Patches of Fire is Albert French’s deeply personal memoir of a young black man’s Vietnam War experience. He is witness to death and hardship beyond his reasoning, and returns home only to find an America rife with racial tension after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. In an atmosphere of hatred for the war and its participants, French labors to overcome the haunting images of war that plague him, and to make his way in white America. He finds work as a newspaper photographer, then as a magazine publisher, and finally as a critically acclaimed novelist. French relates with vivid detail the trials of war, the struggles of a Vietnam veteran, and the ultimate redemption of a life filled with accomplishment.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Albert French's two previous novels Billy and Holly have both received widespread critical acclaim, and French has been hailed as "one of America's most important new novelists." But French's first literary opus was not originally received with such praise, it was rejected by publishers and never before in print. This first book was a memoir of his experience as a soldier in Vietnam, and while it did not result in literary success, it led up to it. Writing his story proved to be a transformative experience for French, unleashing his creative abilities and resulting in a successful pair of novels that he wrote in short order and to great acclaim. In Patches of Fire, French has rewritten his original personal narrative, including the interesting story of how he began to write and the redemptive role writing played in overcoming the despair that threatened to overwhelm his life after Vietnam. The book falls into two parts: the first, the unsentimental story of an infantryman in the jungles of Vietnam; the second, a moving description of how this Vietnam veteran pulled his life together and found his voice and creative impulse. The writing is expert and the book, excellent.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
French is the author of two well-received novels (Billy; Holly) concerning the African American experience in the South during the 1930s and '40s. In this equally fine memoir, he traces his own transition from Vietnam marine to publisher of a magazine that failed to successful author. The book follows the pattern established after WWI by Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves in seeking to tell "a story of war" as a literary construction. Like his predecessors, French employs a spare, almost understated style?a welcome relief from Vietnam narratives that too often seek to make their points by piling on the adjectives. French joined the Marines before the U.S. deployment began. He was seriously wounded as a corporal commanding a machine-gun squad. His post-traumatic stress was not that of a victim, however, but of a leader who felt he had somehow failed by surviving when his men were killed. It surfaced in a context not of race but of economics; it was the collapse of the magazine, Pittsburgh Premier, that brought French's Vietnam demons to the surface?both in their own right and as a focal point for his life as a black man in white America. His account of coming to terms with the war and of his successful turn to writing, first as therapy and then as profession, suggests Graves's Good-Bye to All That. It also brings new perspective to a war generally depicted as a thing in itself, with no afterword beyond trauma. French may have been defined by Vietnam, but he is not "still in Saigon."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling, succinct, insightful, and honest,
By
This review is from: Patches of Fire: A Story of War and Redemption (Hardcover)
French gives the reader real insights into what war is like, and what Viet Nam did to the men that fought there. I have struggled to find books about Viet Nam and other wars from the point of view of real soldiers, not generals and journalists. This one does the job terrifically well.French, as an African American gives us insight into what race meant before, during, and after the war. But the book does much more than that. What is remarkable and compelling for the reader is to see how much the black and white soldier had in common in the foxholes and rice paddies in Viet Nam, and then, as deeply troubled psyches, in the decades of recovery that our soldiers have gone through. Finally, French's book is a fascinating book about writers and writing. Here is a man that first had to write to heal. In that he discovered his remarkable talents as an unschooled, but brilliant writer.
4.0 out of 5 stars
albert french,
By Linda Larsen (Alexandria, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Patches of Fire: A Story of War and Redemption (Hardcover)
i was reading a book just recently and a part of the book was about the vietnam war. this immidiatly brought me to think about albert french's "patches of fire" which has stayed with me for ever after reading it a few years back. the reason this book is so special to me is that not only is the book so touching and amazing but i had the most unforgettable chance to meet the man himself. i so happened to be working at a restaurant where albert french was being interviewed by an english newspaper. this man was something out of the ordinary and was the kindest to me. we got talking while is was taking their order and i will never forget that moment. alert said he just wanted a simple lunch nothing to fancy, as long as it came with fries. he explained how he had been eating or rather not eating during his time in vietnam and how that had affected him for life. he started telling me a story, which is also in his book, about how his food had bacically been "alive" one day during his servicetime but cause of hunger and no other option had to simply eat it etc and his story could had gone on but i was busy serving other customers. and to cut a long story short, he said he was going to have his book sent to me, so i could sort of hear him out and so it happened.reading "patches of fire" had an enormos impact on me, and i must admit that i truly cried finishing the book. i give my highest recommandations for this book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
albert french,
By Linda Larsen (Alexandria, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Patches of Fire: A Story of War and Redemption (Hardcover)
i was reading a book just recently and a part of the book was about the vietnam war. this immidiatly brought me to think about albert french's "patches of fire" which has stayed with me for ever after reading it a few years back. the reason this book is so special to me is that not only is the book so touching and amazing but i had the most unforgettable chance to meet the man himself. i so happened to be working at a restaurant where albert french was being interviewed by an english newspaper. this man was something out of the ordinary and was the kindest to me. we got talking while is was taking their order and i will never forget that moment. alert said he just wanted a simple lunch nothing to fancy, as long as it came with fries. he explained how he had been eating or rather not eating during his time in vietnam and how that had affected him for life. he started telling me a story, which is also in his book, about how his food had bacically been "alive" one day during his servicetime but cause of hunger and no other option had to simply eat it etc and his story could had gone on but i was busy serving other customers. and to cut a long story short, he said he was going to have his book sent to me, so i could sort of hear him out and so it happened.reading "patches of fire" had an enormos impact on me, and i must admit that i truly cried finishing the book. i give my highest recommandations for this book.
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