- Hardcover: 864 pages
- Publisher: PublicAffairs,U.S. (30 Nov 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1891620312
- ISBN-13: 978-1891620317
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16 x 5.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 997,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in The Cat from Hue: A Vietnam War Story for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
An evocative, vividly detailed memoir of the madness and miracles of the Vietnam War by an award-winning reporter whose experiences in combat-and whose relationship with a Vietnamese cat named Meo-have haunted and inspired him for more than twenty-five years. John Laurence covered the Vietnam War for CBS News from 1965 to 1970 and was judged by his colleagues to be the best television reporter of the war. He lived with a squad of American soldiers in the jungles of War Zone C to produce an unforgettable documentary, The World of Charlie Company, which won every major award for broadcast journalism and also the George Polk memorial award for "best reporting in any medium requiring exceptional courage and enterprise abroad. " Despite the professional acclaim, the traumatic stories Laurence covered became a personal burden that he brought home and carried long after the war was over. The result is this passionate memoir about what he witnessed there, laced with humor, anger, love, and the unforgettable story of a very idiosyncratic cat who was determined to play his part in the Vietnam revolution. In reconstructing his experiences, Laurence relied not only on his notes and memory and formidable literary skill, but on dozens of hours of film footage shot at the time, giving the book an uncanny power and fidelity to facts. The Cat from Hue is full of bizarre stories of unknown soldiers and famous journalists and generals, of incredible humanity and tenderness and also corruption and cowardice, of the worlds of the American grunt and of the Vietnamese civilian, and of the price of survival and sanity. Along the way, it clarifies the history of that murky war and illuminates the role that journalists played in it. This book will stand with Michael Herr's Dispatches, Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War, and Ward Just's To What End as one of the best ever written about Vietnam.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
The whole war was in the room. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The whole war was in the room. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is difficult to underestimate the importance of John Laurence’s memoirs of the Vietnam War; a conflict of which Britain’s consciousness is almost entirely based on a series of films which depicted, in visceral and intense fashion, the madness which is uniquely encapsulated in Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Where these films fail, and where The Cat from Hue succeeds, is the ability to link the war in Vietnam with the problems that America faces with its foreign policy today. From a political point of view, we have still to discover whether the US has learnt the lessons of Vietnam, and this book is a timely reminder of both the scale of the operations that took place in South-East Asia, and the inevitable pitfalls that such actions can provoke. When I first bought The Cat from Hue, I was expecting a litany of skirmishes, ambushes, blood and rotor blades, and was slightly sceptical, therefore, at the length of the book. Laurence does not fail to provide these details, but it is the moments in between in which he is at his descriptive best: during a firefight in the jungle, a solar eclipse takes place which causes all action to cease - Laurence paints a picture of the stillness which is as powerful as his depiction of the war itself. His various forays in the field are neatly interspersed with a journalist’s viewpoint on the war: we, like Laurence, are drawn into a maelstrom as American policy loses its way. The addition of the eponymous cat, who, along with Laurence’s trips to ‘Frankie’s House’, provide a comic, yet touching slant to his life at the front line, which balances the author’s memoirs beautifully.
I loved The Cat From Hue – it provided a refreshing and beguilingly honest portrayal of Vietnam, which matched Bao Ninh’s novel, The Sorrow of War. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I loved The Cat From Hue – it provided a refreshing and beguilingly honest portrayal of Vietnam, which matched Bao Ninh’s novel, The Sorrow of War. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was the first book I ever read on the Vietnam conflict and it remains the best. John Laurence drags you into the immediacy of the conflict with a detailed account of his experiences during the battle for Hue. The contrast of the shellshocked soliders and the humour of the cat he adopts (hence the title) strains traditional narrative yet provides the reader with a real insight into the brutality and yet mundanity of war.
The book resumes with Laurence going back to his arrival in Vietnam as a naive young journalist working to establish television as the new medium for reporting. In detailed accounts he introduces his colleagues at "Frankies House" and firmly establishes the atmosphere of the mid 1960's-drink, drugs, fear and courage in the face of a never ending conflict. There is no happy ending for some of these colleagues and having got to know them we are made to feel their loss in a way rarely seen in historical works.
History books have a habit of being dry and overly factual but not so here. Laurence does not ignore history but uses it as a backdrop to the human war he took part in. This is a long book but this should not disuade readers, if anything I was left wanting to read more. The effect on the writer, the people he met, the places he went and saw, all are made human. It would have been impossible in one book to fully finish all the stories he began, yet the book left me feeling that I had been as close to the conflict as someone not born when it ended ever could be.
