• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Michael Herr: Dispatches

Eugene W.

New Member
Hey guys, I've just finished reading this book and I can say it's a journalism masterpiece. Michael Herr really digs deep into the Vietnam war. While talking to a friend we had a little discussion over what is the thesis or main argument of this nonfiction. For those who have read it, it would be nice to hear your thoughts and ideas. Cheers :)
 
I thought it was a masterpiece, just like you. Several of the passages are still stuck in my head (I last read it two or three years ago) and I routinely recommend it to friends who are looking for place to start reading about Vietnam. It's a shame that afterword he chose a life of literary solitude. He worked on the screenplay for Full Metal Jacket and helped with the voiceovers in Apocalypse Now, but he never wrote another serious book. The world missed out there, but after all that you can't blame him.

As for the main idea, I'd have to say that it's probably war. Not combat, or killing, or warriors, or journalists, but war. Herr wrote a book that more than any other I've ever read managed to capture the ambiance of war. Where did you and your buddy come down?
 
I haven't read it, making assumptions bad :) but when inviting conversation about a book it helps if people know what you thought of it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JGL
Back
Top