Kaitlyn’s Reviews > Dispatches > Status Update

Herr’s account truly reflects the unrestricted access of correspondents to the front that was both unprecedented in earlier conflicts and unmatched in later ones. This dynamic is interesting to see in his interactions with grunts, his fear, and his intimate understanding of both.

The prose makes me question my own expectations of what a memoir should read like. As a journalism student, I have a rigid understanding of grammatical right and wrong. But that rigidity would not quite capture Herr’s experience; it would water it down and process it into nothing.

It makes you realize the true scope of what falls through the cracks when it comes to war reporting. While some details and events get dwarfed by the sheer magnitude of the war, they stay with reporters in a profound way. The experiences shared in this book have a value that goes beyond historiography.