I had a whole list of quotes--some of them will show up if I make a complete post one the series has aired, because I have a startling number of things to say about this show, and these sources, and why they're important. But basically the book is full of these moments, these painful, echoing descriptions, and every single one of them is something I want to pull out and make other people read. This is the stuff that made me a history major, and military history in particular, and I get confused when people say that history is boring, because how can it be? THIS is history. It's not boring, it's the most complicated, fucked-up, bewildering, exciting thing there is. *g*
Say, could I hit you up for a book rec? I'm looking for a couple of sources to get me into the head of an American Marine serving in Vietnam during the war. Anything pop into your mind?
Huh. Most of them are crap, in part because they're trying to draw from WWII memoirs and it just doesn't work. Try these, though?
Masters of the Art, Ronald Winter (helicopter pilot, but he's got a way with dispassionate observation that gets at the feeling of compartmentalization really well) Lullabies for Lieutenants, Cox (not one of my favorites, but other people say they get a lot out of it; it's more like Sledge's book than Leckie's) Vietnam-Perkasie, Ehrhart (this is one I would unequivocally recommend; it's another memoir that I return to repeatedly and get more from each time. YMMV, because I'm routinely drawn to poets writing of combat, and Ehrhart is another of those. He also wrote a couple of sequels, but I'm not familiar with those) A Rumor of War, Caputo (this is maybe too obvious, the way that The Things They Carried is, but that doesn't make it any less striking or true
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Masters of the Art, Ronald Winter (helicopter pilot, but he's got a way with dispassionate observation that gets at the feeling of compartmentalization really well)
Lullabies for Lieutenants, Cox (not one of my favorites, but other people say they get a lot out of it; it's more like Sledge's book than Leckie's)
Vietnam-Perkasie, Ehrhart (this is one I would unequivocally recommend; it's another memoir that I return to repeatedly and get more from each time. YMMV, because I'm routinely drawn to poets writing of combat, and Ehrhart is another of those. He also wrote a couple of sequels, but I'm not familiar with those)
A Rumor of War, Caputo (this is maybe too obvious, the way that The Things They Carried is, but that doesn't make it any less striking or true ( ... )
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