The Names of the Dead

This is not your typical Viet Nam read. As usual, Stewart O'Nan takes his incredible literary skills to a new dimension. He portrys the life of a young medic in his first mission in Viet Nam. His experiences are gripping as you track this vulnerable young kid on the plane there, and eventually living with the guys in his unit and out on their daily duties. Included in the recount of his experiences, is the hell he is going with as he struggles to adapt and make peace with himself. I passed this book on to several friends who were in Viet Nam. When one of them handed the book back to me, I asked them what they thought of it. I got a nod, a silence, and a choked up stammering response. It was so good, he couldn't even talk to me about it yet. We will talk about it some day, I hope. After a while, perhaps, when it doesn't seem so real to him. I knew to wait and be patient.

I picked up a copy of Speed Queen in Asia (because it was the only book in English that I could find), and was very glad that I had. This led me to read The Names of the Dead.O'Nan is especially good at establishing a sense of _place_. He has the ability to judge the tempo, the pulse, and convey that very cleverly, not through direct statement but often by sidelong observation. The book benefits greatly from this, establishing a sense of the (often mundane) key differences between life pre-Vietnam, in Vietnam, and post-Vietnam, highlighting the sheer intensity of the short central period of the main character's life.I did find the book flawed. The point of fascination was in watching a man fixated with love and hate, fixated on a point in time; a point in time that others could not necessarily see, and which he could not explain, least of all to himself. The main character's manner of addressing his fixation was the drama - the way that he excluded certain others from his experience, yet also wanted to share his experience. The suspense was in following him to discover whether he would resolve the issue, albeit in a flawed way, and if so, how. However, along the way O'Nan decides to introduce a plot line resembling that of a thriller, which might be interesting, but which seemed somewhat unnecessary, and possibly distracting.Overall though, the book is definitely worth reading to understand the nature of contrast,the relativity of episodes in life, and the difficulties in the communication of experience between individuals.Recommended.

Reading Stewart O'Nan's fiction writings is like being an invisible observer of common people experiencing and reflecting on lives that are anything but ordinary. The Names of the Dead is the story of Vietnam vet Larry Markham, a man who can't let go of the war that refuses to let go of him. O'Nan deftly intertwines horrifying war flashbacks, "A shallow gash sliced across his lifeline. He'd taken a piece of shrapnel or cut it on something. As he bandaged himself, he realized it must have been on the stub of Dumb Andy's femur." with the tedium of the routines of everyday life, "Downtown he emptied his trays one by one, kneeling to square the boxes, checking the expiration dates. Wonder White, Wonder Wheat." This touching novel deals with mental illness, the onset of Alzheimer's Disease, infidelity and more of life's major issues. Though lacking the resolve and insight found at the end of O'Nan's Snow Angels do not miss out on the beauty and horror (and suspense!) of The Names of the Dead.

Best book I have ever read about Vietnam (and I served there). Beautifully written, moving, accurate and compassionate. If you only read one book about Vietnam in your life, make it this one