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The Alphabet of Vietnam Jonathan Chamberlain Books

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The Alphabet of Vietnam Jonathan Chamberlain Books

This book really got to me. I am a veteran, I fought in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971 with the Australian Army and in Cambodia in 1972 with FANK against the NVA and the KR. Chamberlian has touched on something here that very few people have the slightest idea about. The darkness in us all that the combat experience can somehow turn into something that can consume us. It can turn us into something less than human, it's a kind of rage and its call is siren to say the least. The mix of fear, power, adrenaline, hatred and despair is a volatile one and once a person is in its clutches it can be very difficult indeed to get out. I know, because although I did ultimately manage to claw my way out, it really did nearly have me, it nearly took me for good or worse and I did much under its influence that I relive sometimes, those incidents seem surreal as though I read about them once or saw them on tv, but no it was me or at least the person I once was.

I could truly identify with Joe and Wash, I was often repulsed by them but there was much in them that is in me and it has seen the light of day-and that is truly frightening. I guess more of Joe than Wash but believe me I have known plenty who just like Wash went down that road, seeking the combat context which allowed them to dance with that particular devil. I was truly on the way to being one of them.

This is not an easy book to read but it is an extraordinary piece of work.


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The Alphabet of Vietnam Jonathan Chamberlain Books Reviews

The Alphabet of Vietnam Jonathan Chamberlain

This is not an A, B, C of a concept, a war, or a time of American history. This is a hard as nails, jagged as broken mirror of the evil we avoid, live with, and sometimes willingingly/unwillingly participate. Presented in several voices, I occasionally faltered as to whose time and experience I was reading, but I could not stop reading. No matter how insanely harsh or sublimely sweet, I had to know where we would all wind up. Jack has inherited his brother Joe's personal box of war rantings, letters and self loathing and is compelled to upset every principle he has ever previously understood as good and true to seek an ultimate understanding that can never be obtained but will jumpstart his stalled out life.
I could not put down this book! The author uses a good combination of long and short sentences, creating a staccato-legato rhythm. The story is riveting. Anyone who is interested in Vietnam, American veterans of the Vietnam war, and good old fashioned fiction will find this novel very appealing. The author, Jonathan Chamberlain, is an astute observer and highly crafted literary artist. Very exciting book! While critics have compared Mr. Jonathan Chamberlain to Graham Greene, I would add my own comparison of "The Alphabet of Vietnam" to that of "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. Definitely up there with the best! Well done, Mr. Chamberlain! Add this to your upcoming summer, fall, or winter reading!
Vietnamese poetry, and the interesting literary techniques utilizing there of.

Repetitive. Disturbing. Unnecessarily disturbing? Hard to follow. Jarring.

Get it, get that the Vietnam War was a nightmare that reverberates. An American in Vietnam cannot ignore that. Some powerful writing on the subject.

But somehow misses the mark at times, to be honest. The modern plot, the journals with their constant and extreme violence. What does it all mean, what does it all add? Again and again.

Worth a read. Worth giving some thought.

If haunting is the overall point, suppose it works...
Having read two of Jonathan Chamberlain's memoirs - 'King Hui' about a Hong Kong playboy and 'Wordjazz for Stevie', a touching tribute to Jonathan's late daughter who was born profoundly handicapped - I was really looking forward to reading 'The Alphabet of Vietnam' and seeing how Jonathan turns his hand to fiction. I was more than impressed. It is an exceptional piece of writing, well researched, one that explores the light and dark in every 'man's' soul in a refreshingly unapologetic manner.

The story unfolds through a series of skillfully interwoven narratives Two psychotic - or perhaps completely sane - Vietnam veterans who bring their sick war games home with them. A brother who comes to question all he believes in an attempt to do what is right. A return to modern-day Vietnam that explores US war crimes and the country's rich history and culture through a series of cleverly thought out vignettes.

'And then there is love - and love is complicated ...'

What a great book!

Chris Thrall is the author of 'Eating Smoke One Man's descent into Drug Psychosis in Hong Kong's Triad Heartland' - a true story.
This book really got to me. I am a veteran, I fought in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971 with the Australian Army and in Cambodia in 1972 with FANK against the NVA and the KR. Chamberlian has touched on something here that very few people have the slightest idea about. The darkness in us all that the combat experience can somehow turn into something that can consume us. It can turn us into something less than human, it's a kind of rage and its call is siren to say the least. The mix of fear, power, adrenaline, hatred and despair is a volatile one and once a person is in its clutches it can be very difficult indeed to get out. I know, because although I did ultimately manage to claw my way out, it really did nearly have me, it nearly took me for good or worse and I did much under its influence that I relive sometimes, those incidents seem surreal as though I read about them once or saw them on tv, but no it was me or at least the person I once was.

I could truly identify with Joe and Wash, I was often repulsed by them but there was much in them that is in me and it has seen the light of day-and that is truly frightening. I guess more of Joe than Wash but believe me I have known plenty who just like Wash went down that road, seeking the combat context which allowed them to dance with that particular devil. I was truly on the way to being one of them.

This is not an easy book to read but it is an extraordinary piece of work.