Amazon.com Review
Michael Herr, who wrote about the Vietnam War for Esquire magazine, gathered his years of notes from his front-line reporting and turned them into what many people consider the best account of the war to date, when published in 1977. He captured the feel of the war and how it differed from any theater of combat ever fought, as well as the flavor of the time and the essence of the people who were there. Since
Dispatches was published, other excellent books have appeared on the war--may we suggest
The Things They Carried,
The Sorrow of War,
We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young--but Herr's book was the first to hit the target head-on and remains a classic.
From Publishers Weekly
American correspondent Herr's documentary recalls the heavy combat he witnessed in Vietnam as well as the obscene speech, private fears and nightmares of the soldiers. "Herr captures the almost hallucinatory madness of the war," said PW. "This is a compelling, truth-telling book with a visceral impact, its images stuck in the mind like shards from a pineapple bomb."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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