As we approach the halfway point of the Mid Sussex Reading Challenge (can you believe we’re this far through already?), we’re loving looking back on the reading themes we’ve looked at so far this year.
In this latest review, Wendy from Haywards Heath read Black Virgin Mountain, a memoir that qualifies both for the March (a book set in another country) and the May (a non-fiction book) challenges. She rated this personal story of the Vietnam War by Larry Heinemann 5 out of 5.
Black Virgin Mountain is a personal memoir by the American novelist Larry Heinemann, winner of the National Book Award for his novel Paco’s Story, also about Vietnam. It focuses initially on the period during which he was drafted, trained and served a year of combat duty in Vietnam, flashing back and forth between that period and subsequent visits hosted by the Vietnam Writers Association.
Angry and grieved following the loss of two his brothers to the war, he was determined to try to get a better understanding of the conflict through learning about the underlying causes, political and historical, and the Vietnamese people themselves.
He writes in a curious combination of eloquent contemporary literary style and a sort of hip seventies language, laced with entertaining military scatology. His anecdotal accounts of military encounters, the pecking order between recruits and career soldiers, ‘lifers’ are fascinating and gut-wrenching at once. Post-battle clear-ups require a strong stomach, but the seriousness of his research into the Vietnamese people is moving and enlightening.
He travels with another soldier-writer to places where he took part in military action and places where he enjoyed ‘rest and recreation.’ Heinemann doesn’t pull his punches about the uses and abuses of drugs and alcohol, or prostitutes, nor does he make any pretence about being a ‘tough guy’ who could get through without these props.
The true extent of the destruction wreaked upon the country by chemical warfare was something I knew about, but reading his account was just as harrowing after all this time.
Heinemann wants his reader to understand how everything works from light weaponry to tank-mounted assault guns and heavy artillery – how they work and the damage which results from their use. This is not for everyone though I thought this book was excellent.
If you are really interested in the politics, history and mechanics of the war itself it is a rewarding read. What makes it even more so, is the way in which the author makes peace with his own experiences of it, past and present, without sentimentality, but by looking his former ‘enemy’ in the face and recognising their shared humanity. For that alone, it is a book I can heartily recommend, and he does all of it in only 243 pages!
We’d love to know what you’ve been reading recently! Let us know by sending in your own review, posting in our Facebook group or tweeting us @WSCCLibraries using the hashtag #MidSussexReadingChallenge. You might also be interested in joining our Virtual Reading Group on Facebook, where over 500 West Sussex readers are coming together in lockdown to talk about books and reading.
Find out how West Sussex Libraries can support you at home by visiting our current offer page, where there’s lots of information about how to access eBooks, plus resources for book lovers.
The views expressed in this review are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of West Sussex Libraries.
Mid Sussex Reading Challenge 2020 