Michael Herr 1940-2016

Discussion in 'Vietnam' started by Guy Hudson, Jun 28, 2016.

  1. Guy Hudson

    Guy Hudson Looker-upper

  2. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    I think I met him when I was a little kid, though I don't recall doing so. He was very close to one of my father's oldest friends. He was a good writer, and I'm very sorry to hear that he is gone.
     
  3. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Dispatches is a very good book, and although slightly fictionalised that process distilled - so some veterans attest - the essence of the experience of being an American in the mid to later stages of the Vietnam War. Like all the best reportage, it's curiously subjective and yet universal.

    I've obviously no experience in war or the U.S. military, but I've visited Hanoi and Saigon and can see the traces of what he was putting across: the alienation you feel behind a dual cultural-linguistic barrier and the crazy juxtapositions of wealth and poverty, cold cruelty and warm humanity.

    I sent a copy to an Alaskan friend of mine several years ago with the capsule review: it's like a Graham Greene novel with more violence, drugs and bad language.
     
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