In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War
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In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09  ·  rating details  ·  738 ratings  ·  80 reviews
Whether he is evoking the blind carnage of the Tet offensive, the theatrics of his fellow Americans, or the unraveling of his own illusions, Wolff brings to this work the same uncanny eye for detail, pitiless candor and mordant wit that made This Boy's Life a modern classic.
Paperback, 240 pages
Published September 1st 2010 by Vintage (first published 1994)
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Angie
War stories are really my brother's forte, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a memoir of Vietnam, and because I read it for a Creative Non-Fiction class, I'm left wondering whether a few things actually happened. Is truth crazier than fiction?

I also really loved the interjections of writerly advice within the narrative, and wish Wolff would have given us more. A young man overseas, always with a novel in the back of his head. In many ways, I related. In many ways, I found trut...more
Patrick McCoy
In Pharaoh’s Army is the follow-up to Tobias Wolff’s excellent memoir A Boy’s Life about growing up in Concrete, Washington in the 60s. Essentially, he conned himself into an elite boarding school as a teenager and then flunked out and joined the army in order to gain life experiences for the writing career he dreamed about. This well-written memoir is mostly about his experiences as an officer in Vietnam. The book is divided into several vignettes, rather than being written in a straightforward...more
Simon
Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars
I read it in a day. It has great flow and Wolff is remarkably assured in his lean and simple style. His writing, despite being occasionally bombastic, is really something to treasure. He has a great sense of craft, and understands the art of cutting away at a story, until it stands firm and without anything superfluous, all the while never losing it's lively, thoughtful momentum. There is this double-edged perspective, where the mature Wolff ponders and emphatically criticises, and the young Wol...more
Lisa
Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars
I've only read 2 of Tobias Wolff's works -- both memoirs: This Boy's Life and now In Pharoah's Army. These two works have left me with an impression of him as a writer that strikes me as similar to my impression of writers like Jack London, John Steinbeck, and Ernest Hemingway. Similar, but not the same. In ways, he has that "man's man" thing about his writing that they have. In other ways, he is much more gut-wrenchingly honest and allows himself a vulnerability that I can't imagine s...more
Kip Arney
I was very surprised that I liked “In Pharaoh’s Army” by Tobias Wolff. A memoir of sorts that if I didn’t know better, would believe it was a work of fiction. I’m not a big fan, or a fan at all, of reading about wars or battles, fiction or non. But Wolff does an excellent job of picking moments of his life, mainly from his time in Vietnam, and lets the readers see what he sees. The most “real” portion of the book was immediately following his discharge after four years of service and him not kno...more
Jesse
Jesse rated it 4 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Nicole
If I had to pick one word to describe this book, I think it would be “insightful.” Wolff’s prose is a great combination of snappy-smart and lovely and his pacing pulls us along comfortably. Rather than give us an entirely linear account, he does this thing that works well for him where he hands us a story, then talks about something else for a while, then comes back to that story from a different angle or telling a different part of it, and the seemingly unrelated stuff sandwiched in the middle ...more
Tommy
(This book counts as 2 books)

if you want to read a good war book, this is a book right up your alley. it talks about the battle aspect and the mind state of war. the before, during and the after.

the Vietnam war was a very, very, very bad war. the landscape and the minds. it was not a war fit for American troops. all the vet could think about was his traumatizing experiences from war. the noise of exploitations, landmines and claymores still ring in his mind and still scare...more
Caitlin
Caitlin rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2010
I loved This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff so reading his memoir of his time in Vietnam was a no-brainer. It is well-written and tells of Vietnam in a succinct almost detached fashion that maximizes the available horror. In particular, Wolff's description of the impact of the Tet Offensive will haunt me to my grave in the way that Michael Herr's description of Hue has.

