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Girl by the Road at Night: A Novel of Vietnam
David Rabe’s award-winning Vietnam plays have come to embody our collective fears, doubts, and tenuous grasp of a war that continues to haunt. Partially written upon his return from the war, Girl by the Road at Night is Rabe’s first work of fiction set in Vietnam—a spare and poetic narrative about a young soldier embarking on a tour of duty and the Vietnamese prostitute he meets in country.Private Joseph Whitaker, with Vietnam deployment papers in hand, spends his last free weekend in Washington, DC, drinking, attending a peace rally, and visiting an old girlfriend, now married. He observes his surroundings closely, attempting to find reason in an atmosphere of hysteria and protest, heightened by his own anger. When he arrives in Vietnam, he happens upon Lan, a local girl who submits nightly to the American GIs with a heartbreaking combination of decency and guile. Her family dispersed and her father dead, she longs for a time when life meant riding in water buffalo carts through rice fields with her brother. Whitaker’s chance encounter with Lan sparks an unexpected, almost unrecognized, visceral longing between two people searching for companionship and tenderness amid the chaos around them.In transformative prose, Rabe has created an atmosphere charged with exquisite poignancy and recreated the surreal netherworld of Vietnam in wartime with unforgettable urgency and grace. Girl by the Road at Night is a brilliant meditation on disillusionment, sexuality, and masculinity, and one of Rabe’s finest works to date.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published May 8, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
November 22, 2017
A most curious and interesting tale in that it centers on the most granular details of moments that American soldiers experienced in the Vietnam War. Raw and crude at times, but I bet this is as close as a reader will get to a accurate depiction of how it felt to be a soldier in a conflict with so many more questions than answers. The story also stays close to an undergirding theme of facing “the possibility of death” as an ordinary, yet haunting daily lived experience. This novel packs a punch that I cannot shake about an era of US history.
October 8, 2017
Very good Vietnam novel
December 24, 2010
Classic.
Brutal, tough, agonizing and painful. “Girl by the Road at Night” is unflinching. Some novels get under your skin and this one did for me. It’s about the ache in the heart of Pfc. Joseph Whitaker, it’s about the ache for humanity amid war and it’s about soldiers numbing themselves to reality. It’s also a sort-of love story between Whitaker and a Vietnamese prostitute.
Heard it before? In the hands of David Rabe, it’s all feels new. There is nothing routine about the details Rbe selects. He paints carefully, shows us what to see. It reminded me heavily of Nick Arvin’s gem, “Articles of War.” That was set in World War II but the writing in both these books read as if they were chiseled carefully—but effortlessly—from stone. With care.
“Girl by the Road at Night” is told in two halves. First, Whitaker in the United States, waiting to be shipped to Vietnam. “He feels like a man who’s been ordered to leave the earth, his destination the moon.” He yearns for a married ex-girlfriend and barges into her life. He gets tangled up in anti-war protests around the Washington Monument, his mind on finding an opportunity for sex as much as anything else. The second half follows Whitaker during the war (though the war is off in the distance) and his relationship with the prostitute.
Throughout, Whitaker is not in control. He’s impulsive and focuses on his needs like a top-notch zealot. “He’s like a dull lead ball in a pinball machine bouncing from flipper to flipper to pillar to pillar to wall to hole, lighting up little, scoring nothing. Zilch. He feels bad. Bad about who he is, where he is, what he’s done. Bad about everything.”
The protests around the Washington Monument are confusing. The rules of engagement (and recreation) in Vietnam are confusing. The rules of getting close to a prostitute are unclear. Whitaker tries to step up, find leverage. But he just keeps bouncing.
The prostitute, Quach Ngoc Lan, is fully rendered and so are her surroundings. She lives in a “burgeoning jungle; think of incessant heat and dirt pressed into the substance of skin, calluses that go to the bone, seasons possessed by rain followed by seasons of dust.” (I had flashes of Robert Altman’s film, “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” and its de-sanitized Western scenery.) Speaking directly to readers, Rabe invites us to consider Lan’s life and “think of being as small as a thin child, forever.”
The contrast is striking between the two environments of Whitaker and Lan—their concerns, wishes, needs, privileges. Rabe doesn’t skimp on detailing Lan’s environment and that brings power to the entire story.
