Regret to Inform:Supplementary Reading Suggestions

Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao (1997):
In this autobiographical novel, Lan Cao writes of a girl who moves from Vietnam to the USA in 1975, just at the time of the defeat of South Vietnam and the USA. Once in the US, she must confront the ramifications of her past in Vietnam and her present in the Vietnamese-American and American worlds. In addition to being a wonderful coming-of-age novel, Lan Cao's Monkey Bridge is a fine introduction to the issues of the Vietnam (or, as Vietnamese call it, the American) War.

The Quiet American by Graham Greene (1955):
This is the first novel about America's War in Vietnam. Written with what now seems a remarkable ability to see into the future, Greene sets up a conflict between a British journalist who is chronicling France's defeat in Vietnam and an apparently naive young American who has just arrived. The Quiet American is a powerfully cynical reflection on the devastation of war.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'¹Brien (1990):
O'Brien's novel, which reads like a collection of inter-related stories, is probably the most widely-read book about Vietnam. O'Brien writes about the burdens of war and the inability to shed those burdens, even after the war is over. He also writes about courage and responsibility and patriotism. O'Brien's recursive narrative style invites readers to challenge the nature of truth about war stories. (Other titles by O'Brien: If I Die in a Combat Zone; Going After Cacciato).

In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War by Tobias Wolff (1995):
Wolff's memoir about his decision to enlist and his experiences as a Marine reads like a novel. Wolff, whose earlier memoir, This Boy's Life, was made into a film, writes with clarity, sensitivity and wry and painful humor about the dilemmas he faced before and after his experiences. In Pharoah's Army is a wonderful nonfiction companion piece to O'Brien's The Things They Carried.

A Rumor of War by Phil Caputo (1977):
Caputo, a former Marine Lieutenant, describes his 1965-66 tour of duty in Vietnam, including an account of the murders for which he faced a court-martial. His meditations are thought-provoking and eloquent.

Dispatches by Michael Herr (1977):
Journalist Herr's work, written in an idiosyncratic, often wild, often dream-like style, captures what he saw as the insanity of the war. This book is nonfiction, but Herr never even pretends to be objective.

The Sorrow of Warby Bao Ninh (1996):
This novel by a NorthVietnamese novelist is startling in its unflinching look at the sorrows and the horrors of war as its infantryman-protagonist tries to exorcise his memories through writing. For ambitious students, the novel provides a counterpoint to American accounts of the war in Vietnam.

Dien Cai Dau by Yusef Komunyakaa (1988):
Komunyakaa, a journalist who won the Bronze Star during the war in Vietnam, has written a volume of poetry in which he attempts to make sense of the fighting and the aftermath of the war in Vietnam through evocative and insistent imagery. In this volume, Komunyakaa also explores the relationship of African-American soldiers to the war.

In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason (1985):
Bobbie Ann Mason's post-war novel deals with the effects of the war in Vietnam on both those who fought and returned and on the children of those who never returned. The protagonist, a teenage girl, must deal both with the fact that her father died before she was born and with her worries about the effect of Agent Orange on her uncle who returned from fighting.

This list was compiled by Ellen Greenblatt. Ellen teaches at University High School in San Francisco, CA.

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