Viet Cong perspective

TalkBook Recommendations Requests

Join LibraryThing to post.

Viet Cong perspective

1Cecrow
Sep 19, 2023, 9:44 pm

Had an idle thought today: I don't suppose anyone's tried their hand at a novel featuring the Viet Cong perspective during the Vietnam War. I can imagine the Western market appetite might be lacking. Perhaps a Vietnamese author would tackle it, but again, English translators might balk at whether the effort is warranted.

But - does a Viet Cong perspective notably occur in any Vietnam-related novel that primarily features Americans?

2RosetheReader
Sep 22, 2023, 4:49 pm

I don't know how much they feature Americans, but I've heard A Vietcong Memoir and From Enemy to Friend are good. There's a decent amount of memoirs by ex-Vietcong soldiers nowadays if you know where to look for them, but those are the ones I've personally heard about. Grab Their Belts to Fight Them might not be exactly what you're looking for, but it's written by an American but includes Vietcong documents and perspectives. The Old Man's Trail is also an American novel that prominently features the Vietcong perspective.

3Cecrow
Sep 22, 2023, 5:54 pm

All good leads, thank you!

4susanbooks
Edited: Sep 23, 2023, 5:27 pm

Novel Without a Name by Duong Thu Huong is an excellent novel about a Viet Cong soldier. She claims not to have read Heart of Darkness before she wrote it. My students & I found that hard to believe, but we loved the book.