An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us - shulhost.com Info and Reviews
An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us
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An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us
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Editorial Review:
Joe Carroll was an Air Force lieutenant general who chose Vietnamese targets for American bombs. Joe's son James began adulthood by fulfilling his father's abandoned dream of joining the priesthood. But soon a father's hopes for his son--and a son's peace with his father--were ruined, yet another casualty of a war that tore apart so many families along generational lines.If the Civil War pitted brother against brother, the Vietnam War is best understood as pitting father against son. Some of Vietnam's longest lasting battles were fought in heavy rages and even heavier silences across the dinner table. James Carroll is a veteran of many such skirmishes. A novelist now, this book is his story of what it was like to be an anti-war priest in the '60s while his father was an Air Force general deeply involved in Pentagon planning. What makes the book particularly moving is that Carroll comes to realize that his father is no mono-dimensional saber-rattler (indeed, he suspects that his father's military career came to its sudden end because of the stances he took inside the corridors of power against expanding and intensifying the war). But the terrible truth was that neither the father nor the son ever managed to transcend the boundaries of their particular roles to meet each other in a candid, reciprocal relationship. And Carroll is honest--he tells us this, painfully. A very fine book, which along the way reports interestingly on some nearly forgotten '60s episodes.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
An American Requiem:
The life of author James Carroll is no doubt an interesting one. The experiences and accomplishments he writes about pertaining to himself and to his father are important and historic. However, I felt that many times in this memoir the stories become so factual that Carroll does not seem to be emotionally involved with his own life story. While discussing the births of himself and his brothers, Carroll reveals that he was deprived of oxygen during birth. After explaining this he write that he "never... more info
I made a mistake in trying to cancel my order for this wonderful book.:
I forgot that I had ordered it on August 30 and tried to cancel, but you shipped it so quickly that it couldn't be canceled. Thank Heaven! It is truly a wonderful book (topical and timely and all of that). I am way over the age of 13. "An American Requiem" review:
James Carroll's memoir, An American Requiem, displays many examples of scenes and narrative structures that are simply ineffective. As I was reading the book, I often felt as though I was skimming through a history textbook. Instead of focusing solely on his lifelong memories, Carroll often would jump into a long, detailed history lesson in which he would drop names in order to try and appear knowledgeable. While one can see why these can be necessary in some areas, it seems as though Carroll doesn't focus... more info Remembering Conflict:
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