Dispatches by Michael Herr

I've read that Michael Herr's Dispatches is one of the best, if not the best, book that has been written about the Vietnam War.  I've certainly not read widely enough to know whether that's true or not (and a personal favorite of mine remains Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried), but Herr manages to convey to the reader what it was like to be in Vietnam with a very authentic voice.  He gives a flavor to the time, place and people that will remain in my mind for quite a while.  I thought Dispatches would be an easy read, straightforward journalism.  Dispatches, a report, what you would find in a literary magazine like Esquire (right?), for whom Herr was connected when he went to cover the war. 

It turned out to be a very disorienting experience for me and a challenging read, not least because the writing style is so vivid and raw and with little structure.  When I first was thinking about the book, his writing felt impressionistic, but I've since come across a better descriptive term.  The six sections that make up the book, and within each section there are many stories, create a sort of collage.  Bits and pieces of different experiences make up a much larger picture.  Since there is no or little narrative arc it's hard to describe what I read, though I am left with a great many images.  This was also challenging as I have read very little about Vietnam and am unfamiliar with the military and social jargon of the era.  It's a cliché to say this, but the more I read, the less I feel that I really know about history and the world in general.

Herr chose to go to Vietnam as a reporter/writer (he wasn't there as as soldier) and could have returned home at any time, a fact that mostly astonished the troops, most of whom would happily have left sooner than later given the chance.  He traveled with the marines and endured the same battles and discomfort they did.  Drug use wasn't unheard of, and Herr and other reporters engaged in the activity.  Caroline touched upon this in her post, but I wonder if the war helped shaped the Sixties, or if the Sixties shaped the war.  Herr's Dispatches very much reflects that unique period--both with the language he uses and the style of the writing, which makes it easy for me to see why it's considered a modern classic.  It just needed a musical soundtrack to be complete, but even then there are many cultural references peppered throughout the text.

Like all good nonfiction it's hard to tell you exactly what I read, since there was so much.  So many stories, so many experiences and images and battles.  I can tell you bits and pieces.  I can tell you how my own perception has been shaped by a later generation and a different cultural viewpoint.  I was still a baby when Herr was following the marines and watching the Battle of Khe Sanh unfold, about which he writes extensively.  I've always understood this was the Vietnam War, though in Vietnam it's called the American War.  I remember studying the Tet Offensive in school, but did I ever learn that Tet is actually the Vietnamese Lunar New Year?

Maybe it's best to leave you with a few excerpts so you can read for yourself and get a feeling for the writing.  I dog eared many pages, so here are a few random passages.

"One morning before dawn, Ed Fouhy, a former Saigon Bureau Chief for CBS, went out to 8th Aerial Port at Tan Son Nhut to catch the early military flight to Danang.  They boarded as the sun came up, and Fouhy strapped in next to a kid in rumpled fatigues, one of those soldiers you see whose weariness has gone far beyond physical exhaustion, into that state where no amount of sleep will ever give him the kind of rest he needs.  Every torpid movement they make tells you that they are tired, that they'll stay tired until their tours are up and the big bird flies them back  to the World."

**********

"Talk about impersonating an identity, about locking into a role, about irony: I went to cover the war and the war covered me; an old story, unless of course you've never heard it.  I went there behind the crude but serious belief that you had to be able to look at anything, serious because I acted on it and went, crude because I didn't know, it took the war to teach it, that you were as responsible for everything you saw as you were for everything you did.  The problem was that you didn't always know what you were seeing until later, maybe years later, that a lot of it never made it in at all, it just stayed stored there in your eyes.  Time and information, rock and roll, life itself, the information isn't frozen, you are."

**********

"Almost as much as the grunts and the Vietnamese, Tet was pushing correspondents closer to the wall than they'd ever wanted to go.  I realized later that, however childish I might remain, actual youth had been pressed out of me in just the three days that it took me to cross the sixty miles between Can Tho and Saigon."

**********

"I know a guy who had been a combat medic in the Central Highlands, and two years later he was still sleeping with all the lights on.  We were walking across 57th Street one afternoon and passed a blind man carrying a sign that read MY DAYS ARE DARKER THAN YOUR NIGHTS.  'Don't bet on it, man' the ex-medic said."

I'm happy to have read Dispatches, though it's a book I can say I think I appreciate more than I love.  I wish I had known more going into the book, but with every book or magazine article I learn just a little bit more for the next time.  With the next book I'll have a little more familiarity and the language or style may feel a little less foreign.  And maybe someday I'll pick up Dispatches to read again and the experience will be completely different.  Until then I'm glad I read outside my comfort zone, something I am always eager to do more of, and I'll be looking for more books on the Vietnam War (suggestions as always are welcome).

Next up (later this month) is The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, which is already on my night stand. 

