Literature and the Vietnam War

The books discussed here deal directly with wartime action. Other fiction deals with veterans and their suffering (Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers, National Book Award, 1975), the effects of the war on families (Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country, 1985), living and working in Vietnam before the war (Ward Just's A Dangerous Friend, 1999) and re-interpretations of our involvement (Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, National Book Award, 2007). They take account of a broader context and are not limited to the battlefield. If you are interested in how Vietnam was considered later on, they are important reading. Johnson's book, however, is a tricky one. Aimed at capturing the miasma of lies, half-truths, and fantasy in which the United States was mired, it creates puzzles within puzzles. Johnson is an accomplished writer, but it's difficult to penetrate the forest of "smoke." Writing about confusion should not itself be so confusing.