Fragments (Phoenix Fiction Series) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "You didn't really start noticing things again until the very end..." (more)
Key Phrases: first shirt, silver flute, Bad Brother, Kent State, Quan Loi (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Fragments is a story about how war can make everything explosive--even love--and how two friends try to put the pieces of their lives together again.

"[Fragments] makes the usual semi-autobiographical account [of the Vietnam War] . . . seem flimsy and discursive in comparison. . . . The shapeliness and sense of larger design [is] so elegantly executed in Fragments."--Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

"The plot is believable, the characters sharply drawn, the prose clean and distinctive. . . . Stand[s] with Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato, James Webb's Fields of Fire, Josiah Bunting's The Lionheads and John Del Vecchio's The 13th Valley. . . . A strong, compelling novel."--Marc Leepson, Washington Post

"There have been many books on Vietnam, and there will be many others. This is more a novel than the rest. . . . Fuller has reassembled the exploded grenade."--Bob MacDonald, Boston Sunday Globe

"Should our children ask about Vietnam, we would not go wrong to place this book in their hands. . . . [Fragments] purveys more than information--it gives the war a literary form."--David Myers, New York Times

"The best novel yet about the Vietnam War. . . . It ranks with Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's From Here to Eternity."--Daniel Kornstein, Wall Street Journal

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (December 22, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226268861
• ISBN-13: 978-0226268866
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #260,379 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, but just barely, April 16, 2001

By	brazos49 "brazos49" (Sugar Land, TX USA) - See all my reviews

I rate this as a mediocre writing effort. To me, the characters were not really well developed and the story, while emotional, was not that interesting. It was worth reading, but I wasn't really sorry to finish it, so I can move on to something better.

If you want to read a better, even great, Vietnam novel, I'd recommend you try Fields of Fire by Webb, or Close Quarters by Heinemann, or Better Times than These by Groom. Fragments pales in comparison to those works.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent story during the Vietnam War, April 13, 1999

By A Customer

A breathtaking story bout a group of Soldiers in Vietnam. Fuller made me care about the soldiers and the villiagers that the soldiers wee trying to help.