Book Review: In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War (Vietnam)

In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War, by Tobias Wolff (Vintage, 240pp, 1995, $12) Review by Skye Anderson

No, not a book about a pharaoh in Egypt. This reviewer always needs to figure out why a book was titled as it was. . . . and remains at a loss here, as well as about 'the lost war' (except that we lost the war in Vietnam rather than winning it?).

The emotions Pharaoh's Army brings up are numerous and unsettling - author Tobias Wolff does an excellent job of describing Basic Training at Ft. Jackson, SC, and describes travel and waiting in the Army, particularly on the way to a war overseas ("Hurry up and wait"). Wolff is perhaps this generation's Jack Kerouac or Holden Caulfield (he speaks in raw language to some 'revolutionaries' but not to all, to some grown-up hippies and conscientious objectors but not all).

My Vietnamese language came back and most of the tones, more of the vocabulary, thanks to this highly-respected memoirist.

Thirteen Chapters

At first, thinking they were 13 short stories, I soon found out differently: the first two chapters are highly unique in their juxtaposition and explanation. But, why thirteen?

Fiction or Non-fiction?

But is this a book of fiction or non-fiction? A memoir is a little of both. And there are not yet enough books out about Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan and, I wonder, are more of them written by officers or enlisted personnel? Begun over there or not until the soldier comes back and has time on his hands?

Can anyone write a book about their experiences in the military or in a combat zone? Perhaps, since each person's experiences are unique yet they all share so much in common just by being in the military plus since the military transfers its people so often, they can run into each other a few times in just one career. Many experiences are shared, just not at the same time.

So, yes, you can write about your time in the military even if it wasn't heroic, simply by embellishing a few experiences as author Tobias Wolff did. It helps to meet your buddies as civilians and shoot the breeze, however.

Unsettling

Wolff is the brilliant kid who doesn't know where he is going so he lands in a relationship that is caustic. He also lucks out in Vietnam and befriends a meal. And, my, how wars change. There was so much more freedom in Vietnam than in Iraq or Afghanistan if you consider what one individual can do or where one can go - alone. And what he can drink.

And, yes, there was a dog in it.