“Down the road that runs in from the fields before her a laboring, ponderous silhouette approaches, the thick-horned heads of water buffalo yoked together in wood. High on top of the wagon sits the farmer. Light yet lingers at the tip of the conical straw hat he wears. Low oblong shadows of pigs follow, while the shape of someone thin and short trails all, lifting now the length of the wooden staff. Lan’s breathing falters with an alien, unwanted ache that makes her shake her head, touch two fingers to her brow; yet it continues within her, changing the expression of her eyes. Having ridden in such carts, she wants to be in one again.”
The connection between Whitaker and Lan is human, palpable and poignant. Philip Caputo (writing in the New York Times) called the climactic scene a “masterpiece of compression” and it’s hard to disagree. For me, the entire book is a masterpiece of compression, two deeply contrasting worlds boiled down to their essence.
Brutal, tough, agonizing and painful. “Girl by the Road at Night” is unflinching. Some novels get under your skin and this one did for me. It’s about the ache in the heart of Pfc. Joseph Whitaker, it’s about the ache for humanity amid war and it’s about soldiers numbing themselves to reality. It’s also a sort-of love story between Whitaker and a Vietnamese prostitute.
Heard it before? In the hands of David Rabe, it’s all feels new. There is nothing routine about the details Rbe selects. He paints carefully, shows us what to see. It reminded me heavily of Nick Arvin’s gem, “Articles of War.” That was set in World War II but the writing in both these books read as if they were chiseled carefully—but effortlessly—from stone. With care.
“Girl by the Road at Night” is told in two halves. First, Whitaker in the United States, waiting to be shipped to Vietnam. “He feels like a man who’s been ordered to leave the earth, his destination the moon.” He yearns for a married ex-girlfriend and barges into her life. He gets tangled up in anti-war protests around the Washington Monument, his mind on finding an opportunity for sex as much as anything else. The second half follows Whitaker during the war (though the war is off in the distance) and his relationship with the prostitute.
Throughout, Whitaker is not in control. He’s impulsive and focuses on his needs like a top-notch zealot. “He’s like a dull lead ball in a pinball machine bouncing from flipper to flipper to pillar to pillar to wall to hole, lighting up little, scoring nothing. Zilch. He feels bad. Bad about who he is, where he is, what he’s done. Bad about everything.”
The protests around the Washington Monument are confusing. The rules of engagement (and recreation) in Vietnam are confusing. The rules of getting close to a prostitute are unclear. Whitaker tries to step up, find leverage. But he just keeps bouncing.
The prostitute, Quach Ngoc Lan, is fully rendered and so are her surroundings. She lives in a “burgeoning jungle; think of incessant heat and dirt pressed into the substance of skin, calluses that go to the bone, seasons possessed by rain followed by seasons of dust.” (I had flashes of Robert Altman’s film, “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” and its de-sanitized Western scenery.) Speaking directly to readers, Rabe invites us to consider Lan’s life and “think of being as small as a thin child, forever.”
The contrast is striking between the two environments of Whitaker and Lan—their concerns, wishes, needs, privileges. Rabe doesn’t skimp on detailing Lan’s environment and that brings power to the entire story.
“Down the road that runs in from the fields before her a laboring, ponderous silhouette approaches, the thick-horned heads of water buffalo yoked together in wood. High on top of the wagon sits the farmer. Light yet lingers at the tip of the conical straw hat he wears. Low oblong shadows of pigs follow, while the shape of someone thin and short trails all, lifting now the length of the wooden staff. Lan’s breathing falters with an alien, unwanted ache that makes her shake her head, touch two fingers to her brow; yet it continues within her, changing the expression of her eyes. Having ridden in such carts, she wants to be in one again.”
The connection between Whitaker and Lan is human, palpable and poignant. Philip Caputo (writing in the New York Times) called the climactic scene a “masterpiece of compression” and it’s hard to disagree. For me, the entire book is a masterpiece of compression, two deeply contrasting worlds boiled down to their essence.
June 25, 2014
American soldier Joe Whitaker has just received orders that he will be deployed to Vietnam soon. He decides to spend his last night in America looking for booze, drugs and a woman who will make him relax in “Girl By the Road at Night.”
A story less about the Vietnam war itself than about the way the American GIs and the Vietnamese prostitutes interact, this pretends to be a love story, while in fact it is really about two lost souls who are looking for someone to console if not save them.
