Pharaoh’s Army

I’ve been reading at Pharaoh’s Army for a couple of days. I don’t recommend it. Tobias Wolff, the author, is a recognized writer, has won awards. Wikipedia says Wolff has been a professor in Stanford’s school of humanities and science since 1997.

Wolff wrote that by the time he received orders for Vietnam, he had become disillusioned with the war and all. At that time, though, he had not really been in the Army. His time had consisted of: basic training, radio operator AIT, jump school, Special Forces school, artillery OCS, Defense Language Institute learning Vietnamese, and a short assignment to a Special Forces company at Fort Bragg. From there, he was assigned as an adviser to an ARVN artillery battalion in an ARVN infantry division in the Delta.

Pharaoh’s Army was published in 1994. The problem with the writing is, you can’t write what you thought and believed 29 years after the events. You can write about what happened, but perspectives cannot be recalled. And, there is similarity to Phillip Caputo’s A Rumor of War, in the sense of disappointment and disillusionment when war turns out to be not what was expected.