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Title: An American Requiem : God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us by James Carroll ISBN: 0-395-85993-X Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (24 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: powerful and evocative
Comment: As a reader in my early twenties, until I read this memoir it was difficult for me to understand the enormity that was the Vietnam War to American consciousness. The power of the book is two-fold. The first is the picture Carroll paints of his family -- a distinctly American creation with which most readers can identify, especially those like myself who had a military upbringing. The second is the historic moment in which Carroll's emotional story unfolds. Until this book, I never truly felt what a blow the Vietnam War was to many Americans' faith in their country. The pathos in the story lies in the fact that while Carroll finds himself politically and ideologically in the tumultuous era of the 70's, he simultaneously alienates himself from his beloved father and the values the older man embodies. Some readers may think that the memoir is overly sentimental, yet the sincerity and introspection with which Carroll writes makes the emotions in the book more evocative than the more tired tear-jerkers out there. The complex emotions of love and regret are expressed beautifully by the close of the book. One of the most emotionally evocative books I've read in a long time and also an informative glimpse into a period of American history.
Rating: 5
Summary: Well worth reading, if
Comment: If you really want to know about one family's experience with the Vietnam War.Well worth reading if you are a son.Well worth reading if you are a father.I first heard of James Carroll in my adult Sunday School discussion class, and wanted to know more of his thoughts. I chose this as my first book of his. I am glad I did!I was alive, though very young, during the United States' involvement in Vietnam, and had just a child's view. A pacifist child's view, but a child's view.(and yes, as a life (so far!) resident of Kent, Ohio, I experienced a certain amount of protest, including May, 1970.)An American Requiem filled in gaps, and has sparked my thinking and will direct my future reading.James Carroll tried to reconcile with his father, at least, that's how I read this fine, gripping book.Not all parents are always right, and not all children are always wrong.He included a small selection of interesting (mostly family) photographs.I consider my time reading An American Requiem to be time well spent.If it matters at all, I am not a Catholic (I belong to the United Church of Christ,) but find the Roman Catholic Church to be worthy of study and reflection.I hope to eventually meet James Carroll, and would really like to talk about Dads, Sons, and men with him.
Rating: 1
Summary: About Vietnam?
Comment: I was subjected to this book as part of a reading regimen on the Vietnam War. I find that odd, since, despite the title, Vietnam seems to play very little part in Carroll's narrative. This book is about a man grappling with his faith and with his father, the only two subjects that he really engages in this book. His treatment of the Vietnam War is restricted to his platitudes about its evils and recountings of activities performed. Carroll never really engages the war in any meaningful way, just like he as a person never really engaged his priesthood. The War was treated as a backdrop for the narrative, but it should never be described as a book about Vietnam.
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Title: Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews -- A History by James Carroll ISBN: 0618219080 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Secret Father : A Novel by James Carroll ISBN: 0618152849 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 13 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Meditations from a Movable Chair by Andre Dubus ISBN: 0679751157 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 06 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Gift of Peace by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin ISBN: 0385494343 Publisher: IMAGE Pub. Date: 10 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Young Men & Fire by Norman Maclean ISBN: 0226500624 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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