Whitaker finds himself on a fairly light duty once he gets to Vietnam; he guards a mobile evacuation hospital. This seems to leave him plenty of free time to cavort through the local villages looking for Coca-Cola, beer and sex. The first prostitute he is with is an old, wrinkled woman. He vows never to be that desperate again.
Next time he goes looking for company, he happens upon Lan, a young girl the reader has met in earlier chapters that alternated with Whitaker’s journey getting to Vietnam. Lan is of indeterminate young age, thin, beautiful, and seemingly unaffected by her choice of vocation.
She goes with American GIs, anyone who will pay her, and does whatever they want with any number of men. Afterwards, she makes sure she washes up and gets ready for the next. At the end of the day, she closes up shop and sleeps. Unless, that is, a GI wants “long-time” instead of “short-time” meaning she would allow him to stay overnight with her.
Lan and Whitaker hit it off right away, she talks him into doing “long time” with her, effectively reserving her for the entire night so she won’t have to pleasure any other men during that time frame. He stays overnight, risking AWOL status for her. Thus begins their “love” affair.
Lan seems to be looking for Whitaker and chooses him to be hers whenever he is in the market for the services she provides. Their couplings, and those of the other prostitutes she works with, are described in graphic detail.
The other main theme, described in graphic detail, of this story is what an absolute toilet Vietnam is. Literally. The author takes great pains to describe the toilet habits of the Vietnamese, and how unsanitary the villages are. Babies without diapers are hovered above urns to do their business. People go to a hole cut out of wooden planks covering bodies of water to do their business. Dirty urns are emptied into streets, alleys, rivers, everywhere. The smell of human waste and decaying, filthy animals permeates entire villages.
Whitaker does not realize he has real feelings for Lan until one night he cannot find her and fears she is with another man. This jolts a jealousness from Whitaker he didn’t know he had. He goes with another prostitute that night, but does not get the relief he feels with Lan. He is eventually told after numerous nights of looking for her that she has moved away. Lan’s madam is the one who tells him this, although untrue, to spare the feelings she recognizes he has for Lan and the true fate she has suffered.
I would have liked a glossary or some further translation of the Vietnamese words used so frequently, as I did not understand much of the communications between the American soldiers and the prostitutes. Although phrases were repeated consistently, I never did fully catch on to their meaning. This story is nice, if graphic, and I like the fact that it is not really focused upon warfare but more about the relationship between Whitaker and Lan.
A story less about the Vietnam war itself than about the way the American GIs and the Vietnamese prostitutes interact, this pretends to be a love story, while in fact it is really about two lost souls who are looking for someone to console if not save them.
Whitaker finds himself on a fairly light duty once he gets to Vietnam; he guards a mobile evacuation hospital. This seems to leave him plenty of free time to cavort through the local villages looking for Coca-Cola, beer and sex. The first prostitute he is with is an old, wrinkled woman. He vows never to be that desperate again.
Next time he goes looking for company, he happens upon Lan, a young girl the reader has met in earlier chapters that alternated with Whitaker’s journey getting to Vietnam. Lan is of indeterminate young age, thin, beautiful, and seemingly unaffected by her choice of vocation.
She goes with American GIs, anyone who will pay her, and does whatever they want with any number of men. Afterwards, she makes sure she washes up and gets ready for the next. At the end of the day, she closes up shop and sleeps. Unless, that is, a GI wants “long-time” instead of “short-time” meaning she would allow him to stay overnight with her.
Lan and Whitaker hit it off right away, she talks him into doing “long time” with her, effectively reserving her for the entire night so she won’t have to pleasure any other men during that time frame. He stays overnight, risking AWOL status for her. Thus begins their “love” affair.
Lan seems to be looking for Whitaker and chooses him to be hers whenever he is in the market for the services she provides. Their couplings, and those of the other prostitutes she works with, are described in graphic detail.
The other main theme, described in graphic detail, of this story is what an absolute toilet Vietnam is. Literally. The author takes great pains to describe the toilet habits of the Vietnamese, and how unsanitary the villages are. Babies without diapers are hovered above urns to do their business. People go to a hole cut out of wooden planks covering bodies of water to do their business. Dirty urns are emptied into streets, alleys, rivers, everywhere. The smell of human waste and decaying, filthy animals permeates entire villages.
