|
|
|
|
|
|
HomeShop at BookSurgeBiography & AutobiographyMilitaryMeeting the Enemy: A Marine Returns Home |
|
|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 7 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Meeting the Enemy Jul 30, 2009
By Kenneth J. Herrmann Jr.
There are few books about the madness of the Vietnam/American War that speak the truth in a clear, powerful, moving, and insightful manner as does Jones's book. This creative and soul-searching book takes the reader through the personal horror of war and the rebirth of the author in an important contribution to the history of the era and the effects today on those who survived the insanity. The narrative is haunting. The structure of the book is such that a reader finds him/herself engaging the struggle of the author. Jones is to be thanked for this gift to the reader, those who fought the war, and those who attempt to resolve the war's effects.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A Marine finds home in Vietnam Mar 30, 2010
By Gerard Sasges
Suel D. Jones was born twice: once in a maternity ward in Texas, and once in the jungles of Vietnam. Meeting the Enemy is the story of that second birth, and the long and difficult process of making peace with the man that emerged from the experience.
The story is organized loosely around a series of conversations between "Old Man" Jones and "Zip" Zimmerman, two Marines who served together in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969, and who were re-united when Zimmerman agreed meet Jones in Vietnam there in 2001. Through interlocking flashes forward and backward in time, the author explores a variety of themes: his upbringing in Texas, life as a "grunt" in Third Marine, 24 years of silence, alienation, and anger in the U.S., his decision to "go home" to Vietnam in 1998, and his engagement with the rapidly modernizing country and the people who had once been "the Enemy."
For me, one of the most affective passages in the book is the story of Jones' long dreamed-of week of R&R in Australia: the simultaneously strange and familiar civilian clothes he's required to rent, his yearning to be part of the "normal" life he saw around him, and the dawning realization that he can never be "normal" again are all powerful foreshadowings of the author's later experiences in America. But where the week-long furlough ends with a return to the patrols, ambushes, and death that had come to constitute Jones' new reality, there was no such easy solution to the profound alienation he would face after returning to America. That solution would have to wait another thirty years.
This is a deeply personal and powerful book: it's clear that it was a story the author very much needed to tell, as much for himself as for any potential reader. Readers should understand that Jones makes no effort to hide his views about the illegitimacy of American involvement in Vietnam or the ways in which he feels the U.S. government failed and continues to fail its people. At the same time, though, Jones is similarly forthright about his own earlier complicity in these processes, and his failure to turn his private opposition to the war after 1969 into public action. Thus Jones doesn't pretend to be a saint - and much less a politician - and it's exactly this honesty and simplicity that gives the book its power.
In a sense, Meeting the Enemy is a retelling of a very old story: Jones' loss of self in the jungles of Vietnam, his exile in the wilderness of the world he had once called home, and his eventual redemption in the crowded, noisy, labyrinthine streets of contemporary Vietnam. It is this combination of universal themes with Jones' raw experiences that makes his book - and its positive message of faith in the potential of ordinary people to overcome extraordinary hardship and suffering - very much worth the reader's attention.
 Meeting The Enemy: A Marine Returns Home Apr 07, 2011
By Robert A. Lantrip
Mr. Jones did a great job on sharing his experiences with the war and the Vietnamese. I also thought his ideas of how the war started, went and ended were also interesting. I do think though that he personally seeks the path of least resistance and the Communist were not and are not the good guys. I believe had Mr. Jones chose a differant path, he would still have the Vietnamese as his friends yet not make Vietnam his home.
We are Americans and the US is our home.
Also, my experience was differant than his in the way that I found God after my tour with the Marines in Vietnam instead of loosing Him.
I am happy that Suel wrote the book and shared his personal thoughts. It is a must read for Veterans. I am indebted to Suel also because it does reveal the many lies we were told and are still being told by our Government Politicians, and hey, we are supposed to be the "good guys".
Blessing upon all who read this review.
Bob Lantrip
USMC Hasbeen Vietnam 1969 (not a lifer)
moved and inspired May 21, 2010
By Maggie M. Bedord
I was moved and inspired by Jones accounts of the Vietnam war and his journey of self-discovery.
This book helped me to understand the reasons soldiers go to war and the dilemma they face staying in combat after realizing the deception and the senselessness of it all.
Discovering ones personal truth is a journey filled with success and failure. It was inspiring to read Jones struggle to find his truth. I found the attitude of the Vietnamese towards the American soldiers was surprising and hopeful.
meeting the enemy: a marine returns home Dec 29, 2009
By masako sakata
Absorbing and compelling. The personal experience of Suel touches somewhere deep in my heart. It only comes from the author experiencing the extreme distress of war, its after effects and having come around to meeting the "enemy", then coming into terms with life itself. 35 years of Suel's life after Vietnam War stand as witness to why we should never have war; because it "goes on and on", as the author says.
See all 7 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
