Customer Reviews

Retrieving Bones: Stories and Poems of the Korean War

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This is an exceptional book. For anyone with any interest in creative literature arising from warfare, whether narrative or poetic, this is a book to have. I have read hundreds of books of military history, stories, and poetry. This, by far, is the best I've seen. I am very familiar with Ehrhart's work -- and he's creative, thoughtful, and a consumate literary pro. All of this shows through here. Of the 204 pages of text, 157 pages consist of twelve stories by different authors. The rest of the book includes 39 poems by six poets. The stories and poems are all of very different styles and complement each other beautifully. One story in particular, "The Trapped Battalion," by William Chamberlain, will blow you away (pardon the pun)! There are two additional excellent and unusual aspects to this volume. First, the two editors give you a brief personal introduction to each author and poet, highlighting their connections with the Korean War and mentioning their personal and literary history as well as prominent themes in their works. Second, at the end of the book they have a detailed annotated list of recommended books, films, and poetry of the Korean War. This is one book I know I will read many times as the years go by.

RETRIEVING BONES is a solid, if not outstanding, anthology of literature about a "forgotten" war, and it probably will mean more to the veterans of that war, and to their families, than to most younger readers. W.D. Ehrhart and Philip K. Jason have done a fine job in finding representative works by authors both celebrated (at least among writers and poets) and unfamiliar, and they do an even better job in placing these writers and their works in the historical context of the Korean War.

For the record, the short stories are: "Rice" (Henry Steiner), "A Long Way From Home," (Vern Sneider), "We Build Churches, Inc." (James Lee Burke), "Cold Day, Cold Fear" (Eugene Burdick), "The Trapped Battalion" (William Chamberlain), "Hoengsong" (from "The Useless Servant" by Rolando Hinojosa), "Lost Soldier" (Stanford Whitmore), "Sailors at Their Mourning: A Memory" (John Deck), "Graves," (Mark Power), "Indigenous Girls" (Donald R. Depew), "A Matter of Price" (Robert O. Bowen), and an excerpt from "The Secret" (James Drought). The poems are by Thomas McGrath, William Childress, Hinojosa, James Magner Jr., Reg Saner, William Wantling and Keith Wilson. Only a few of the stories deal directly with combat, and, non-combat stories like those by Hinojosa and Deck are among the strongest in the book. I'll not cast stones here, but at least a couple of the stories are just mediocre.

Perhaps because of its relatively short length and murky aims, perhaps because of the U.S. political climate of the 1950s, perhaps because some gifted writers who experienced the war came home to a country largely indifferent to the non-victory that ended the fighting, the Korean conflict hasn't generated near the amount of celebrated literature that emerged from America's two world wars or the Vietnam War. RETRIEVING BONES is another well-intentioned effort, among many in recent years, to remember the "forgotten" warriors of Korea and what they sacrificed. Frankly, those who need to inform themselves about the war should start with one or more of the many excellent histories (David Halberstam, Max Hastings, T.R. Fehrenbach, Clay Blair Jr.) and first-person accounts of the war, before delving into the fiction and poetry. But for the knowledgable, RETRIEVING BONES is worth some time to read (selectively).