The Vietnam Reader: The Definitive Collection of Fiction and Nonfiction on the War

Stewart O'Nan

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Mar 23, 2011 - Literary Criticism - 736 pages

The Vietnam Reader is a selection of the finest and best-known art from the American war in Vietnam, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, film, still photos, and popular song lyrics. All the strongest work is here, from mainstream bestsellers to radical poetry, from Tim O'Brien to Marvin Gaye. Also included are incisive reader's questions--useful for educators and book clubs--in a volume that makes an essential contribution to a wider understanding of the Vietnam War.

This authoritative and accessible volume is sure to become a classic reference, as well as indispensable and provocative reading for anyone who wants to know more about the war that changed the face of late-twentieth-century America.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Contents

• Chronology of the War: 7
• ROBIN MOORE The Green Berets 1965: 17
• EARLY WORK: 51
• DAVID HALBERSTAM one very hot day 1967: 57
• FIRST WAVE OF MAJOR WORK: 113
• RON KOVIC Born on the Fourth of July 1976: 119
• TIM OBRIEN Going After Cacciato 1978: 234
• FIRST WAVE OF MAJOR FILMS: 257
• SONGS: 279
• The Ballad of the Green Berets BARRY SADLER AND ROBIN MOORE: 285
• THE ORAL HISTORY BOOM: 297
• MARK BAKER Nam 1981: 303
• WALLACE TERRY Bloods 1984: 324
• KEITH WALKER A Piece of My Heart 1985: 338
• Letters Home from Vietnam: 351
• AL SANTOLI Everything We Had 1981: 365
• SECOND WAVE OF MAJOR FILMS: 439
• MEMOIRS: 457
• MASTERWORK: 503
• HOMECOMING: 539
• LARRY HEINEMANN Pacos Story 1986: 545
• MEMORY: 613
• STEWART ONAN The Names of the Dead 1996: 680

About the author

Stewart O'Nan was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 4, 1961. He received a B. S. from Boston University in 1983 and received a M. F. A. in fiction from Cornell University in 1992. Before becoming a writer, he worked as a test engineer for Grumman Aerospace from 1984 to 1988. He has written several novels including The Speed Queen, A Prayer for the Dying, Last Night at the Lobster, The Circus Fire, and Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season. In the Walled City won the 1993 Due Heinz Literature Prize; Snow Angels won the 1993 Pirates Alley William Faulkner Prize; and The Names of the Dead won the 1996 Oklahoma Book Award. Snow Angels was made into a feature film in 2007. In 1996, he was listed as one of Granta's best young American novelists.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Vietnam Reader: The Definitive Collection of Fiction and Nonfiction on the War
• Editor: Stewart O'Nan
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011
• ISBN: 0307489744, 9780307489746
• Length: 736 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / General