Names of the Dead [Paperback]

Stewart O'Nan (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Penguin Paperback; First Edition, edition (1996)
• ASIN: B000S05Z70
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Stewart O'Nan's award-winning fiction includes Snow Angels, A Prayer for the Dying, Last Night at the Lobster, and Emily, Alone. Granta named him one of America's Best Young Novelists. He lives in Pittsburgh.

www.stewart-onan.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, not the usual Viet Nam book, May 31, 2000

By 

Janice M. Hansen (California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Names of the Dead (Paperback)

This is not your typical Viet Nam read. As usual, Stewart O'Nan takes his incredible literary skills to a new dimension. He portrys the life of a young medic in his first mission in Viet Nam. His experiences are gripping as you track this vulnerable young kid on the plane there, and eventually living with the guys in his unit and out on their daily duties. Included in the recount of his experiences, is the hell he is going with as he struggles to adapt and make peace with himself. I passed this book on to several friends who were in Viet Nam. When one of them handed the book back to me, I asked them what they thought of it. I got a nod, a silence, and a choked up stammering response. It was so good, he couldn't even talk to me about it yet. We will talk about it some day, I hope. After a while, perhaps, when it doesn't seem so real to him. I knew to wait and be patient.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dealing with incurable illness, June 9, 2001

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Names of the Dead (Paperback)

Stewart O'Nan plunges the reader into the chambers of horrors that are the aftermath of Vietnam. He understands the razoredge tension of being underfire, the hopelessness of being without the security of even minimal coping that eats the brains of many Vietnam Vets, and he knows the vagaries of the promised paths of healing from physical and mental war wounds. Some writers describe actual moments of battle contact better than O'Nan but few dig into the battle rattle that so chronically impaled the men and boys who came home from Vietnam. And with all this ammunition on board, O'Nan has written a very fine novel that is, yes, grounded in the sequelae of war, but succeeds in unraveling a fascinating story of at least one man's survival. This is a pithy book and deserves to be placed on the shelf along with O'Brien, Caputo, Turner and the other fine writers who still struggle to make sense out of the irrational Vietnam error.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I would have given it 5 stars, but..., January 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Names of the Dead (Hardcover)

I'm a viet vet (navy)- found the book well written with excellent descriptions of action and inaction throughout. I would have given it 5 stars, but I didn't understand the ending. The present-day plot doesn't wrap up until the final 4 or 5 pages. It left me confused as to what, why, how... and I really was interested in knowing w,w,h. I suppose it could be that I'm just dense or maybe it's supposed to be indefinite, but if anyone can clue me in, I'd appreciate it (by email- I don't want to give the ending away).