Michael Herr, who wrote about the Vietnam War for Esquire magazine, gathered his years of notes from his front-line reporting and turned them into ...
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Feb 13, 2012
Eric
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Made me curious about the spectral kingdoms and extinguished dynasties of pre-colonial Vietnam, the spooky historical geography which haunts Herr from under the French place names and American grids. Contemplating an unreal old map in his Saigon apartment, Herr knows “that for years now there had been no country here but the war”:
The terrain above II Corps, where it ran along the Laotian border and into the DMZ, was seldom referred to as the Highlands by Americans. It had been a mattMore...
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Jan 28, 2009
Pierce
rated it:
I'd kind of heard of this, but didn't know its significance and avoided reading about it while reading it. Turns out he later wrote the screenplay for Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now, which makes sense because Vietnam film is 100% rooted in the language and stories of this book. I'm conflicted because it tells things as horribly as they were and yet within this book is the seed for the romanticism of the Vietnam war. All those movies and all those people I always felt were enjoying them for
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Jan 06, 2008
Gene
rated it: 
Having been in VietNam and having been in some of the Marine Units that Michael Herr writes about in "Dispatches" is the best depiction of war in general and VietNam in particular that I have ever read. It started me on the path to healing that I had kept hidden since I came back from Nam. Thank You Michael.
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Mar 27, 2008
lowell
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Not only is this the most engrossing piece of journalism, the most touching memoir, and the most illuminating book on war I've ever read; it's also written as if Herr was on fire and being chased by literature-eating wolves. I read it twice in a row and would do it again.
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Dec 16, 2009
Jordan
rated it:
Fucking amazing. Supposedly the most famous journalistic account of the war in Vietnam... I wouldn't disagree. Nonfiction, but to me on par with any of O'Brien's work from a storytelling perspective, which is saying a lot. Outpaced the highest of expectations.
Nov 15, 2011
Eli
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Dispatches by Michael Herr describes the author's experiences in Vietnam as a war correspondent for Esquire magazine. However, unlike the objective, factually-correct history books, this book uses evocative imagery and description to give readers a real taste of what Vietnam was like. Herr writes, "Going out at night the medics gave you pills, Dexedrine breath like dead snakes kept too long in a jar." He continues, "I knew one 4th division Lurp who took his pills by the fistful
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Aug 20, 2010
Charlie
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Michael Herr captures the feelings, the violence, and the insanity of the late 1960s. In 1969 I went to college instead of Vietnam and I graduated the year it all came crashing down. A significant portion of my youth was spent trying to understand from journalism what was happening in Southeast Asia; only later would I realize that the understanding I sought was not and could not be available from file-at-five journalism. Herr was accredited to Esquire and was free of that pressure. He expla
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Aug 14, 2010
Dave
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Dispatches is a superb collection with a flashes of brilliance. Herr is a gifted writer and a measured study of the motivations behind man’s actions. I loved it. One way to adequately critique Herr is to put his flame next to O’Brien’s excellent collection, “The Things They Carried.” In suggesting a comparison, I’ve immediately placed Herr next to the very best in War Short Stories. O’Brien’s disturbing gift was his use of unbelievably beautiful and poetic prose... while describing... some of t
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Jul 10, 2010
Skyring
rated it:
Esquire magazine sent a correspondent to Vietnam, and the result is, as the cover states, one of the best books about war ever written.
Rather than a military listing of battles and hardware, enemies and tactics, this is a book about the people and the culture of the war. It brings the human element into view.
And, it's written in a cool fashion. The author takes pleasure in the jargon and the language of the war, not so much the acronyms and the military terms, but rather More...
Rather than a military listing of battles and hardware, enemies and tactics, this is a book about the people and the culture of the war. It brings the human element into view.
And, it's written in a cool fashion. The author takes pleasure in the jargon and the language of the war, not so much the acronyms and the military terms, but rather More...
Oct 08, 2011
David
rated it:
This is a searing look at the Vietnam War, told in a series of loosely connected stream-of-consciousness vignettes. There is not much of a narrative thread holding everything together, and some of the book is hard to understand without at least a basic familiarity with the history of the Second Indochina War. Nevertheless, this book works. For any fans of the movies Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket, you will enjoy everything here - the author was a screenwriter for both of those films, and
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Jun 29, 2010
Greg
rated it: 
Overall a very good book, that sits up there with any Vietnam story ever told. I think I expected a little more from the book that was the basis for the screenplays of Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, but... When it came down to it, all that was taken from this book for those films were very minor details, short anecdotes and characters. There was so much of the book that was left untouched by Hollywood.
