cover image Vietnam, We've All Been There: Interviews with American Writers

Vietnam, We've All Been There: Interviews with American Writers

Eric James Schroeder. Praeger Publishers, $60.95 (232pp) ISBN 978-0-275-93561-0

In 11 illuminating interviews, novelists, journalists, a poet and a playwright reflect on the role of Vietnam in their works. Journalist Michael Herr says he ``privately'' thinks of his book Dispatches as a novel, while C.D.B. Bryan stresses that the details of his book Friendly Fire are too fantastic for fiction. Films about Vietnam, according to novelist Robert Stone ( Dog Soldiers ), miss ``the blurry space between events.'' Novelist Tim O'Brien ( Going After Cacciato ) disparages much contemporary literature on Vietnam as frivolous, and notes that his concerns are courage and justice, ``dramatizing the impact of moral philosophy on human life.'' Schroeder, a lecturer in writing at the University of California-Davis, is a probing questioner, and his book has the quality of a rich dinner-table discussion. He also interviews John Sack, Norman Mailer, Bobbie Ann Mason, Bruce Weigl, Wallace Terry, Larry Heinemann and David Rabe. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)