17. Her mother is remarried with a new baby, and Emmett is ill, both physically and mentally. Sam’s main goals in life are to buy a car, have Emmett tested for exposure to Agent Orange and understand what is really happened in Vietnam.

Myers, Walter Dean
Fallen Angels
Scholastic, 1988. 309 p.
Black and 17, Richie Perry could not afford college. He wanted to get away from home, so he enlisted and ended up in Chu Lai for "hours of boredom, seconds of terror." His buddy Peewee joined because he didn’t have anything, and Lobel joined to prove his masculinity. Ready to kill for their country because they believe that they are the good guys, they discover themselves in a war no one understands and they are afraid to die.

O’Brien, Tim
Going After Cacciato
Delacorte Press, 1978. 358 p.
Hailed by critics for its gritty, precise style, this account of a soldier’s flight from battle alternates between fantasy and reality. Readers may wonder what’s real and what’s imagined as the story proceeds, but they’ll be intrigued by the author’s gift for creating powerful images of fear and futility. An unusual interpretation of the war. A dream vision that is artful and, at the same time, totally authentic.

Pollack, J.C.
Mission M.I.A.
Crown, 1982. 274 p.
Action packed novel about a mission to free 11 year MIA Frank Detimore from a POW camp in the mountainous jungles of Vietnam. Jack Callahan, a former Green Beret colleague, organizes an unofficial raid with fellow soldiers whose lives Detimore had saved. They train for three weeks before leaving for Southeast Asia. For all the soldiers’ careful planning, their mission, is in jeopardy when the American government learns of the scheme and tries to prevent it. Special appeal for lovers of adventure and military sagas as well as for young adults.

Proffitt, Nicholas
Gardens of Stone
Carroll & Graf, 1983. 373 p.
Young Jack Willow dreams of the glory of battle, when he joins the army in 1966, but he is assigned to the Honor Guard at Arlington National Cemetery, the "stone garden". A strong friendship develops with his sergeant, Clell Hazard, a dedicated career man. Jack eventually gets accepted into OCS, is sent Vietnam and faces the reality of war. Intertwined with flashes of the war are two love stories: Jack’s love for the beautiful Rachel and Clell Hazard’s romantic affair with a reporter, who is torn between her love for Hazard and her hatred for what he does.

Riggan, Rob |
Free Fire Zone
Norton, 1984. 426 p.
Lying in the bed of a woman he scarcely knows, a former Vietnam medic recalls his past adventures in combat. He remembers especially the men in his unit, the times they shared together--heroics, pranks and bitter conflicts. Ultimately the story is about a war within a war and its shocking, tragic outcome.

Wright, Stephen
Meditations in Green
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1983. 342 p.
There are really three stories here. A narrator relates the war experiences of James Griffin, which have left Griffin addicted to heroin and psychologically blown apart. Interspersed with story are Griffin’s first-person accounts of the struggle to maintain his sanity once back home and a portrayal of what it is like to become a plant in an attempt to escape this world of horrific violence, torture and murder.

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