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Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
For the first time, one book gives voice to the haunting, painful, tender, and healing tales of those who lost so much in America's least popular war.
267 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
October 20, 2010
Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by: Laura Palmer is an inspiring memoir. This book is unique due to the powerful letters that appear from way back around the heat of the 60’s. The draft came around and took many precious lives away from mothers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, fathers, wives, girlfriends and gave them nothing but a memorable story to tell about their loved ones. In this memoir they share with you everlasting moments they have held on for so long to give you a sense of direction onto a bittersweet path. Just because someone is gone doesn’t mean the relationship is to and that’s exactly what this book shows. 58,196 names are on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Wouldn’t you want to know at least one of those stories of a brave one? When I read this memoir I stumbled along a story that touched my heart. It started off with a loving and passionate poem in there that also brought my eyes into reality. It talked about a young man named Gearwin Phillip Tousey, and along those lines I could relate to his loved ones very much. It was stated that he was always chipper and knew how to make people happy just by his presence. He reminded me of my cousin I lost about 6 months ago because of the similar personality they shared. I’m almost positive that you will find a connection to one of these stories and that’s what I respect about this memoir.
I would recommend this book to young adults and adults. The era is more appropriate and easier to comprehend when reading it. I feel like in order to get a feel of this book you would need to some how relate to it, and if you’re a younger person you might’ve not yet gone through things until you’re older to be able to do so. The importance of this book is to never forget and carry memories of a lost one as strong as yesterday for tomorrow, next week, next month, and years to come. It’s worthwhile to read.
I would recommend this book to young adults and adults. The era is more appropriate and easier to comprehend when reading it. I feel like in order to get a feel of this book you would need to some how relate to it, and if you’re a younger person you might’ve not yet gone through things until you’re older to be able to do so. The importance of this book is to never forget and carry memories of a lost one as strong as yesterday for tomorrow, next week, next month, and years to come. It’s worthwhile to read.
February 21, 2021
This book is a 1988 collection of intensely personal stories of the men, both draftees and volunteers, who died in Vietnam, most of them between 19 and 22 years old. The stories derive from writings left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., and interviews with the people - family and spouses and children (many of whom never knew their fathers) and best friends and fellow veterans - who left these memories, which are now gathered in a museum. There are pictures of many of the young men/boys. The stories are, quite simply, heartbreaking, perhaps even more so for those of us who can't help reflecting that there, but for purest luck, go I - now, 50 years later, having had the opportunities in life that they never had.
For those of us who came of age in the late 1960s, the war in Vietnam was of course at the core of our lives. All of the American boys/men who were born in the late 1940s were subject to the draft; all of us knew someone (or many) who drew the low numbers, and were faced with the choice of military service, Canada or jail. All of us knew someone who made each of the choices. And thus were our lives shaped: by the purest luck of the draw. I drew 247; my best friend drew 13. Everyone up through 195 was called up.
I went to the Wall several times on East Coast trips with a group of middle school children from eastern Washington several years after I became a teacher in the early 2000s. It was the one place that I had to say to them, "I can't walk here with you - I'll meet you at the other end. I have to walk it alone, because to me, this is not just another historical monument; I know some of the young men whose names are on this Wall, and it is just too real and personal for me to share with you." And these young people, born thirty or so years after these men died, were quiet, and reflective, and respectful as they walked along the Wall, because I had explained to them in class how I had gotten the high number and how such a random event had helped determine that my path at that junction in my life.
For those of us who came of age in the late 1960s, the war in Vietnam was of course at the core of our lives. All of the American boys/men who were born in the late 1940s were subject to the draft; all of us knew someone (or many) who drew the low numbers, and were faced with the choice of military service, Canada or jail. All of us knew someone who made each of the choices. And thus were our lives shaped: by the purest luck of the draw. I drew 247; my best friend drew 13. Everyone up through 195 was called up.
I went to the Wall several times on East Coast trips with a group of middle school children from eastern Washington several years after I became a teacher in the early 2000s. It was the one place that I had to say to them, "I can't walk here with you - I'll meet you at the other end. I have to walk it alone, because to me, this is not just another historical monument; I know some of the young men whose names are on this Wall, and it is just too real and personal for me to share with you." And these young people, born thirty or so years after these men died, were quiet, and reflective, and respectful as they walked along the Wall, because I had explained to them in class how I had gotten the high number and how such a random event had helped determine that my path at that junction in my life.
June 23, 2018
Jeez, this one was a really emotional read. Although this was in the new books section at my library, it was published in the 1980s when the Vietnam Memorial was still fairly new. The author selected various letters and poems left at the Memorial and then included more details after interviewing some of the writers. You have moms writing about the impending doom they felt when they said goodbye to their sons, sisters talking about never growing old with their brothers, veterans and a nurse talking about holding comrades as they took their last breaths, and children talking about the fathers the knew for only a short time. My father was in Vietnam (with a more fortunate ending hence my existence) so hearing these stories really drove home the nature of the war and what people went through. A very powerful book that is well done in giving voice to the selected few of the many lost.
December 11, 2022
The saddest book that I have ever read (and have read it possibly eight times and still are moved by the people in it). Even after Drew Gilpin Faust's THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING: DEATH AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, which was heartbreaking, Laura Palmers book shows the waste and the misery of war and its effects.
The photos show you people alive and happy - whether a military photograph or high school graduation or a family picture. Their short lives are remembered as are the circumstances of their death. But Palmers book goes even further because it's also about those left behind and how Vietnam and the loss of a loved one affected them, which is also devastating.
I'm sure similar books could be written for every conflict, in every country - a pity those that are responsible for all this misery never read anything like this...
The photos show you people alive and happy - whether a military photograph or high school graduation or a family picture. Their short lives are remembered as are the circumstances of their death. But Palmers book goes even further because it's also about those left behind and how Vietnam and the loss of a loved one affected them, which is also devastating.
I'm sure similar books could be written for every conflict, in every country - a pity those that are responsible for all this misery never read anything like this...
April 3, 2020
The most emotionally wrecking book I have ever read. There were times when reading this book that I couldn't see the words on the page for all the tears in my eyes. All those mothers who cried alone for their lost sons, the siblings who were told that the death of their brother shouldn't hurt them so much, the children growing up, never knowing their fathers, and the families left to wonder if their MIA soldier was deceased or being tortured and abused by the North Vietnamese. So much suffering and loss in a war that I will never understand no matter how much I read about it.
March 26, 2025
After reading The Women and Healing Wounds, our book club invited Retired Captain Marj Graves, who was a nurse in Vietnam, to speak. Marj recommended this book. This Vietnam era was part of my teens years growing up. I’m 74 years old but listening to the music of that time in history, took me back in time. The Vietnam Memorial Wall is an amazing thing to take in, so impactful. Highly recommend all 3 of these books.
March 13, 2023
Moving, heartbreaking collection of letters,stories and poems based on things left at the Vietnam Memorial wall in Washington DC. Well written and interesting but I found I could only read a bit at a time because of the profound sadness. I learned more than I wanted to know about the combat and life experience of being a frontline soldier in the horrible war.
February 17, 2018
This book gives many personal perspectives of the Vietnam War. It can be heart wrenching at times especially if you have your own kids. It helps the reader to see the war in many different viewpoints. I highly recommend reading it.
November 30, 2020
Both a powerful and painful read. Love and heartbreak are extremely visceral in the collection of intimate letters in this book.
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January 8, 2021a collection of stories poems and things left as memorial at the wall heart breaking letter from chld to daad she never met
March 23, 2023
So very very sad
March 30, 2014
I was not a big reader in my youth. My father had built me a playhouse and rope swing in our back yard, so I spent all of my time out in it, regardless of the weather, making it my own and sharing it with the other kids on the block. I was a young adult when I read a review of this book, quite by accident. At the time, bookstores were not the mega shops they became just before the launch of e-readers and locating a copy was difficult because it was no longer a new hardcover release.
I suppose the interest in the book was primarily based off of two key points:
1. My father served two rotations in Vietnam. His first tour was right after he dropped out of high school and had to get his father's signature to volunteer to join the US Army during war time. He was 17, just a little younger than I was at the time.
2. While my generation had not experienced war quite like the three to four generations before, the country was gearing up for a conflict in the Middle East, in support of a small country named Kuwait.
The book is a series of letters and their corresponding stories that tell of the terrors of war and the senseless death of good people who leave behind relentless sorrow and tremendous loss to the people who loved them. It was not an easy read and the stories haunted me for a long time. But the seriousness of the premise is not to be ignored or missed based only off of the lack of a feel good ending. This book is real. This book is moving. This book is necessary.
I suppose the interest in the book was primarily based off of two key points:
1. My father served two rotations in Vietnam. His first tour was right after he dropped out of high school and had to get his father's signature to volunteer to join the US Army during war time. He was 17, just a little younger than I was at the time.
2. While my generation had not experienced war quite like the three to four generations before, the country was gearing up for a conflict in the Middle East, in support of a small country named Kuwait.
The book is a series of letters and their corresponding stories that tell of the terrors of war and the senseless death of good people who leave behind relentless sorrow and tremendous loss to the people who loved them. It was not an easy read and the stories haunted me for a long time. But the seriousness of the premise is not to be ignored or missed based only off of the lack of a feel good ending. This book is real. This book is moving. This book is necessary.
February 16, 2012
Even if you don't affiliate yourself as patriotic, this book is definitely a tearjerker. The letters and remembrances left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorials offers a profound insight to the thoughts and feelings of siblings, parents, lovers, friends, and children of the deceased soldiers. Vietnam Veteran's condolences left to their comrades reflect aspects of the Vietnam war that I found both informative and heartrendingly painful to read. You can truly feel the sorrow and consequences the Vietnam war inflicted. I teared up much more than I could have thought diving into this book.
October 30, 2008
959.704 When you need to be reminded that your life is fine, read these heart breaking letters from the soldiers and the families of the Vietnamese Conflict. Many of the things the author collected right from the Vietnam Wall. In some cases she contacted the families. I remember I pretty much cried the whole time I read this. I appreciated my family more after.
August 28, 2012
Some great heartwarming stories about young men I could relate to. Others were just awful--peppered with profanity and graphic descriptions of violence. The day after I finished, I went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C. to touch some of their names and make my study of the war more personal and less academic. It worked.
January 30, 2008
Absolutely the most bittersweet book I have ever read. It's a wonderful collection of personal stories and letters from Vietnam Vets. It's a good read, but not for any one that lets emotions get them down, because it pulls at the heartstrings in a major way.
August 30, 2011
I have never been to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. but I have been to the one in Sacramento,CA and was extremely moved. This book tells stories from a different side, the persons and their families. Very well done and one you never forget.
October 21, 2015
A moving portrait of some of those lost in Vietnam and the sorrow of loved ones left behind as portrayed by notes placed at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Palmer’s sensitive narrative. I was surprised and touched to find that Laura Palmer included in her book a letter I left at the Wall in 1985.
December 30, 2012
This one's gonna take me a while. Not because it's long or boring, but because it's so meaningful and heart-jerking.
April 1, 2008
Total tear jerker the whole way through. Especially since I have brothers in the army.
July 27, 2008
Prepare to have your heart broken. Anyone even remotely suggesting a nation should go to war should first read this book and deeply consider the cost.
October 8, 2014
Heartbreaking and emotional. Be warned, this is a book which will make you cry.
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July 17, 2009One of my favorite books...very sad
September 23, 2009
one word = touching! i had to read this for a class on the vietnam war & it full of stories & letters from people who lost loves in the war
December 17, 2010
Extremely touching.
April 12, 2011
This is an incredible book, but beware, bring a box of Kleenex, it is a tear jerker.
August 22, 2011
Moving and beautifully broken up into poetry, first hand accounts and family stories. A real tear jerker that will have you googling the soldiers to find out more.
November 14, 2011
Heartbreaking and mesmerizing.
April 20, 2013
I love this book. It makes you cry and realize what sacrifices people made.
October 16, 2013
heart-wrenching....
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews