All Quiet in the Western Front is already on my list. What other books examine the horrors of war? I’m more interested in this aspect than action-movie-style tales of heroism. Bonus points if it involves Vietnam, but I’m interested in anything
by Nephilimn
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Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
its focused on the submarine experience, but Das Boot is the most horrifying book i’ve ever read.
Survival in the Killing Fields by Having Ngor was a tough read.
Officer Factory by Hans Hellmut Kirst
Graphic novels by Jacques Tardi: It Was the War of the Trenches and Goddamn this War!
Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves.
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Charley’s War – a graphic novel series for WW1.
* Vietnam…you might be better with the autobiographies:
* A rumor of war – Caputo. He also has a good fictional book, Delcorso’s gallery, about a war photographer
* Once a warrior king – Donovan
* Chickenhawk – Mason.
* A higher level book worth reading is A bright shining lie – Sheehan.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Lord of the Rings.
You wouldn’t think so initially because it’s a “comedy” but **Catch-22** really does a wonderful job of showing just how nonsensical and horrific war is.
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families. This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide and this is an important work about Civil War and ethnic cleansing.
Dispatches by Michael Herr. Non fiction about the Vietnam war. Truth really is scarier than fiction in this case.
*Rumors of War*, Philip Caputo and Tim O’Brien’s *The Things They Carried* have both already been mentioned, but permit me to +1 them.
William Craig’s *Enemy at the Gates* suffers from, uh, historical accuracy issues, in that the Zaitsev plotline never fucking happened, but the recollections of Dr. Ottmar Kohler are much better attested.
Catch-22
In Memoriam by Alice Winn is my new favorite thing. Does an excellent job portraying the meat grinder that was World War 1.
Dispatches, by Michael Herr.
The Sorrow of War, by Bao Ninh.
and yeah, Tim O’Brien…..
Not about a war, per se, but Human Acts by Han Kang, which deals with the Gwangju Uprising in Korea, would probably interest you.
A Bird Without Wings by Louis de Bearniers is about WWI Turkey; not only historically accurate but brilliant storytelling.
The Religion from Tim Willocks is a bloody bastard of a read about the Turkish siege on Malta
Sebastian Faulks’ *Birdsong.*. You have to be a little patient with this book. Part one, which is about 100 pages, is the MC’s ill-fated romance, which leads him to enlist in WWI. As soon as you get past that part, it’s a brutal and heartbreaking account of that war and the men (boys) that fought it. There were times I had to put it down for a bit and take a break. It’s a beautifully written book though.
Anything by John Mosier. He walked the graveyards and counted the markers, he read the reports in their original languages, he walked the landscapes. Excellent writer.
Marge Piercy, Gone to Soldiers
Rilla of Ingleside, LM Montgomery
Remains of the Day
Gone with the Wind
Anne Frank’s Diary
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
War and Peace by Tolstoy
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway
Slaughter House Five-Kurt Vonnegut
City of Thieves by David Benioff