Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Vintage (1994), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 272 pages
Description
Bao Ninh, a former North Vietnamese soldier, provides a strikingly honest look at how the Vietnam War forever changed his life, his country, and the people who live there. Originally published against government wishes in Vietnam because of its nonheroic, nonideological tone, The Sorrow of War has won worldwide acclaim and become an international bestseller.
Media reviews
Excellent novel as soldier become writer tries to fulfill his obligations to his generation and write about their history while he mourns and tries to recreate the love he felt before the war. Wide in sweep, terrible in its sorrow of war....
“The ones who loved war were not the young men, but
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the others, like politician, middle aged men with fat bellies and short legs. Not the ordinary people. The recent years of war had brought enough suffering and pain to last them a thousand years.” Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member MeditationesMartini
Life is a battlefield. And what sticks with me most from Bao Ninh's amazing book, whose original Vietnamese title translates as "The Destiny of Love", it's the sheer power of life and love, that wonderful Asian committedness with which our young cadres bask in the long sun of youth and embrace
This is a story about the glory of youth and peace, the costs of victory, the breaking of a people, and the things that nobody can handle. The next time an American tries to present Vietnam as a story about the loss of America's innocence and the Vietnamese as gibbering, sneaky and cruel, I'm going to kick a bald eagle in the nards.
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life, magnificent, dedicated, ready to build something deep and real. And the power of total war, the kind that kills 4-6 million of your countrymen (sources vary, but 10% or more), to grind that into dust. They are young and strong and smart and brave! How can they die! But they do. They ALL do, and protagonist Kien is the only survivor of his unit. Phuong and Kien's love is potent, like a draught of chrysanthemum wine! How can it fail? But it does.This is a story about the glory of youth and peace, the costs of victory, the breaking of a people, and the things that nobody can handle. The next time an American tries to present Vietnam as a story about the loss of America's innocence and the Vietnamese as gibbering, sneaky and cruel, I'm going to kick a bald eagle in the nards.
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LibraryThing member Daoist_Giles
dreamlike foray into the memories of a north vietnamese soldier and his look back at the war with america. surreal at times, horrifying, wrenching. good stuff!
LibraryThing member TumbleweedAlley
Intense, raw, and uneven--yet a poignant story of the Vietnam War. Reminds readers of the universal sorrow of war. Not a light reading experience and best for those with some acquaintance with the war.
LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
During the Viet Nam War, Bao Ninh served in the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade of the North Vietnamese Army, and of the five hundred members who went to war in 1969, he is one of ten that survived. This author knows the pain of war, the hopelessness of war, The Sorrow of War. Yet, I found this a
As if through a veil we are given glimpses of a survivor’s guilt as we learn of the events that Kien lived through. At times very dark and bleak, but at others you get a glimpse of the black humor that helped these soldiers hold it together. And through it all runs the remoteness and distance that enables a person to go on when the terror and violence seem never ending.
The Sorrow of War was an uncomfortable read yet this book does a good job of pointing out that soldiers everywhere share these feelings regardless of politics, religion or race. As this short and powerful book ably points out no one survives a war intact.
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difficult book to become overly connected to. The writing is beautiful and the emotion runs deep, but is elusive. It’s non-linear style required my concentrated attention, but that also had a disconnecting effect. The basic story is about Kien who now that the war is over, is responsible for the retrieval and identification of the fallen but comes across more as a series of reflections or flashbacks about the horrors that he experienced during the war. As if through a veil we are given glimpses of a survivor’s guilt as we learn of the events that Kien lived through. At times very dark and bleak, but at others you get a glimpse of the black humor that helped these soldiers hold it together. And through it all runs the remoteness and distance that enables a person to go on when the terror and violence seem never ending.
The Sorrow of War was an uncomfortable read yet this book does a good job of pointing out that soldiers everywhere share these feelings regardless of politics, religion or race. As this short and powerful book ably points out no one survives a war intact.
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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
I read this in preparation of my own visit to Vietnam, and it did a lot to help me prepare for the kind of people I would meet: charming, intelligent, friendly, and with a healthy sense of the ironic. Yes, it's about the war, but also so much more than that.
LibraryThing member xuebi
In The Sorrow of War Bảo Ninh tells the brutal, often tragically poignant story of a North Vietnamese soldier during the Vietnam War. In modern media, one often sees the effect the Vietnam War had on American soldiers and indeed on the American psyche but rarely does one see the Vietnamese side,
This story is told in a series of flashbacks as the main character, Kien, tries to come to terms with the brutal decade-long war that has ravaged his home and his mind. Autobiographical in nature, as Bảo Ninh (like Kien) was one of ten survivors from his unit, and this portrays the psychological effects war has on its victims. At the same time, this is also a poignant love story as Kien and his sweetheart Phuong deal with their emotions surrounded by the ever-present spectre of war.
In short then, this is a powerful novel, akin to All Quiet on the Western Front not only for showing once more the horrors of war but also for giving a valuable perspective on the Vietnam War itself.
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and even rarer, the North Vietnamese side.This story is told in a series of flashbacks as the main character, Kien, tries to come to terms with the brutal decade-long war that has ravaged his home and his mind. Autobiographical in nature, as Bảo Ninh (like Kien) was one of ten survivors from his unit, and this portrays the psychological effects war has on its victims. At the same time, this is also a poignant love story as Kien and his sweetheart Phuong deal with their emotions surrounded by the ever-present spectre of war.
In short then, this is a powerful novel, akin to All Quiet on the Western Front not only for showing once more the horrors of war but also for giving a valuable perspective on the Vietnam War itself.
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LibraryThing member StevenJohnTait
This was a great look into the mind of a man whose life, and those of his friends and girlfriend had been stolen by war.
I'd have given it 5 stars if it finished on page 209 with the line: "...echoing somehow through the darkness."
I'd have given it 5 stars if it finished on page 209 with the line: "...echoing somehow through the darkness."
LibraryThing member starbox
The Vietnam War...the disillusion of a young couple in the brutality they encounter.
It's not a straightforward narrative...there are disjointed first person accounts of events experienced, then later accounts of their author- middle aged, a writer and a rather lost soul, still defined by the War,
I can't say it hugely grabbed me , though it's an important account of a hideous time.
It's not a straightforward narrative...there are disjointed first person accounts of events experienced, then later accounts of their author- middle aged, a writer and a rather lost soul, still defined by the War,
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working on his memoir...and finally Bao Ninh himself (one assumes), crafting a narrative from the random pages he's acquired...I can't say it hugely grabbed me , though it's an important account of a hideous time.
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Awards
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (Winner — 1994)
Around the world in 80 books (Vietnam)
World Library by The Guardian (Vietnam)
Language
Original language
Vietnamese
Original publication date
1991
Physical description
224 p.; 7.6 inches
ISBN
074939711X / 9780749397111