Rumor of War
by Philip Caputo
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Book Summary Information
Author: Philip CaputoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-08-05
ISBN: 0712664459
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Random House
Book Reviews of Rumor of War
Book Review: Tasting the War Inside Your Mouth
Summary: 4 Stars
Caputo's first and most famous work "A Rumor of War" is a testimonial of his experiences as a 2nd lieutenant Marine serving in Vietnam in 1965.
On the surface, this book will remind you of so many other testimonials. War is hell, war is bad. Caputo's version of events are so descriptively described, you can taste the dirt of Vietnam in your mouth, feel the grime on your skin and see the fog of what was one of America's worst mistakes.
To get a good picture of what war is like and what it does to the human psyche, there is no better portrayal than what Caputo writes. You watch him turn from a gung-ho Marine being sent to protect a base from the VC, and maybe kill a few in the process, to a person so cynical, he orders his men to kill Vietnamese civilians and burn villages indiscriminately. The atrocities he and others committed were so great, you would expect him still serving a sentence in prison for his crimes. This is until you are reminded that this is a war, and that the hand of the US interests pushed him to insanity.
I thought this book was an incredible read for anyone who wants a discriptive, hands-on look on the effects of war. Captuo is not a hero in this book, and even more so, I can't help but think that he profits off the innocent he killed. It affects me so much, I don't feel that a perfect score on this novel does those who were characters any justice for their deaths. That is the underlying irony in a book about a "splendid little war" that was only considered an authorized use of force by an executive order.
This book plays so well into modern day politics and current events, there isn't any reason why "Rumor of War" should be tossed aside as irrelevant. So many similiarities in his tale sing to the tune of Americans serving in Iraq today. Anyone who is willing to delve into this novel will clearly see the picture, and taste the bitterness of it all.
Summary of Rumor of War
In March 1965, Marine Lieutnant Philip J. Caputo landed in Danang with the first ground combat unit committed to gith in Vietnam. Sixteen months later, having served on the line in one of modern history's ugliest wars, he returned home - physically whole, emotionally wasted, his youthful idealism shattered. A decade later, Caputo would write in A Rumor of War, 'This is simply a story about war, about the things men do in war and the things war does to them'. It is far more then that. It is, a Theodore Solotaroff wrote in the New York Times Book Review, 'the troubled conscience of America speaking passionately, truthfully, finally'. It is the book that shattered America's deliberate indifference to the fact of the men it sent to fight in the jungles of Vietnam, and in the years since it was first published it has become a basic text on that war. But in the literature of war that stretches back to Homer, it has also taken its place as an esteemed classic to rank alongside All Quiet on the Western Front and The Naked and the Dead.Historical Books
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