Book-Novel Without a Name

This is a grim book, a book about war and the effect constant fighting has on one person, a fighter in the North Vietnamese army. Novel Without a Name by Duong Thu Houng is a book about Quan's disillusionment, not only with the political institutions and propagandas perpetuated by them, but with everyone around him...maybe even in himself.

While Americans are the enemy in the book, it is universal. How young men fight the wars that old men start, and how wily politicians make money off the misery of others. Quan initially is a big supporter of the war, he gladly and proudly joins up. After 10 years of fighting, and losing so many friends, he is seeing the hollowness of the propaganda phrases, he sees the negative change that has been come to his friends and him, the hardness and the meanness, and he longs for the days of simplicity.

This book is grim, and very introspective. It is not about glory and honor, but about dirt and blood and starvation. It is about a journey of one fighter, a journey both physical and psychological. It is about being alone and the realization that with all the killing Quan has done and the dying he has seen, life has become worse for him, and his country. Slogans be damned, they do not reflect the truth.

It is a very good book. The writing is terse at times, and not given to sympathy. It describes, and lets us know Quan's thoughts, but does not imbue them with nobility or great visions of clarity. Quan stumbles to his insight, slowly and painfully, with death his constant companion. It is a book about war, that I think has the ring, or the stink, of truth about it. The author herself was a soldier in the war, and herself became disillusioned with her leaders. I think the authenticity shows.