The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam

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Summary: My class loves this book
Review: I belong to the young generation of vietnameses who were born and grewth up in Hanoi, the city of Kien and Phuong. I read this novel in 1992 or 1993 when I was a student, it's original name was "Destiny of Love" (Than phan tinh yeu). The book was passed around by my classmates and everyone was very impressed about it. The author has successfully described the romaintic of the first love beetwen Kien and Phuong as well as the fierceness of the war. Reading this book is the good way to know more about Vietname war and about Hanoi people. I strongly recommend this novel.

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Summary: Lost Possiblities And False Promises
Review: I bought a xeroxed copy of "The Sorrow of War" from a young street urchin in Saigon out of convenience. I didn't expect to read it - I just wanted to get to a restaurant and relax after a very humid, hot day. I planned to just dump it. But the book floored me. The disenchanted author conveys the macabre aspects of that long "American War", the pointless sacrifices of lives, and all the false promises once believed in youth. A brutal, bleak, and brilliant work. The Sorrow of War revealed the back story to what I was seeing in Saigon - North Vietnam may have won the won, but the people of Vietnam and America lost lives, limbs, and loves. "Everyone experienced difficult, painful, and different fates."

Rating:
Summary: Lost Possiblities And False Promises
Review: I bought a xeroxed copy of "The Sorrow of War" from a young street urchin in Saigon out of convenience. I didn't expect to read it - I just wanted to get to a restaurant and relax after a very humid, hot day. I planned to just dump it. But the book floored me. The disenchanted author conveys the macabre aspects of that long "American War", the pointless sacrifices of lives, and all the false promises once believed in youth. A brutal, bleak, and brilliant work. The Sorrow of War revealed the back story to what I was seeing in Saigon - North Vietnam may have won the won, but the people of Vietnam and America lost lives, limbs, and loves. "Everyone experienced difficult, painful, and different fates."

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Summary: A favorite of my undergraduate students.
Review: I bought this novel from a little boy on a Hanoi street corner. From the first page, it haunted and astonished me. In the past, I have sometimes taught a course on the literature of WWI; "Sorrow of War" immediately reminded me of "All Quiet on the Western Front," but because the Vietnam War dominated my life in my 20s, Bao Ninh's novel was even more brutally, poetically immediate. I decided, with some trepidation, to develop an introductory literature course in 20th-century war literature, concentrating on WWI and Vietnam, and using this novel. The narrative style and chronology are difficult; I feared students would lose patience with it. But I've now used it in four classes and it has been, hands down, the favorite of my students. It has been especially effective in showing them that the "Vietnam War" for us was the "American War" for our "enemy," and that not only Americans suffered and died there. To the extent that most students coming out of high school know anything at all about the Vietnam War, they know it from an American point of view only; Kien blows them out of that closed viewpoint into an awareness of the tragedy Vietnam suffered. Getting caught up in the labyrinth of his memories makes him a real presence; in fact, one of my students commented that she kept forgetting he was Vietnamese, which is I suppose one way of saying that Bao Ninh has caught something universal in his portrayal of that destroyed young man. This is a novel about which I can say, with no reservation, that I love it, even though it is painful to read. It deserves to be as widely known as "All Quiet on the Western Front"; it is an even better novel.

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Summary: A book for every Vietnam Vet
Review: I first purchased this book in Vietnam in 1990. In the past 12 years I have purchased well over a hundred more copies just to give away to other Vietnam Vets. It seems that Mr. Bao Ninh and I once fought each other on the battlefield, I contacted him in Hanoi in 1993 and praised him for his great work and his life's story. This book starts off after the fall of Saigon, a former North Vietnamese soldier searches the jungle for fallen comrades with a MIA team. As he searches and passes familiar places of long ago , he drifts back to the war the beautiful girl he loved. The sorrows of war deal with the horrors of war and lose of love and what it can do to your mind and spirit. In the words of Mr. Bao Ninh "Losses can be made good, damage can be repaired and wounds will heal in time. But the psychological scars of war will remain forever"

Rating:
Summary: A book for every Vietnam Vet
Review: I first purchased this book in Vietnam in 1990. In the past 12 years I have purchased well over a hundred more copies just to give away to other Vietnam Vets. It seems that Mr. Bao Ninh and I once fought each other on the battlefield, I contacted him in Hanoi in 1993 and praised him for his great work and his life's story. This book starts off after the fall of Saigon, a former North Vietnamese soldier searches the jungle for fallen comrades with a MIA team. As he searches and passes familiar places of long ago , he drifts back to the war the beautiful girl he loved. The sorrows of war deal with the horrors of war and lose of love and what it can do to your mind and spirit. In the words of Mr. Bao Ninh "Losses can be made good, damage can be repaired and wounds will heal in time. But the psychological scars of war will remain forever"

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Summary: a must read for anyone interested in Vietnam
Review: I read this book in a college Asian Studies course at St. Olaf College. It was interesting to read the perspective of a soldier who fought for the "other side" after hearing so much from the side of the Americans. Bao Ninh's book demonstrates that war is not just horrible for "your" side but it destroys everyone involved.

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Summary: The best war novel I have read.
Review: I read this book not quite knowing what to expect, other than the fact that my math teacher recommended it to me. After reading through the first few pages, I could tell it would be a great novel. It is,in fact, the best war novel I have ever read. Kien's (the main character) narrative kept me thoroughly engrossed. His description of not only what he saw, but also what he felt, gave me the same feelings he had, putting me right there in the action. The best thing we can learn from his experinces is that, in war there are no winners. When I described some of Kien's experiences to my Vietnamese girlfriend, she suggested I loan the book to her father who was a colonel and doctor with the South Vietnamese military. He just started reading it yesterday and is already raving about it. I would recommend this book to anyone, even if they have no interest in the Vietnam war

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Summary: An exceptional book, it made me cry
Review: I read this book with hesitation, but after the first page I was hooked. As a Marine SSgt.,I fought against this enemy in 68 and 69 and was there in Saigon when he took over in 75. I found myself feeling sorry for the soldiers of the North, and somewhat ashamed of having caused some of the sorrows he wrote about. This book is a must for all vietnam Veterans. You'll see the enemy was just like us in every way.

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Summary: autobiographical, disheveled but brutally honest account
Review: if you are looking for a book depicting the gore and horror of war from the standpoint of an infantry soldier you will be disappointed.. if however , you are are looking for a primer on how war destroys the soul you have conme to the right place ... of particular interest is "asian" reaction of the author to his childhood girlfriends rape by a group of soldiers ... the book reads more like a wim wenders movie than oliver stone .. the author jumps between ther poast and present . and the book seems to be more of a stream of consciousness than the telling of an actual story .. but the war in vietnam was not a story .. it was pure horror ... and horror is what this author captures