Comments

[Caroline]

We really agree on this one.
Those questions whether the 60s culture wasn't influenced by Vietnam or the other we way around where on my mind as well but according to comments on my blog, Herr's depction of the war was a bit misleading. the majority of the soldiers didn't do drugs nor was the fighting as intense. He went where "the action" was, so to speak.
I've read the book Letters Home from Vietnam, years a go and loved it. See if you can find it.

[litlove]

I think you are very brave and tenacious to get to the end of books like this. I think I would struggle even if I were loving them! But the tough reads often bring out the best in us - they force us into interpretations and areas of knowledge that we'd never reach without a fight. So good for you for finishing it!

[Kathy]

The excerpts you shared were quite striking--I see why you continued on until the end. Sometimes in a challenging read, the quality of the writing keeps me going when I would have put the book aside otherwise. As a writer, I think I should immerse myself in as much good writing as possible, and hope it rubs off on me! I need to do better about reading outside my comfort zone, however, and your forays outside yours are inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

[Stefanie]

This seems like a book that will be hard to forget in many ways. That you think you might read it again sometime says a lot.

[Danielle]

I think it was your post that put the idea in my head about the war and the Sixties--as I was reading it really struck me that they are so intermingled. I was interested to when you wrote that had the war occurred in the 80s say it would have been a very different war--I think you are right. I didn't read all the comments on your post--so I missed the one about Herr's descriptions--I guess it all has to be read as the war from one man's perspective. His war was not necessarily the same one that others experienced--another interesting thing to think about and keep in mind with these sorts of books. I was thinking this felt sort of like a memoir, though I know it's not quite that either. It makes sense that as a journalist/writer he would want to be where the fighting was most intense. Is the book of letters Herr's book, too? Letters would be really interesting and I will have to look for it--my library might have it. I really do want to read more about Vietnam now--maybe more by Tim O'Brien or some more straightforward history. Even though this was a challenge, I think it helps lay some groundwork for reading more--maybe more things I read about it will feel more familiar now.

[Danielle]

This was more challenging in the way it was written rather than the content--though there were some disturbing things. Some war books are hard going indeed, and I am almost surprised at myself for mostly having stuck them all out (the two I didn't finish were only partially read--and maybe I'll go back to them eventually--due to the length--very chunky books I just didn't manage to finish). I agree that difficult reads can be very good and well worth the effort--the during may be hard but after all is said and done the stories really remain in my mind and leave me with lots to think about.

[Danielle]

The first half of the book was really hard--especially the first section, but either I became more familiar with the writing style, or the later sections had more of a narrative to them. This is definitely well written--a different sort of reading I am used to, but I'm glad as reading outside my comfort zone is a very good thing!

[Danielle]

I don't think I'll go back and read it anytime very soon, but I wouldn't mind revisiting it again once I've read more books about Vietnam. Somehow I think it would be an entirely different sort of book if I knew more about the war and the era!

[Caroline]

I will have to retunr to my old posts and the comments. A few people suggested a lot of great sounding books about Vietnam. Non-fiction included.
The letters are not edited by Herr. They are heartbreaking. And since they are from so many different men, soldiers, officers, pilots, infantry, it gives a good impression. I loved them, as weird as that may sound.
I have a few non-fiction accounts of soldiers somewhere. And I really want to read Marlantes, his fiction and non-fiction.

[LizF]

I must admit, I wasn't that sure about reading this but the excerpts have intrigued me and I will have to look out a copy.
War reporters are a rare breed and always want to be where the heat of the action is so I suppose there will always be a slant to their work especially as they are writing as it happens and can (should) only report what they see.
The book of letters sounds fascinating too - I know shamefully little about the Vietnam War apart from what I remember from newspaper and TV coverage when I was a child so it would be good to find out more.

[Danielle]

I looked at Anna's blog--for her War Through the Generations list of books for Vietnam and she has a pretty extensive list, so I'll look there as well. I have looked up Marlantes and added his books to my wishlist (I had already wanted to read Matterhorn). I like the sound of letters since you get a more personal view and a varied one. Despite being sad I can understand why you would love the book--I will search around for it!

[Danielle]

It is good--butI had to sort of keep reading even though I was feeling a little lost. I think if I read some other books, get more knowledge and then go back to it again sometime later I will get more out of it then. His writing style was interesting--not sure if I would want all the books I read to be like that, but it was nice to expand my reading horizons. I'm going to search about for those letters--I am sure I can find something. My library has a whole section that I might browse. I also know very little and feel like I should know more since it is my own country's history--it's been so long since I studied it. I was pretty little at the tail end of it all and only remember my older sister had a POW sticker on her bicycle--not sure if I even understood what it meant then.

[Kathleen]

Having studied history in college I am always looking for good books that are rooted in a historical time period. Vietnam is still such a confusing war for me and I've studied it pretty extensively. This book sounds like it lends a good perspective.