Volume 23, Number 21 & 22 · January 20, 1977
Imprisoned in the Sixties
By Garry Wills
Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine
by Tom Wolfe
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 243 pp., $8.95
Winners and Losers: Battles, Retreats, Gains, Losses and Ruins from a Long War
by Gloria Emerson
Random House, 406 pp., $10.95
The Vietnam war returns in these books, not to haunt us but to amuse. Everyone who touches that war gets tarbabyized by it. Gloria Emerson manages to trivialize by her very concern. She feels it her duty to be outraged that a perfume is now called Charlie—once the Americans' nickname for the Viet Cong. Wolfe celebrates America's flyers over Vietnam in a long piece on 'Jousting with Sam and Charlie.' The 'Sam' of that title, a snaky missile seeking out the airplanes' animal heat, makes dramatic appearances in Wolfe's prose. But 'Charlie' never does show up. These books are unconsciously aimed at each other; and both miss the target. They remind me of a 'Doonesbury' strip from the war days. Phred the Terrorist is screaming up at the bomber pilots, calling them vicious monsters. Mean-while, in the clouds, Americans rehash the latest Knicks game.
Review, 2519 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |