The extraordinary betseller that provides a close-up look unlike any other, at the American experience in Vietnam. Powerful, vivid, compassionate, ...
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Dec 21, 2007
Patrick
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I just finished Philip Caputo’s riveting A Rumor of War. It clearly belongs in the elite pantheon of books about the Vietnam War along with Michael Herr’s Dispatches, Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried, and Stanley Karnow’s Vietnam: A History. Caputo writes about his experiences that led him to enlist in 1965 in order to satisfy his romantic ideals about war. His experiences vary as his company defends an airstrip then engages in search and destroy missions before bei
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Mar 13, 2008
John
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Caputo's book doesn't need another review. I will offer mine anyway, if nothing else to contrast it with Wolff's "In Pharoah's Army," an inferior book. First, I wish I could have written "A Rumor of War." I wasn't ready to write about the war soon after I returned from Vietnam, in 1967. Not even after a couple years of college in 1971, when I camped on the mall with 1,200 other Vietnam Vets Against the War (including John Kerry). Caputo had the advantage of education on me. N
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Dec 16, 2009
Erin
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Easy read. He had some good points on war that of course never having been through a war - I would never have thought about.
It wasn't as philosophical or even maybe horrific as I needed. He didn't sell me on why exactly did the Vietnam war effect men's psyches more than other wars. I guess that's what I was looking for. To understand their psyche. He only would delve into that a few times.
I guess I felt this book was a good overall view on the Vietnam war. But rea More...
It wasn't as philosophical or even maybe horrific as I needed. He didn't sell me on why exactly did the Vietnam war effect men's psyches more than other wars. I guess that's what I was looking for. To understand their psyche. He only would delve into that a few times.
I guess I felt this book was a good overall view on the Vietnam war. But rea More...
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Dec 17, 2009
Martin
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Recommended by my brother-in-law Aaron - this was a powerful book. While there there certainly parts that grip you powerfully and hold you - the real strength of this book is in its timelessness. The issues to an infantryman in Vietnam are no different than the issues of an infantryman in Iraq. It's a war whose purpose is questioned and human nature is human nature. Anger is anger. VietCong = Iraqi Insurgent.
It begs the question, 'when will we learn our lesson?' America is about to More...
It begs the question, 'when will we learn our lesson?' America is about to More...
Jan 24, 2009
Christina
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This is an amazing and heartbreaking memoir written about the Vietnam war. And yet sadly it is still relevant today. Here's a excerpt from chapter eight, explaining how the villagers seemed after Giao-Tri was destroyed.
They just stood there, silent and still, showing neither grief nor anger nor fear. Their flat, steady gazes had the same indifference I had seen in the eyes of the woman whose house I had searched in Hoi-Vuc. It was as if they regarded the obliteration of their village More...
They just stood there, silent and still, showing neither grief nor anger nor fear. Their flat, steady gazes had the same indifference I had seen in the eyes of the woman whose house I had searched in Hoi-Vuc. It was as if they regarded the obliteration of their village More...
Aug 12, 2011
Shane
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“The greatest tragedy is war, but so long as there is mankind, there will be war.” -Jomini, The Art of War
Emotionally powerful. Personally riveting. A simple story about war without all the preachy judgement and rhetoric. A perspective on infantry life written by an infantryman.
To quote Caputo,
“This book does not pretend to be history. It has nothing to do with politics, power, strategy, influence, national interests, or foreign policy; nor is it indictment of tMore...
Sep 28, 2010
Christian
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Christian Kastner
Period 1/3
Kelly Williams
Senior English
Book Report
It was 1965; the first American soldiers were being deployed to the damp jungle of Vietnam, a place that would soon transform them from youthful boys to killing machines. Phillip Caputo, a Vietnam veteran, documents his experiences in such jungles in his memoir, A Rumor of War, where he witnessed the militarized chaos of a war mainly bent on a larger kill count than the enemies. Af More...
Period 1/3
Kelly Williams
Senior English
Book Report
It was 1965; the first American soldiers were being deployed to the damp jungle of Vietnam, a place that would soon transform them from youthful boys to killing machines. Phillip Caputo, a Vietnam veteran, documents his experiences in such jungles in his memoir, A Rumor of War, where he witnessed the militarized chaos of a war mainly bent on a larger kill count than the enemies. Af More...
Sep 28, 2010
Owen
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jul 28, 2010
Rick
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In his post-script, Mr. Caputo writes that his goal was to write "about the war with such unflinching honesty and painstaking attention to detail as to put the reader there -- as much as was possible on the printed page. I did not want to tell anyone about the war but to show it. I wanted readers to feel the heat, the monsoons, and mosquitos. Above all, I wanted to communicate the moral ambiguities of a conflict in which demons and angels traded places too often to tell one from the other
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Jul 18, 2009
Louis
rated it:
This was a book club selection. And not by me :-)
Philip Caputo was a marine lieutenant among the first units in Vietnam in 1965. And his unit, like all such who are the first of their generation to go to war, was unsure of what they would find, looking to their few veterans from Korea to what it would be like, and the guidance from above. And the guidance from above was that it would be easy.
It was not. And Caputo shows what it was like at the ground, the walking into More...
Philip Caputo was a marine lieutenant among the first units in Vietnam in 1965. And his unit, like all such who are the first of their generation to go to war, was unsure of what they would find, looking to their few veterans from Korea to what it would be like, and the guidance from above. And the guidance from above was that it would be easy.
It was not. And Caputo shows what it was like at the ground, the walking into More...
Aug 12, 2010
Alexandra
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This memior of a marine lt in Vientam was hard for me to rate. On a technical score, this book earns three stars. It is well-written and readable. In terms of content and message, however, I could not say that I certainly liked it.
Caputo was about 6 months ahead of my dad on the Quantico-to-Vietnam trajectory. Many of the officers mentioned in the book were men my dad also knew/served with. I read the book largely to learn more about my dad's experiences as a young marine in t More...
Caputo was about 6 months ahead of my dad on the Quantico-to-Vietnam trajectory. Many of the officers mentioned in the book were men my dad also knew/served with. I read the book largely to learn more about my dad's experiences as a young marine in t More...
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Sep 28, 2010
Edmund
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Philip Caputo wrote A Rumor of War, a memoir during his career in the Vietnam War. Philip grew up in a small town located next to the heart of Virginia. After leaving high school Philip had a hunger for glory and decided to join the army to fight in the war. A few months later he was dropped off in (insert city name ), Vietnam, right in the middle of the fighting. Many months pass as lt. Philip Caputo fight for his country. He experiences ambushes, 'booby traps', constant fighting
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Jul 28, 2011
Ian
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Hard hitting memoir of the author's personal experience as one of the first boots on the ground landing in Danang 1965 and how the idealism and innocence of that initial period rapidly devolved into cynicism, dread, fear and fatalism when confronted with a slow war of attrition where the environment itself is the enemy, from booby traps, harsh weather and field conditions to frustratingly fleeting enemy insurgents who refuse to fight in open conventional battles. Caputo tells it like it is with
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Jun 05, 2010
Marjorie
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I am in a family book club and the rule is that the person who hosts gets to chose the book. My brother, Ed, is hosting and this is his choice. I am not a fan of war books, but at least I remember the Vietnam War.
Philip Caputo is a former Chicago Tribune reporter and writes the book as he writes his articles, detached and just the facts. There is no personality in this book, you never get to know the characters at all. A factual book written in fiction form.
I did learn alot ab More...
Philip Caputo is a former Chicago Tribune reporter and writes the book as he writes his articles, detached and just the facts. There is no personality in this book, you never get to know the characters at all. A factual book written in fiction form.
I did learn alot ab More...
Jan 10, 2009
Janet
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I began this book with trepidation as, in the prologue, author Philip Caputo describes himself as an anti-war protestor, now a media journalist. He served valiantly enough as a Marine in the Vietnam War and once home mailed his medals to the White House. I quote him from the very beginning, “The war was still being fought, the desire to go back did not spring from any patriotic ideas about duty, honor, sacrifice, the myths which with old men send young men off to get killed or maimed. Incredulo
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Oct 13, 2011
Jake
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"A Rumor of War" is a deeply disturbing book. Like "Dispatches", by Michael Herr, it is a gripping first person narrative of what it was like to be in Vietnam- but Herr was there as a war correspondent, and the worst action he sees is brief visits to forward camps. Caputo, on the other hand, is a Second Lt. in the Marines, and his best days in Vietnam are much worse than the worst things Herr reported in his book. Months spent sleeping in foxholes deep in VC territory, doz
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Sep 28, 2010
Danika
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 07, 2012
Steve
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Not sure why it took me so long to get around to what is considered one of the "classic" retrospectives on the Vietnam War. I'm guessing that it was Marlantes' (terrific) Matterhorn that prompted me to look back at what I'd missed. (So many books, so little time.) I read Dispatches long enough ago, that it's tough to compare, but I can understand why they're often part of the same discussion. Obviously, this is a highly personal account of a horrible point in time in a miserable pla
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Dec 15, 2008
Kurt
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I wanted to read a good non-fiction war book, one that would really describe what war was like. I had read a few good books about World War II and the American Civil and Revolutionary Wars. But I wanted to read something about the war that I grew up with -- the Vietnam War. I remember as a kid hearing about "the war" in casual conversations and on the nightly news. I assumed that war was just something that was always with us and that when I grew up I would be a soldier in "th
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Sep 23, 2010
Adam
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I read a tragic book called "A Rumor of War", so much action and emotion involved. "A Rumor of War" was written by Philip Caputo, the location is Vietnam were America had one mission, kill all North Vietnamese army. After the South Vietnamese army was losing, America helped protect them. Philip Caputo leaves his "to safe" home to see real action, he picks war. My opinion towards the story is that is that he first of all lived through the whole war. Caputo doesn't j
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Feb 09, 2012
Abhishek
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The book is worth all praise that a man can give. Awesome book that captures not just interesting facts of the war but the attitude, physiological state of men in war, the frenzy activity due to which horrors of war occur, the dance of death, the boredom in Vietnam, the evil inside a man, the fears and the fear of fear, the doubts about sacrifice for nation, the doubts about death of beloved, spit and polish of USMC, what constant fear can turn you into, what death of brother-in-arms does to a s
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Feb 01, 2011
Karen
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A similar story to Matterhorn, but a memoir rather than a novel. The tone is less bleak, and the Marines are still idealistic, because it is set in the very early stages of the war - Caputo was among the first marines deployed to Vietnam. But like Matterhorn, the bulk of the book details the pointless missions through the jungle to seemingly arbitrary checkpoints and the terror of fighting an enemy who is rarely seen but wreaks havoc via land mines and booby traps. The military leadership is n
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Aug 30, 2010
SirLordBaltimore
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Caputo's incorporation of sensationalism in this work betrays him miserably. It seems as if someone (like a producer or agent) may have whispered into this guy's ear, listen don't be afraid to ham it up a little. You want this book to sell, right? Follow this pattern, etc.
Notwithstanding the undeniable factual events he shares with the reader, Caputo's sense of sincerity is clearly and unfortunately diluted with his zealous ambition to be more skilled at the craft of writing than he More...
Notwithstanding the undeniable factual events he shares with the reader, Caputo's sense of sincerity is clearly and unfortunately diluted with his zealous ambition to be more skilled at the craft of writing than he More...
Jul 22, 2009
Kathryn
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This is the tale of a bored young man who decides to seek adventure by joining the marines. When he is shipped off to Vietnam, he gets a whole lot more than he bargained for. The combat vignettes are realistic and compelling. They suck you out of your hum drum life and immerse you in the sweltering jungles of Vietnam where violent death lurks in every shadow. The book reveals the process by which constant vigilance turns to paranoia, and paranoia into bloodthirsty madness. It shows how the milit
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Oct 10, 2010
Jesse
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Grim combat-gnostic memoir of the Vietnam war. Unflinching both in its depiction of the horrific violence and purposeless futility of the war, and of its effects on the American marines fighting it (who become, over the course of the book, more violent, more bloodthirsty, more immoral, and more detached from humanity). Respectful of the troops and their motivations, but also written from the point of view of a marine who came home to join the anti-war movement. Absolutely damning in its criticis
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Sep 28, 2009
Ryan
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Philip Caputo did a very good job of writing about the Vietnam War in the way he wanted. I liked his style of writing; inserting bits of humor in an otherwise serious narration helped with the flow. One thing he did do that I did not like was he continually foreshadowed, if not outright said, what was going to happen to a particular soldier before actually getting to that story. His descriptions of the soldier’s life in Vietnam and of the Vietnam environment were nicely crafted, sometimes too de
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Jan 17, 2012
Marjie
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This was a book club selection that I was not happy about, but glad I took the challenge. This was a memoir of one soldier and the absolute hell he endured in Vietnam. It is well written and graphic, honest and detailed. A reminder of why so many returning from the war feel such a disconnect from the self serving populace they return home to. A frustrating and difficult read because it reminds us yet again that our government did not learn much from this war and to this day continues to make mi
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Mar 17, 2011
Myra
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I will purchase this book in paperback. Just thought I'd mention that first. :P
I didn't know what to rate this book at first, and then finally decided on five stars. This book and I have a love-hate relationship. It was powerful, thought-provoking, and I loved how it was written. At the same time, it was heart-wrenching, frustrating, and there were times when I wanted to throw it across the room because I hated it so much. I don't think I've ever had this sort of relationship with a b More...
I didn't know what to rate this book at first, and then finally decided on five stars. This book and I have a love-hate relationship. It was powerful, thought-provoking, and I loved how it was written. At the same time, it was heart-wrenching, frustrating, and there were times when I wanted to throw it across the room because I hated it so much. I don't think I've ever had this sort of relationship with a b More...
May 19, 2009
Christopher
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I read this when I was a senior in high school and it blew my mind. I imagined that war was horrible, but Caputo's experiences as a soldier and then a journalist during the Viet Nam War left me shocked and awed by humanity's ability to inflict suffering. What struck me most was the cruelty our government was willing to allow our own soldiers to endure.
Excerpts of this book might be useful in a history/social studies lesson or to further illustrate war story narrative (as in "T More...
Excerpts of this book might be useful in a history/social studies lesson or to further illustrate war story narrative (as in "T More...
Jan 07, 2012
Dusty
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I'll admit that it took me awhile to warm up to Caputo's rather technical account of his year in Vietnam. The problem is that I'd already read Tim O'brien's bewitching The Things They Carried, which sets the bar for literary memoirs of soldiering in the Indochinese swamplands absurdly high, and while Caputo's book isn't without literary merit, he can't quite match O'brien's poetry. Plenty of men get blown up in both books. In A Rumor of War those men are exactly what they are: too-young American
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