Nam

Derived of the author's Vietnam War experience the thirty-seven stories in this sometimes harrowing sometimes hilarious collection look back at the Vietnam War from a distance of forty or more years nearly a half-century and via the perspectives of not only the soldiers themselves but also their children spouses siblings parents friends. Nothing comparable to this collection exists within the literature growing out of the Vietnam War. NAM is hardly just another batch of macho war stories. These short fictions most of them memoir-based neither glorify nor even excuse war but come forward instead as eloquent testament to the tragic lunacy of it. . ---- Reviews ----. Rob McGowan's stories have the energy and grip of a pit bull. Like pit bulls they are muscular close to the ground and fearless. But the risks any reader takes in entering such tightly leashed tales will be copiously rewarded. --Brian Bedard editor of 'South Dakota Review' and author of the story collection 'Grieving on the Run.'. Reading these stories from NAM brings back the heart of the war for all to see and hear. I am a fan of McGowan's work because even when it's impossible to know from your own experience whether a story is factually accurate you know very well that the story is true really true. That's great writing. --Carol Brightman editor of 'Viet-Report' and author with the renowned artist Larry Rivers of 'Drawings and Directions' (American Book Award) and 'Writing Dangerously: Mary McCarthy and Her World' (National Book Critics Circle Award).. The tales in NAM: Things That Weren't True and Other Stories approach their troubling subject from all sides chipping away at the mysterious monolith that was the American war. In this collection Robert McGowan displays remarkable range and depth. --Stewart O'Nan editor of 'The Vietnam Reader.'. There is no dearth of literature about the war in Vietnam. But this collection is unique: what McGowan does here is to use time and distance from that benighted police action to assemble a chorus of former soldiers family friends lovers exes observers and participants myriad others whose lives were ended derailed or otherwise touched deeply by it. He tells--or more often lets them tell--their stories of then and now in a narrative imbued in turn with brutal frankness pathos irony and the blackest of humor. The author's sense of place is palpable; his eye for detail crazy-clear; his ear for dialogue both true and great fun. --Susan O'Neill an Army nurse in Vietnam (1969) co-editor of 'Vestal Review' and author of the Vietnam War story collection 'Don't Mean Nothing.'. McGowan's stories will burrow into the minds of his readers because of his writer's gift of being able to fully inhabit and give life to the wide variety of voices needed to present the myriad aspects of the American War in Southeast Asia . . . Some of these stories brought me to tears and others caused me to laugh aloud. Some of them are tours de force of language and others are informed by a magic I love but cannot quite put my finger on. . . . this dazzling harsh funny and truthful book. --'The Veteran' the journal of Vietnam Veterans of America