Whitaker does not realize he has real feelings for Lan until one night he cannot find her and fears she is with another man. This jolts a jealousness from Whitaker he didn’t know he had. He goes with another prostitute that night, but does not get the relief he feels with Lan. He is eventually told after numerous nights of looking for her that she has moved away. Lan’s madam is the one who tells him this, although untrue, to spare the feelings she recognizes he has for Lan and the true fate she has suffered.
I would have liked a glossary or some further translation of the Vietnamese words used so frequently, as I did not understand much of the communications between the American soldiers and the prostitutes. Although phrases were repeated consistently, I never did fully catch on to their meaning. This story is nice, if graphic, and I like the fact that it is not really focused upon warfare but more about the relationship between Whitaker and Lan.
May 30, 2010
I was terrified! From somewhere deep inside, there was a presence, a deep-rooted sense that my ultimate fate would be to die in a rice paddy -- if I went to Viet Nam. My family and my community had instilled an equally deep sense of patriotism in my psyche. My father was a World War II survivor. My sister's father died in the Philippine Islands in the same war. My size and lack of street smarts left me out of the "survivor" category and more towards the "victim" role. My birthday came up at number 65 in the December draft lottery of 1969 and when I started college in the summer of 1970, I was classified 2-S, student. Those factors gave me significant incentive to study, not to mention the mental images reported by television and LIFE magazine. The photograph that was later known as "Reaching Out" made me nauseous; I couldn't look at it for years. It's still a disturbing image.
Girl by the Road at Night by David Rabe begins with Joe Whitaker's visit to the Washington Memorial amidst anti-war demonstrations on the mall. He had difficulty maintaining his focus and experienced no enjoyment from his last stint as a tourist because of the piece of paper in his pocket. It was a neatly folded copy of his order to go to the war. "Fingering the shape of the papers outlining his fate beneath the cloth of his jacket, he is bewildered by the power of the document," and then, "How can paper move him? Incredibly, his hand is shaking." For me, it's 1969 again, and I feel his terror. Can I deal with the fear forty years later? I can't put the book down....
Read the complete review here: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/...
Girl by the Road at Night by David Rabe begins with Joe Whitaker's visit to the Washington Memorial amidst anti-war demonstrations on the mall. He had difficulty maintaining his focus and experienced no enjoyment from his last stint as a tourist because of the piece of paper in his pocket. It was a neatly folded copy of his order to go to the war. "Fingering the shape of the papers outlining his fate beneath the cloth of his jacket, he is bewildered by the power of the document," and then, "How can paper move him? Incredibly, his hand is shaking." For me, it's 1969 again, and I feel his terror. Can I deal with the fear forty years later? I can't put the book down....
Read the complete review here: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/...
June 29, 2010
or "Boy who likes to have sex with anyone at anytime including the Girl by the Road at Night." Rabe artfully crafts a story that likely existed many times over and over during the Vietnam war. A relationship between a GI and a prostitute. I liked having the war was a backdrop and not a focal point, so you don't read about killing or fighting but about a soldier and his seemingly mundane existence and his confusion. It was not confusion about the war but of his own place and life in between moments of trying to bang everything in sight. He was not confused about is his pursuit of sex. The rifle he brought to Vietnam was not military issue, but the one between his legs and he was intent on using it as much as possible. So, with this GI's fixation on sex and the girl’s luckless life as, let’s call it what it is, a sex slave, I could not see their connection beyond the couple of bonk-bonks they had. The girl was sympathetic and a difficult story to read. Just sad, as it should be for girl at that time and who is caste [I know:] to be a Vietnamese prostitute. The writing was very good, but the story, in so far as it dealt with the GI, was limp.
February 5, 2011
"Girl by the Road at Night" takes place during the Vietnam War. PFC Joe Whitaker has just received his orders to deploy to Vietnam. He spends his last days in the States attending an anti-war rally in Washington. Although not exactly thrilled with his new orders, Joe finds himself wanting only to drink the night away and spending it with willing women.
Across the ocean in Vietnam, Quach Ngoc Lan, is plying her trade as a prostitute. Lan has found this is the only way she can survive and keep her brother out of the Vietnamese Army.
The worlds of Joe Whitaker and Lan are brought together when Joe arrives in Vietnam. Although Joe is drawn to Lan because she is a prostitute, he finds that Lan can be kind and loving. Obviously, their affair is a complicated one, and one that is made more difficult by the violence and corruption that surrounds them.
