Steinbeck was a war correspondent from Pearl Harbor
to Vietnam. He risked his life to be where the action was.
This was an enlightening book, with a thought provoking
format; a collection of Steinbeck's essays for Newsday,
a Harry F. Guggenheim publication, a series of columns
written in letter form. The title was, "Letters to Alicia."
(Guggenheim's deceased wife)
The engaging format of personal letters make the stories
personal and real.
John Steinbeck's career was in its twilight years. He was 64.
He would leave this world two years later. This was a testimony
to how much he cared about his fellow human beings and how
much he believed a peaceful co-existence was possible
Because of his writing themes the US government would
not let him serve in the military. From their perspective,
he was considered "subversive." Truly, if you read the
body of his work, you will see that he supported human rights
and freedom.
In this series of articles you may get the feeling that he
supports the military. In some respects, he did, but not
because he believed in war, but that he loved America.
Both of John Steinbeck's sons served in Vietnam; John Jr.
and Thom.
This book gave me a whole other view of the Vietnam war,
which I thought I knew a lot about having been married to
a Vietnam vet for a decade. For anyone who has been there
or had a loved one there, this book sheds some additional
light. I highly recommend it. It is, indeed, a valuable piece
of our history.
raintreepoet, reporting.
No comments:
Post a Comment