Customer Reviews

Touring Nam: Vietnam War Stories

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As a former grunt in Vietnam I still remember my tour indelibly. This book brought back many, many memories--some searing, some distressing and a few pleasant. The contribution by Asa Barber is especially fine. I think this is the book I would like to give people to sample what a tour was really like.

The conceit of this book is to take one along on a start to finish ride on a tour of Vietnam as experienced by the typical 'grunt.' It's a pretty good idea and I believe that the editors did a fine job of selecting various essays, short fiction and brief sociologies to describe the process from induction through return to the "world." There are issues raised in this book that, unless you were a participant in the actual war, I am quite certain will be new to you. I am thinking in particular about the issue of race and the relationship of the war to the Civil Rights movement in the United States and also, of course, the reactions of both blacks and whites to them. There is a lot of day to day life experience included here too which is not always addressed in other literary sources on Vietnam. Not every selection is golden however, and one may find himself, as I did, skimming some bits to get to the better bits but on the whole this is a good, solid effort that, for the price, definitely merits a purchase. One critic below pans this book and recommends Tim O'Brien's book but, quite frankly, all of the best bits from that book are included in this one which means that you don't have to wade through the gaseous prose surrounding them in the original. I would recommend a book titled 'Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959-1975.' This is an utterly brilliant compilation that, rather than tracing the year in the life of the grunt, does a treatment of the entire American conflict. It is filled with riveting stuff and will have you staying up through the night devouring it.

There's a lot of great writing about all phases of the Vietnam war experience, so there's really no reason for editors putting together a selection of stories, chapters from books, articles, etc. to fail to assemble a fine collection. However, in my opinion, Greenberg and Norton did a mediocre job of picking writing for this book.

Rather than reading this book and getting a couple of chapters from Tim O'Brien (mixed in with some lesser quality writing), I'd recommend you read a full book by Tim O'Brien (If I Die in a combat Zone is a favorite of mine) or some other top writer.