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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 959.70438
EAN num: 9780679735250
ISBN number: 0679735259
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: August 06, 1991
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: August 06, 1991
Sale Popularity Level: 13074
Studio: Vintage
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
'He seems to have brought to this book the ear of a musician and the eye of a painter . . . the premier war correspondence of Vietnam.'--Washington Post. 'The best book I have ever read on men and war in our time.'--John le Carre.' . . . Dispatches puts the rest of us in the shade.'--Hunter S. Thompson.
Amazon.com Review:
Michael Herr, who wrote about the Vietnam War for Esquire magazine, gathered his years of notes from his front-line reporting and turned them into what many people consider the best account of the war to date, when published in 1977. He captured the feel of the war and how it differed from any theater of combat ever fought, as well as the flavor of the time and the essence of the people who were there. Since Dispatches was published, other excellent books have appeared on the war--may we suggest The Things They Carried, The Sorrow of War, We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young--but Herr's book was the very first to hit the target head-on and remains a classic.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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watched the movie and you read the book. literally all that would be great lines in this book were used in the movie. Other than that it wasn't that captivating. I find it way overhyped.
Rated by buyers 
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Fortunately I did not buy this book, it was given to me. Unfortunately I felt obliged to read it, and found it worth less than I had paid for it. I was so amazed by the how bad it was I read the whole thing, to see if it could maintain its low level of literary merit, I think it actually got worse. I would not normally bother to write a review on this book, but out of curiosity I looked at the reviews and thought ????. This is not James Joyce, or William Faulkner, this is Michael Herr, trying to get a little more fame and money out of his 18 months in Viet Nam. The only thing notable about this book is that he has managed in only 260 pages, to include every possible stereotype, caricature, and misconception there was, concerning the war and the solders. And then to read the reviews, Michael is not opening his heart to the reader he is trying very successfully to make some money. That he was in Viet Nam for so long a time and never talks of the people that live there shows how much he really cares. There are a lot of books about the Viet Nam War, many of them good, few of them as bad as this. To believe this is the way things were requires the reader to active want it to be so.
Rated by buyers 
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I've never been there, thank God, but this book got me closer to the madness of being there than comfortable. Outstanding read.
Rated by buyers -
The subject matter is definitely worth 270+ pages, but I agree with others who said that Herr talks endlessly but doesn't seem to get to the point.
The very first 80 pages are free associative. Chapters 3 and 4 are the meat of the book and the ones worth reading, and I recommend you read those and let that be the end of it. Towards the end he descends again into the free associative stuff. I have nothing against that style, but Herr is not a gifted-enough writer to pull it off. I think sometimes he thinks he's Joseph Heller. He isn't. And he isn't Joseph Conrad or Erich Remarque, either, though one gets the feeling he wants to be. Herr is at his best when he does the straight forward, journalistic writing.
Finally, do not mistake this book for non-fiction. Herr has admitted that he has taken liberties with the truth with this book, so consider it "inspired by actual events."
Rated by buyers -
It made it right to my top ten. It is smart and humble and I want to read it over and over.
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