"Girl by the Road at Night" is an excellent novel that could be set in any country a war at any time. A tragic love story that is fast paced, entertaining, and contemporary. Some caution should be taken in that the book does contain strong language and sexual content.
Across the ocean in Vietnam, Quach Ngoc Lan, is plying her trade as a prostitute. Lan has found this is the only way she can survive and keep her brother out of the Vietnamese Army.
The worlds of Joe Whitaker and Lan are brought together when Joe arrives in Vietnam. Although Joe is drawn to Lan because she is a prostitute, he finds that Lan can be kind and loving. Obviously, their affair is a complicated one, and one that is made more difficult by the violence and corruption that surrounds them.
"Girl by the Road at Night" is an excellent novel that could be set in any country a war at any time. A tragic love story that is fast paced, entertaining, and contemporary. Some caution should be taken in that the book does contain strong language and sexual content.
January 1, 2011
This marks the first time I've given a 1-star rating since starting this book blog. David Rabe primarily writes plays about Vietnam, but has begun branching out into novels.
I picked this book up at the library. The reviews both on the book jacket and online were stellar.
I read the first 25 pages or so and could not muster any sympathy for or interest in the characters. The chapters alternate between an American GI and a Vietnamese prostitute, who eventually end up becoming entangled. It's written in the present tense, in a removed style that could not capture my interest. It's also a very macho book, with all sorts of "tits" and "dick" references, among other things.
It's interesting to note that both Goodreads and Amazon have just a handful of reviews (most of them positive), so it's not a very well-known book. I think it might be a case of a book that appeals more to book critics than real-life readers.
http://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/...
I picked this book up at the library. The reviews both on the book jacket and online were stellar.
I read the first 25 pages or so and could not muster any sympathy for or interest in the characters. The chapters alternate between an American GI and a Vietnamese prostitute, who eventually end up becoming entangled. It's written in the present tense, in a removed style that could not capture my interest. It's also a very macho book, with all sorts of "tits" and "dick" references, among other things.
It's interesting to note that both Goodreads and Amazon have just a handful of reviews (most of them positive), so it's not a very well-known book. I think it might be a case of a book that appeals more to book critics than real-life readers.
http://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/...
December 5, 2010
I'm torn about David Rabe's "Girl by the Road at Night: A Novel of Vietnam." The author takes a chance by telling the story in the present tense and succeeds, although I will admit that the choice in tense and the "Consider this..." style made me want to put down the book a few pages into it. But, as compelling as the narrative style is, it cannot make up for the fact that the characters aren't very likeable nor do they really change for the better, or even for the worse, as the book progressed. It seemed like the characters were doomed to stay their unlikeable selves because the author just couldn't cut anyone a break. I kind of feel as though the author was in the middle of a tough spot in his life and took it out on Whitaker and Lan.
October 2, 2011
Once again the compromised Asian girl is metaphor for how America screwed Vietnam and left.
The American soldier Whitaker, whose most dangerous duty is riding shotgun on runs to the dump, crosses paths with the prostitute Lan, with disastrous consequences. Whitaker, like most soldiers who served in Vietnam, never sees combat. He is bored, undirected, and wondering what he is doing there. Lan, like Vietnam, plays host to lonely soldiers just to make a buck and get along. The two cultures slide by each other in sweaty humidity.
Rabe is an excellent writer who does a good job describing the heat and ennui of Vietnam for so many soldiers. It's just that no one has treated this theme better than Graham Greene in The Quiet American.
The American soldier Whitaker, whose most dangerous duty is riding shotgun on runs to the dump, crosses paths with the prostitute Lan, with disastrous consequences. Whitaker, like most soldiers who served in Vietnam, never sees combat. He is bored, undirected, and wondering what he is doing there. Lan, like Vietnam, plays host to lonely soldiers just to make a buck and get along. The two cultures slide by each other in sweaty humidity.
Rabe is an excellent writer who does a good job describing the heat and ennui of Vietnam for so many soldiers. It's just that no one has treated this theme better than Graham Greene in The Quiet American.
