Sparring with Charlie [Paperback]

Christopher Hunt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1996

When Christopher Hunt set off in search of Vietnam's notorious Ho Chi Minh Trail, he hardly expected to end up on a rickety, Russian-made motorcycle navigating 5,000 kilometers of paths rarely traveled by tourists and on roads missing from maps.

Hunt left the United States expecting to explore the 1,700-kilometer highway that was once the supply route for the North Vietnamese Army.  He soon found himself roaming the Vietnamese countryside in need of help and direction. In the process, he found that being an American in Vietnam conjured constant reminders of the past and encountered a country and a people poised precariously between the ancient and the modern.

With adventure, wit, and an eye for the absurd, Christopher Hunt goes beyond the newspaper headlines and myths about Vietnam to capture the color and complexity of Vietnam today.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With a Russian motorcycle as his means of travel and the Ho Chi Minh Trail his itinerary, Christopher Hunt, whose father, Richard P. Hunt, was a television reporter in Vietnam during the war, traveled through postwar Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In Sparring with Charlie, he describes a country in which water buffalo cool themselves in bomb craters and he encounters "every permutation of amputee." He was amazed that no one pointed an accusatory finger at him--in fact the younger generation seemed obsessed by all that is American. At a museum in Ho Chi Minh City, with exhibits showing the horrors of war, four schoolgirls asked his name and told him, "Chris, America No. 1."

From Publishers Weekly

Neither a lark nor a pilgrimage, Hunt's Vietnamese travelogue was first conceived as deep background for a novel set in Southeast Asia. The subtitle refers to a web of tracks and paths, known collectively as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, that served as a north-south supply route for the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. With an investment of $400, Hunt, a journalist for the Economist, purchased a Russian-made Minsk motorbike and rode it across some 5000 kilometers of Vietnam. At the outset, Hunt is acutely aware that his American passport won't permit him to travel incognito, because his "compatriots had dumped bombs equal to several Hiroshimas and a couple of Nagasakis on North Vietnam." He is all the more astonished that, this fact notwithstanding, a former South Vietnamese admits to him that "Americans sacrificed their lives to protect my freedom." More often than not, Hunt must search for the Ho Chi Minh Trail before he can explore it. While trying to reach Saigon, he encounters obstacles manifest as terrain, history, culture and, not least, an uncooperative automobile. This work captures a sense of sadness fused with a rush of adrenaline as Vietnam is once again reborn.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 289 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; 1st Anchor Books ed edition (April 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385481284
• ISBN-13: 978-0385481281
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,610,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting portrait of the new Vietnam in a travelogue, July 7, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Sparring with Charlie (Paperback)

Christopher Hunt went to Vietnam with the aim of traveling down the
Ho Chi Minh Trail and gather ideas for a novel. He wrote
a travelogue instead which details his adventures and the
people he meets. If you find yourself interested in Mr.
Hunt's writing search for him on the Web. Some of his
fiction appears in ezines. Catherine Karnow did the cover
photography. Forty-one of her pictures from Vietnam appears
in the ezine @TLAS.
Issues such as the MIA's, the faith of the Amerasian and
the boat-people are addressed in passing. There are many
individual portraits of people from all over the country.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the competition, January 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Sparring with Charlie (Paperback)

If you want a book about two-wheel adventure in communist countries, far more enjoyable is "Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba," a fascinating and sometimes hilarious, sometimes hair-raising story of a 7,000-mile journey and justifiably the winner of both the 2002 "Travel Book of the Year" and the North American Travel Journalist Association's Awards of Excellence "Grand Prize."

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Witty, Surprising Ride Through Vietnam, June 3, 2000

By 

Eric H. Roth "English teacher/conversationali... (Venice Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sparring with Charlie (Paperback)

While academics might look down on this witty work for merely touching on difficult questions, I found it the most useful preparation for a two week trip to Vietnam. Hunt gives poignant images of young people trying to survive in in a fast-changing country. They fantasize about the fabled suburbs of America - the land of infinite consumer goods, exciting movies, and Bay Watch. Yet the museums provide evidence of the long, brutal war known as "The American War."

Hunt's Vietnam remains an odd, exotic country where anything can happen. How many places are there where police shake you down, negotiate a bribe, and then give you a receipt! I could relate to Hunt's twin desires to push the limits and explore the unknown while riding along the broken Ho Chi Minh trail - and being genuinely afraid. When does riding alone on a dark road become stupid? Can you trust the innkeeper? How can you transcend being the "rich" American in a poor country? What do people expect or want from you? What do you want from them? When are you being set up? Does evil lurk behind that smile? What topics, besides critizing Ho Chi Minh, are taboo? Where are the boundaries of speech in a corrupt police state? Is it fair for an American tourist to even comment on Vietnam's woes If you plan to see Hue, Saigon, Hanoi, or go to Laos, then this book presents awkward situations worth considering before visiting Southeast Asia. It's a travelogue, not an academic history of the area. Hunt critizes many aspects of Vietnam - he's judgemental. That also makes the book more real because I can't avoid, no matter how hard I might try, making judgements. You have to make choices, and Hunt shares his decision making process with us. I appreciated that! I looked at many, many books before my trip. I took Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide. This was the only book on Vietnam that I read cover to cover with delight.