Book Notes: The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh

This book is a very moving, profoundly disturbing and brilliantly written story.

Bao Ninh's story is billed as the first Vietnam War novel, published in the west, from the North Vietnamese perspective. However - this is to misrepresent the book as it leads the reader to anticipate that the authors purpose would be to castigate the decadent capitalist pig-dogs and their colonialist aggression and to honour the valiant workers of the North. This is not the case at all.

In fact the book is a solemn lament over the suffering caused by war. Although the main character (a thinly disguised autobiographical figure it seems) survives the conflict; his mind, his youth, his love and his family are all ripped apart.

The narrative repeatedly cuts between idyllic scenes of pre-war youth, post-war body recovery work, the horrors of conflict and the post-war turmoil in which the battered survivors struggle to piece together a meaningful existence in the conflict's wake.

This book is as appalling as it is beautiful, evocative as it is poignant. The obvious point about the awful futility and tragedy of war needs to be made repeatedly, imaginatively and powerfully today. Here it is.