Wolff is less the soldier and more the writer throughout the book and you wonder how he got himself there. In many wa...more
Eric
Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars
The Vietnam War memoir is kind of a tired category, and it was tired even in 1994, when In Pharaoh's Army was published. Which is one of the things that makes it amazing rather than just really good. Wolff does an excellent job of trying to tell the truth--not the truth as he wished it were, but as it was. He is rarely a hero in any of the anecdotes that make up this book. In fact, his project is all about being conscious of his self-consciousness, conscious of his motives, conscious of how he w...more
Lily Bart
A Gentleman Goes To War.

THIS BOY'S LIFE by Tobias Wolff is a classic. In that book he does a brilliant job capturing the ugliness of class prejudice in America, and the twisted strategems people use to rise in class.

Unfortunately, this book is not so much about Vietnam as it is about Wolff's presence in Vietnam -- in other words, what's really on display is not his courage or patriotism but his, shall we say, genteel powers of detachment. He's always saying, "look,...more
Eric_W
In this extraordinary memoir of Wolff’s Vietnam experience, there is a haunting scene that reveals the major cultural differences between the American soldiers and Vietnamese culture. Wolff was a first lieutenant (he was a special forces member) assigned as an adviser to a South Vietnamese unit. He had spent a year at language school in the United States and was fluent in Vietnamese. He and some ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) soldiers are hanging out when two of the ARVN find ...more
David
David rated it 5 of 5 stars
The most succinct, and possibly the best, memoir I've read of Vietnam. Each chapter is a gem, directly to the point, not a word wasted. Wolff seems to be one of those rare memoir writers, at least one of those rare contemporary memoir writers, who has actually digested the experience he's writing about. A beautiful book.