January 18, 2011
Interesting but predictable. I wanted to like the story more than I did (loved Matterhorn). I couldn't quite get attached to the two main characters, Whitaker and Lan. Nice descriptions of the environment and settings, but the foreshadowing of the uncle wanting a photo of Lan was too obvious. Also, despite my close association with the military during the Vietnam era, I never clearly understood the difference between 'numba ten' and 'numba one', as Lan uses these terms, is ten bad and one good? I'm glad Whitaker understood her, maybe I'm just dense. Billed as a romance, but it barely meets this description in my opinion.
December 3, 2014
Given the rave reviews I the New York Times, I wanted to like this book much more than Iactually did.
It is the story of an American soldier and a Vietnamese prostitute set against the background of the Vietnam War. It's a sparse book that uses prose effectively to establish characters and the environment. It really does well in conveying a sense of helplessness and frustration and melancholy through the book.
However, it would have probably worked more effectively as a short story than as a novel, for me. It just seems to be too little.
It is the story of an American soldier and a Vietnamese prostitute set against the background of the Vietnam War. It's a sparse book that uses prose effectively to establish characters and the environment. It really does well in conveying a sense of helplessness and frustration and melancholy through the book.
However, it would have probably worked more effectively as a short story than as a novel, for me. It just seems to be too little.
February 4, 2011
I don't think I've ever given a book one star before, but I hated this one. The horrible Pidgin English used throughout made me keep stopping and reading it over and over to figure out what was meant, and started feeling rather racist after a while.
If it wasn't for the fact that it's such a short (~250 pages) book, I would have stopped reading it pretty quickly.
No redeeming qualities - terrible story, no real plot, just a waste of time.
If it wasn't for the fact that it's such a short (~250 pages) book, I would have stopped reading it pretty quickly.
No redeeming qualities - terrible story, no real plot, just a waste of time.
December 29, 2010
Rabe's writing is amazing and this book is a definite page-turner. But I feel like there wasn't much to it. The characters are interesting but they don't do much and i think the story could have taken place anywhere and anytime - it didn't really make much of a statement about vietnam. Maybe would have made a better short story than a novel.
July 16, 2010
As far as first impressions are concerned, Rabe's day job as a playwright serves this little story well--his economy of language was by far its best quality; in fact, his talent for finding each characters voice quickly was, at times, very uncomfortable. Yet, incredible.
December 29, 2010
Terrifying read. The Vietnam War experienced through the eyes of a US soldier and a Vietnamese prostitute. Very raw, written by a playwright. Not a lot of exposition, mostly action and dialogue. Unnerving, if you're into that. I was.
March 15, 2011
This is about a guy who goes to Vietnam and a prostitute. I picked tis up at the library. It's written more like a play, which the author is known for. That wouldn't be a problem if it had something to say, unfortunately it lacked substance.
December 31, 2012
Very well written, if sparse, tale of a GI and Vietnamese prostitute.
The story gives a good feel for life outside of the fighting, but given the
short format I didn't develop a strong association with the characters. Not
a happy read, but worthwhile.
The story gives a good feel for life outside of the fighting, but given the
short format I didn't develop a strong association with the characters. Not
a happy read, but worthwhile.
July 29, 2010
The more I think about this book the more I dislike it. I don't like books where the author has such contempt for his characters.
September 20, 2010
Different from my usual reads, but a very good work of fiction set in Vietnam about a young soldier embarking on a tour of duty and the Vietnamese prostitute he meets in country.
March 22, 2011
Terrible...it's about a GI and a Vietnamese prostitute...need I say more?
December 21, 2010
I love novels about the Vietnam War, but wasn't so impressed with this one. Somewhat surprising that it made it onto so many Best of 2010 lists
January 23, 2011
bleak Caucasian viewpoint of Vietnam War tableau with prostitute and disenchanted soldier; I don't like the way non-Vietnamese people write about Vietnamese people and ruin our language
didnt-finish
August 22, 2018didn't grab me, so put down after 30-40 pages.
May 7, 2014
Sad overall. War is sad. Unrequited love is sad. Death is sad. Ignorance is sad.
March 16, 2015
A novel of displacement and disconnection, reality and unreality blurring in a dreamlike or alcoholic fog. Well done, but not exactly cheerful.
October 30, 2010
If you like reading all things about Vietnam era, read this.
November 7, 2013
The dude knows his 'Nam.
February 12, 2016
I read it in one go. But lots of it seemed the same as others have written about.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews