If I Die In A Combat Zone

[ninebelow]

I am fifty pages into The Fearless Man by Donald Pfarrer and I am starting to think I've made a mistake. Perhaps my quest to read all Vietnam war novels has met its match. The book is covered in glowing quotes from respectable sources but if I didn't know it was published last year I would never have guessed. This is very old fashioned stuff,

Comments

[communicator]

I'm just reading 'Beyond Black' by Hilary Mantel. I think that must be slipstream? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick? It's about a medium and her personal assistant, and the dead intrude ambiguously into normality: as in that Sterling essay, it doesn't invoke a sense of wonder, but simply makes you feel a bit strange.

[coalescent]

See also Geneva's post about Beyond Black.

[communicator]

Thank you, yes, very interesting.

I like books that don't plump too firmly for any single explanation of what is true or real. This would be a good example.

[ajr]

Have you read any of Tim O'Brien's books? They're the one's people always mention to me when the conversation turns to Vietnam war novels. I've got a couple somewhere, but have yet to read them.

[ninebelow]

He is one of my interests and favourite authors.

If you have The Things They Carried, In The Lake Of The Woods or Going After Cacciato read immediately.

[ajr]

I have Going After Cacciato. I shall bump that across to my first 'to read' pile. I thought I had The Things They Carried too, but either I'm mistaken or I've yet to add it to my LibraryThing catalogue.