Customer Reviews

Buffalo Boy and Geronimo

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read James Janko's powerfully gentle and inspiring book "Buffalo Boy and Geronimo" straight through without stopping, except to eat and relieve. Janko brought me into village life. Aware of my senses, I was living in a world of smell and touch, of reverence and spirituality, of survival and belief. In the very beginning, we learn that the Vietnamese call the Vietnam War the American War, and Janko presents a world almost unfathomable in what the US does to this country, Vietnam, and then, Cambodia, and yet, it is not black and white. We are there with the fears of the Americans. They, too, are caught in a trap. And what sustains those who are sustained? The earth, the animals, the plants. Janko is a poet, a spiritual, mystical sage who carries us along in believing and trusting. In this book, I learned what it is like to live in a Vietnamese village, and I learned the power of the individual, the group, the tribe, the village in its need to survive. I learned about honoring ancestors, and I learned it at the deepest levels. Janko brings us into a tribe, a tribe of humanity that includes all nature. This is a masterful book, a must-read book, a book to change your life.

In this novel Janko gently delves into the bodies and minds of humans and animals, richly using all the senses to show the fullness of their lives, the beauty of the natural world, and the suffering caused by destruction. In this way he exposes the insanity of war far more effectively than would be possible through a more strident approach.

As I read, I thought of children's war games, with their arbitrary qualities. Why were American soldiers hurling bombs and napalm at peasants, who were wholly involved with cultivating their ancestral land, raising their crops, their animals and their families? The average American "grunt" in the story has no idea why he's fighting. That the Army's attacks on the Viet Cong are to "protect America" is based on logic that is clearly insane.

Janko focuses on the lives of two boys: Hai, Vietnamese, who lives in a village that is being used as a Viet Cong base, and Antonio Lucio, a medic stationed with an American platoon in jungle close to the Cambodian border.

The senseless violence of it all, and the harming of innocent wild creatures, deeply affects Antonio Lucio. When a wounded tiger comes upon them, he feels a mystical sense of bonding with it. The subsequent death of his closest Army buddy drives him to the brink of madness.

Hai, for his part, tries to sacrifice a Viet Cong plot to sacrifice his entire village merely as a show of resistance. However, the experience of fighting for survival with the support of fellow villagers--as well as being in love--gives Hai strength.

Neither Americans nor Vietnamese are depicted as entirely good or evil. Both sides are capable of inhumanity. Through focusing on individual lives, Janko exposes the absurdity and tragedy of war. Yet bursting through the destruction, life in all its beauty and richness continues to bloom.

Within the first few pages of Buffalo Boy and Geronimo, I immediately knew I hadn't ever read anything like THIS account of the horrors of the Viet Nam War. What a stunningly beautiful and haunting book. I was reminded, throughout, of the traditional Aboriginals, Navajo and other native peoples, who have the same connection to/reverence for their ancestral lands as the Vietnamese, and to all the life and death they hold. And also their struggles--which are losing power as the elders pass away--to keep their commitment to the Great Spirit and their ancestors to remain on and care for the land.

I can feel the tremendous pain involved in writing this book, and also the peace Mr. Janko found in doing so. Anyone reading this book--and especially anyone who has suffered in a war, as a soldier or civilian, or who has been forced from their homelands--will be healed by it. I offer my heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Janko for speaking not only for the human beings but also the animal people, the plant people and the land that suffered so in this tragedy.

Explores the war experiences of two adolescent boys on opposing sides of the Vietnamese conflict. The novel suggests that embracing our oneness with the natural world is the key to overcoming our societal alienations and ideological differences.
Buffalo Boy and Geronimo is about the brutality of war, the torments of adolescence and the senselessness of environmental terrorism. It is also a tale of love, growth, spiritual rebirth and hope.
The writing is almost poetical and is transfused with Janko's pantheistic philosophy. A wonderful piece of literature which champions the dignity of animals, the humanity of our enemies and the preciousness of our environment. One of the most sensitive books written on the Vietnam war...please read it and pass it on.

Buffalo Boy and Geronimo is written from the heart of one who lived through, and understood, the terror of war and the beauty of survival. Janko brings a deeper understanding to the conflict of war by allowing us to enter the interior worlds of its victims and its survivors. The writing is very descriptive, so much so that I dreamt myself of being in trenches and felt insects crawling on my skin during the time I was reading the book. For those who remember Vietnam, this book will help them to understand more deeply what happened, for those too young to remember, this book will remind them that war is meant for one thing - destruction - and it is usually the innocent that are caught in the middle, whether they be in uniform or not.

Though about what may seem to many like a long-ago conflict this is a timely reminder of the human toll of war. It lets us inside both sides of the conflict where they really live - in their own minds and hearts... Ordinary people caught up in extradinary destruction and responding with extroadinary compassion and humanity. It is a lesson we all can use today as we repeat history once more... Highly recommended.

This book was moving and haunting. I would recommend it to anyone who lived through the Viet Nam era - and anyone born after.