But the stories were good, and Herr's experience was very unique. There wer More...
But the stories were good, and Herr's experience was very unique. There wer More...
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Mar 13, 2011
Jasper
rated it:
Waterstones booksellers in the UK now display their books increasingly with the front cover showing. This has been proven to increase sales and it works because I bought this book knowing nothing about it previously. Attracted by the quote by John Le Carre and a picture of a GI's helmet with grafitti on it that reads "Hell sucks".
I soon discovered that this is one of those "famous" books written by a famous war correspondent from the Vietnam war. At the height of th More...
I soon discovered that this is one of those "famous" books written by a famous war correspondent from the Vietnam war. At the height of th More...
Dec 25, 2010
Jake
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If you grew up, as I did, in the 1980s, Vietnam was the scar that defined our culture. It divided the hippies from the squares, dashed the 60s dreams of a better world, and queued up the orgy of self-involvement and political conservatism that defined the Reagan administration. But what was it? If you were born after 1975, you only knew it from the movies. And that means you knew it from Michael Herr, who wrote parts of Apocalypse Now and all of Full Metal Jacket, and before any of that wrot
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Mar 22, 2010
Jared
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This book will be a serious departure from almost anything else you've been reading right before it - it's almost entirely stream-of-consciousness, and in an everyman way that doesn't exactly borrow from Faulkner or Joyce. The first few pages are pretty startling as far as prose style goes.
The best bits are the actual anecdotes, events that Herr witnessed, and I found myself dragging through the parts that were more opinion and set-up of coming events. Herr's strategy in this book is More...
The best bits are the actual anecdotes, events that Herr witnessed, and I found myself dragging through the parts that were more opinion and set-up of coming events. Herr's strategy in this book is More...
Jan 24, 2010
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Aug 15, 2011
Douglas
rated it:
As a product of American public schools I was always baffled how my middle and high school U.S. history classes never seemed to get around to teaching the Vietnam War. I had one teacher just flat-out give up with 2 weeks left in the school year, putting on shitty movies with only the barest connection to any of our course material (If you're thinking Forrest Gump, you'd be right). Another teacher briefly mentioned some skirmish in Korea before leaping immediately to Reagonomics. In most classes
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Aug 17, 2011
Mac
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I'm surprised it took me this long to hear about this book - one of the better bits of New Journalism and one of the best books about the Vietnam war I've read.
At first, I was actually put off by the book, which is very stylized and seemed to be making this Esquire correspondent's experience of the war somehow the most important experience to be had, but Herr's logic grew on me a bit. He argues, at one point, that he was as responsible for what he had seen as the soldiers he wrote More...
At first, I was actually put off by the book, which is very stylized and seemed to be making this Esquire correspondent's experience of the war somehow the most important experience to be had, but Herr's logic grew on me a bit. He argues, at one point, that he was as responsible for what he had seen as the soldiers he wrote More...
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Jul 26, 2011
Jayne
rated it: 
I often find I learn a lot about geography and history through reading fiction, and though this book isn't fiction but a war correspondent's account of being in Vietnam in the late '60s, I hoped for the same here. My knowledge of the Vietnam war isn't good, and I hoped this book would remedy that. Unfortunately it's not an ideal first port of call, as it assumes a lot of prior knowledge that non-Americans may not possess, and was peppered with initials and acronyms but had no glossary or any oth
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Feb 20, 2012
Drew
rated it:
I'd never heard Dispatches mentioned in speech or in print until I got a copy of it in a package sent to me from my uncle, who'd died three or four days earlier. Imagine my surprise when I found it was the basis for not only Full Metal Jacket but also, to some degree, Apocalypse Now.
It's more or less what you'd expect: a war correspondent travels all around Vietnam for what seems to be several years (I'm not sure how long Herr was actually there), talking to the foot soldiers and th More...
It's more or less what you'd expect: a war correspondent travels all around Vietnam for what seems to be several years (I'm not sure how long Herr was actually there), talking to the foot soldiers and th More...
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Feb 24, 2011
Michael
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http://bentspine.blogspot.com/2011/02/ni...
*The Picador Paperback edition of Michael Herr’s 1977 book Dispatches.
This cover reminds me of M*A*S*H. In both, a weird brand of 70s minimalism flavors the apocalypse with humor and whimsy. The saturated green helmet with its slogan ‘HELL SUCKS’ and a teardrop peace sign in vivid yellow, nestles in a hyperbolic (but mostly true) blurb from John Le Carré. It’s certainly the best book I’ve ever read on men and war in any time, but More...