Besides, you have to like an author who can write an insult like "Captain Kale owned records of people playing accordions, and could tell the difference betwe...more
Nic
Nic rated it 3 of 5 stars
Like everything Wolff writes, this memoir is equisite. I breezed through the essays quickly and came away with a powerful sense of the confusion and frustration of his time in and around wartime Vietnam. The narratives are told with honestly and a complete lack of sentimentality or bravado, and in an unconventional order which seems to be a hallmark of his best work - an ability to reorder events for maximum engagement of the reader. Lovely and true and sad.
John Maberry
John Maberry rated it 2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: No one, except for contrast or comparison
This not among the best of the Vietnam books out there, in my opinion--despite what the critics say, who genuflect before Wolff. There is something about Wolff that puts me off. I couldn't empathize with him in reading This Boys Life. I could understand how critics would think well of it--it does READ well. But as a person, I didn't like him. He carries this unlikablity (not as bad as Dubya, mind you) into In Pharoah's Army. I didn't like how he managed to become an officer in the Army. Somehow ...more
Tom
Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars
Wolff's memoir of his time in Vietnam as a Special Forces adviser to the South Vietnam army. Short on bloody combat scenes, as he didn't really see much. The book deals with what all vets experience in a combat zone: loneliness, boredom, terror, exasperation with the military and gov't system, and the realization that life doesn't stop at home even if you wish it would (read: cheating women etc).
Tamsin Barlow
I was too self-absorbed during the 70's to pay attention to Vietnam so I was glad that Tobias Wolff wrote his recollections of his time spent there. He's a truly lovely writer and his account gives you a great feel for the life of the common soldier. The overall details aren't as important as the effect on the individuals in this book. Written with humor, starkness and horror.
Douglas Tiegs
Douglas Tiegs rated it 5 of 5 stars
Shelves: reviewed
This is a fantastic book about the Vietnam War. This is a semi-memoir, but it is obviously changed a bit to create for a better novel. This is not a violent book so people who dont want to read about graphic things should not be afraid of this novel. Tobias Wolff was interesting to read about, because of his lack of motivation in the face of anything except chasing girls. It was such an interesting thing that these people would go through life like this it really is interesting. My favorite part...more
James
James rated it 4 of 5 stars
An excellent memoir, told in stand-alone, story-like chapters, In Pharaoh's Army is reminiscent of The Things They Carried not only thematically but in terms of episodic structure and amused/bemused ironic voice, as well. I don't mean that as a criticism. I think most of the reading I've done about Vietnam has had this absurdist quality.
Nita
Nita rated it 5 of 5 stars
Shelves: mfa-books, memoir
I studied this book for his use of time and the structure of his chapters. I could really see how he interspersed the top story with riffs of backstory and riffs of expansion - how he slowed down and sped up to give the story texture and rhythm as well as meaning. See my notes on "Thanksgiving Special," the first chapter.
Dain
Dain rated it 5 of 5 stars
If you liked Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," you will like this collection of essays. This is creative nonfiction at its best, it is a continuation of his previous memoir "This Boy's Life." Tobias Wolff is a regular contributor to the New Yorker and his stories are rich and haunting.
Gregory Frye
Insightful, revealing essays about one man's experience surrounding Vietnam. This collection is full of confessions and existential pondering that prove for a rewarding read. Wolff knows how to draw the reader in, and he knows how to teach you something.
Sergio
Sergio rated it 3 of 5 stars
Wildf's recollection if his time in South East Asia. Not pretentious, just like his style. I liked his character and enjoyed following him around at home first, then on the west coast, then Vietnam, of course and back again. i didn't enjoy this as much as other collections of his, such as 'The night in question' probably because I missed a bit of originality, but then again, he was limited by the subject. A good read nonetheless.
Lisa
Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars
Wolff brought a lot of humanity into his war experience. The memories are appropriate for the age in which he lived them...didn't feel like a grown man writing about his past, but from the viewpoint of the young soldier.
Tiffany
Spare, gripping recollections of a confessed self-doubter's tour in Vietnam. While the author doesn't shy away from introspection, he largely spares us the tedium of navel gazing. A fast read, well done.
Alan
Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: non-fiction
Tobias Wolff's memoirs of his time in the Army during and in Vietnam. The writing was amazing, but more compelling was just how surreal that time was and how it was told in such a matter-of-fact way.
Stephanie Marshall
A unique point of view on the war in Vietnam: apathy. Wolff never cared if the war was won or lost, he wasn't a hippie and he wasn't a patriot. His story is about saving his own ass.
Angela
This book really picked up toward the end, with snatches of very, very dry, very, very self-deprecating, and very, very sardonic humor mixed in with Wolff's extremely spare, Hemingway-esque writing. Although the subject matter (the Vietnam War) is pretty heavy, it reads like a very light memoir with deep moments artfully woven in here and there. Mostly this is because Wolff got a cushy post as an adviser, far from the "frontline" fighting, and is a self-admitted coward and, come to th...more
Graham Oliver
Graham Oliver rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: school
More real and close to home than the few other war novels I've read. Like the reviews said - it's a coming of age story that could've happened anywhere, but it happened in Vietnam.
scott
scott added it
I'm a great fan of Wolff's short stories and was looking for his second memoir for a while. For some reason, his books are hard to find in Canada; the Chapters monopoly carries only his most recent book (tangent). Nonetheless - the chapters in the memoir read like his stories: they seem to be meandering and meditative until all the threads come together at just the best moment. And each chapter does work on its own as well. They deal with Wolff's time in Vietnam, but the text is as intereste...more
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Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is a writer of fiction and nonfiction.

He is best known for his short stories and his memoirs, although he has written two novels.

Wolff is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, where he has taught classes in English and creative writing since 1997. He also served as the direc...more
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“In the very act of writing I felt pleased with what I did. There was the pleasure of having words come to me, and the pleasure of ordering them, re-ordering them, weighing one against another. Pleasure also in the imagination of the story, the feeling that it could mean something. Mostly I was glad to find out that I could write at all. In writing you work toward a result you won't see for years, and can't be sure you'll ever see. It takes stamina and self-mastery and faith. It demands those things of you, then gives them back with a little extra, a surprise to keep you coming. It toughens you and clears your head. I could feel it happening. I was saving my life with every word I wrote, and I knew it.” 4 people liked it
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