The book resumes with Laurence going back to his arrival in Vietnam as a naive young journalist working to establish television as the new medium for reporting. In detailed accounts he introduces his colleagues at "Frankies House" and firmly establishes the atmosphere of the mid 1960's-drink, drugs, fear and courage in the face of a never ending conflict. There is no happy ending for some of these colleagues and having got to know them we are made to feel their loss in a way rarely seen in historical works.
History books have a habit of being dry and overly factual but not so here. Laurence does not ignore history but uses it as a backdrop to the human war he took part in. This is a long book but this should not disuade readers, if anything I was left wanting to read more. The effect on the writer, the people he met, the places he went and saw, all are made human. It would have been impossible in one book to fully finish all the stories he began, yet the book left me feeling that I had been as close to the conflict as someone not born when it ended ever could be.
As a history of the conflict from a human viewpoint, I would recommend this book highly. It ranks with "A Bright Shining Lie" and the "the Best and the Brightest" as a book that tells the real story of Vietnam. Unlike those works however, this one makes you feel close to having been there.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Over the years I have read many books about Vietnam and the "American War" but this must rate as the best.
This amazing book has an intimacy and immediacy that is even more impressive given that it was some 30 years in the writing.
A thick documentry book that reads like a "page turning" novel.
Some of the descriptions of the American troops behaviour makes,to me,previously seemingly bizarre and unbelievable scences from such films as "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now " not so far fetched after all.
A great book and a great read.
A good companion read is Tim Page's "Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden"
This amazing book has an intimacy and immediacy that is even more impressive given that it was some 30 years in the writing.
A thick documentry book that reads like a "page turning" novel.
Some of the descriptions of the American troops behaviour makes,to me,previously seemingly bizarre and unbelievable scences from such films as "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now " not so far fetched after all.
A great book and a great read.
A good companion read is Tim Page's "Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden"
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A must read
If like me you like your Vietnam war history then this is a must read, equal if not better than Neil Sheehans 'A bright shining lie'
Unbiased with a different... Read more
Unbiased with a different... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Elwood
Engrossing start to finish.
I was amazed at the size of the book when it came having not really read the description properly. This rivals Herrs 'Dispatches' in the storytelling about the ever changing nature... Read more
Published 11 months ago by T.manny
Yawn
Too long - too elaborate. I really would have enjoyed it had it been a tenth of the size as I didn't find the story telling tight enough and it rambled far too much.
Published 12 months ago by Jeremy Hudson
Can a book by a war correspondent ever deserve 5-stars?...
To answer that question straightforwardly, yes. There is certainly more than a "soft bed" of difference of perspective between those who were in the war, eagerly awaiting their... Read more
Published 15 months ago by John P. Jones III
The best book written about Vietnam!
This book was amazing, an epic, over 900 pages each one a page turner. Very graphic, full of detail and sometimes very funny. Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2008 by Mr. M. J. Rivitt
Vietnam In Your Living Room
Remember John Laurence, the CBS reporter, who brought Vietnam into our living rooms? His vivid portrayal of the grunts and soldiers who lived and died for their country was seen... Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2004 by prisrob
the most accessable vietnam experiance by a noncombatant
I bought this book on the off chance of it being anygood. thnk god i did. over the years i have read quite a few biographies of soldiers, civilians and politicians covering the... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2004 by Mr. Pj Williams
Riveting Read
Having read many books on the Vietnam war, i came across the Cat from Hue and was intrigued by the title it being a Vietnam War book. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2003 by James Cooper
The masterpiece of the blood and guts of war.
A brilliant read from start to finish, I couldn't put the book down. From the start it just grips ahold of you and won't let you go, you have to carry on reading it to see want... Read more
Published on 25 May 2002 by sbrett799@aol.com
Much more than just a Vietnam war story....
The Cat from Hue is a fantastic book, it draws the reader into the author's journey through the Vietnam conflict so that the reader has a heightened awareness of the overall... Read more
Published on 6 May 2002
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Historical > 1901 Onwards
- Books > Biography > Historical > United States > Military
- Books > Biography > Historical > United States > Vietnam War
- Books > Biography > Political
- Books > Biography > War & Espionage > Vietnam War
- Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > South East Asia > Vietnam
- Books > History > North America > Vietnam War
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