*The Picador Paperback edition of Michael Herr’s 1977 book Dispatches.
This cover reminds me of M*A*S*H. In both, a weird brand of 70s minimalism flavors the apocalypse with humor and whimsy. The saturated green helmet with its slogan ‘HELL SUCKS’ and a teardrop peace sign in vivid yellow, nestles in a hyperbolic (but mostly true) blurb from John Le Carré. It’s certainly the best book I’ve ever read on men and war in any time, but More...
Jan 12, 2009
Emily
rated it:
Michael Herr writes a tale that certainly must be considered one of the few really good (for lack of a better word) accounts of what really happened during the Vietnam War. Herr gives a full picture of what was going on in Vietnam, but the book tends to get very repetitive. The first half of the book is a bore, but if you trudge through it after the first 100 pages or so it gets better. Herr's strong point is certainly halfway through with the chapter "Illumination Rounds," if you read
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Feb 22, 2010
Zach
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Though Michael Herr was a war correspondent for Esquire during the Vietnam War, the essays that comprise Dispatches do not resemble traditional journalism in the least. For several reasons (many of which Herr details in the "Colleagues" chapter), this is a good thing. But everyone should know that rather than an account of the Vietnam War, what Herr delivers is an account of his experience of the Vietnam War.
And on those terms, boy does he deliver. Most of the time Herr More...
And on those terms, boy does he deliver. Most of the time Herr More...
Mar 06, 2011
Bennet
rated it:
Worth reading for the remarkable voice and language, but also because there is nothing comparable when it comes to examining "when things go wrong in a war," in particular the Vietnam War:
"When the talk had passed, the only thing left standing up that looked true was your sense of how out of control things really were. Year after year, season after season, wet and dry, using up options faster than rounds on a machine-gun belt, we called it right and righteous, viable and More...
"When the talk had passed, the only thing left standing up that looked true was your sense of how out of control things really were. Year after year, season after season, wet and dry, using up options faster than rounds on a machine-gun belt, we called it right and righteous, viable and More...
Jan 10, 2009
Wendy
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This book is about the Vietnam War. It exposes excruciating stories Vietnam Veterans faced during the War. There are no main characters, but there are many perspectives from people.This books reveals to us a side of the Vietnam war where we will never imagine. I learned that many people in the Vietnam war made decisions without thinking due to the war. Many soilders got really so caught up into the war where though their bodies is taken out of war, but their minds are still at war.
I think t More...
I think t More...
Apr 07, 2010
James
rated it:
If civilization survives, this book will be read. Some of the most vivid writing I've ever come across. Exquisitely drawn, horrifying, and humane, a subtle and exacting portrayal of war on the ground and in your face. This is not a political book, but it is hard not to read it politically. Dispatches is a chronicle of an inexcusable war, fought against a tenacious enemy. Perhaps the most absorbing and exciting part is when Herr goes to Khe Sanh and is embedded with an encircled group of soldiers
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Dec 15, 2011
Matt
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Herr was a journalist in Vietnam. One that would often go into battle with various units to capture a story. If you are looking for a book that focuses on one person or even a small group of people this is not really the book for you. There are many many people in this book, and with the exception of some of Herr's journalists friends, you don't really get to know any of them. The book however does give you a feel for some of the horrific things that happened in Vietnam.
The book f More...
The book f More...
Jul 27, 2010
Kurt
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I'm almost finished with this undeniable classic. I can hardly breathe. Seriously. Herr has come to my attention as a guy who worked closely with filmmakers in the decades after the Vietnam War (Coppola and Kubrick, e.g.), and he even did a few screenplays that are impressive pieces of writing. This book is written in an almost poetic, stream-of-consciousness manner, but it gels perfectly and is incredibly well informed. You can tell that the journalism is spot on -- it contains hundreds of well
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Aug 06, 2011
When reading this, I felt that I was living the Vietnam War, this book swept me in it. But unfortuneately I stopped after about three parts. The prose is so confusing, and the imagery Herr wells up in the reader seriously makes you suspect your high on some form of drug. But I guess that was how the soldiers felt in Vietnam.
I'll return to finish this book someday. But right now reading it is just too confusing.
I know I've put it in my 'already read' list, but I guess it's kinda 'half-read'.
An am More...
I'll return to finish this book someday. But right now reading it is just too confusing.
I know I've put it in my 'already read' list, but I guess it's kinda 'half-read'.
An am More...
Apr 12, 2008
Raegan
rated it:
Michael Herr's stunning account of his time as a correspondent in Vietnam. This is the best book i've ever read. Period. Herr's command of language is awesome.
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