Audible sampleNothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War
Audible Audiobook – UnabridgedViet Thanh Nguyen (Author), P. J. Ochlan (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher)
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Nothing Ever Dies, Viet Thanh Nguyen writes. All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. From the author of the best-selling novel The Sympathizer comes a searching exploration of a conflict that lives on in the collective memory of both the Americans and the Vietnamese.
©2016 Viet Thanh Nguyen (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Listening Length
11 hours and 57 minutes
Author
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Narrator
P. J. Ochlan
Audible release date
20 September 2016
Language
English
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4.3 out of 5
240 global ratings
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Dwight Braxton
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb account of Vietnam before the US warReviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 September 2022
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I had read Logevall's superb biography (Part 1) of JFK, and was highly impressed by his literary style and the depth of his research. "Embers of War", which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013, is another brilliantly-written and very powerful account, dealing with the brutal mismanagement by France of Indochina in the late 1800s and the first half of the 20th Century, leading up to the point where the US became involved in large measure after the French capitulated at the disastrous battle of Dien Bien Phu. Logevall presents this account as reflecting the American paranoia at the time about countries falling like dominos to Communist influence, and almost accidentally ending up propping up colonial power in Vietnam. Interestingly, Ho Chi Minh is presented in a somewhat sympathetic manner, and it is the French who come across as callous, indifferent and utterly incompetent in their approach to dealing with the Vietnamese. A superb book, thoroughly recommended.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic journey through ethics of memory, storytelling, and warReviewed in the United States on 11 April 2022
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A resource for art, for philosophical perspectives on the importance of art, how to think about ourselves, others, and the future of our relationships with each other.
I find it extremely difficult to explain the feelings that this book stirred in me. I haven’t read anything else by the author, though I’m sure I will.
The closest I can come to explaining how this book made me feel is that it feels more impactful on me now than my first encounter with Vonnegut when I was 17.
I really. Really love the idea of a citizen of the imagination, rather than a cosmopolitan citizen of a global state.
Unreasonable yet necessary Hope in the face of inhumanity and an industry of dehumanization for profit. I don’t know what I can say about this book beyond the feelings it stirred in me. I hope more people read this book. Or at least that the ideas from and around this book can inspire more people to imagine others as we do ourselves.
Thank you.
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3 people found this helpfulReport
ElizabethM
5.0 out of 5 stars An Engaging and Empowering Read.Reviewed in the United States on 28 September 2016
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Nothing Ever Dies, Vietnam and the Memory of War offers many riches. With great erudition and impeccable scholarship, Viet Thanh Nguyen shows us how the traumatic repercussions of war defy simplification, and how facile it is to misremember the dead. Focusing on the American war in Vietnam, and referencing other conflicts (Korea, Cambodia, the Philippines), the author challenges us to extend our understanding and compassion to participants and victims on both sides of the battlefield. By remembering others, we expand and enrich our own stance.
Growing up in post-war Europe, I absorbed a good dose of aversion to the Germans and the Russians. Years later, while Europe was uniting and setting out to reconcile old enemies, I was relieved not to have to blame and point the finger any longer. After moving to Canada, I succumbed to the American version of the war in Vietnam by watching the movies (Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, etc.) and reading the literary war accounts (Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Michael Herr’s Dispatches, and others). I admired their artistry but seldom questioned the American one-sidedness.
Reading Nothing Ever Dies, meant revisiting the shameful conflict within an expanded Vietnamese-American context to great personal enrichment. Particularly superb are the chapters showing how the “industries of memory” (books, TV, movies) constrain our ethical vision by practicing political partisanship and exclusion. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s analytical depth and boundless intellect are here on full display. A biography of 22 pages of “Works Cited” attests to his curiosity and rigour. The book is compelling not least because the author weaves the painful, valiant, and ultimately fortunate trajectory of his family (from a hardscrabble village in northern Vietnam, via refugee camps, to prosperous California) into the broader framework of his inquiry.
Nothing Ever Dies challenges us to cultivate a more compassionate sensibility and to recognize that each one of us is capable of being human and also inhuman. An engaging and empowering read.
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72 people found this helpfulReport
Tom M
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking Well Beyond This Country and This WarReviewed in the United States on 16 March 2019
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I enjoyed this book at two levels. Having traveled in and out of Vietnam regularly over the past 30 years, I enjoyed finding validation of many of my own thoughts on Vietnam (the country not the war) and at the same time, I enjoyed the opportunity to better grasp the universal nature of wars and the systematic post-war re engineering of history to fit a desired perception of those wars.
This book, in a lot of ways, is the non fiction version of the message(s) this author embedded in his novel, the Sympathizer, and, serves as a study guide (in a good way) of the Sympathizer. Reading the book reminded me of the learning experience one has in school when studying a classic novel. That said, if you are planning to read both this book and the Sympathizer, read the Sympathizer first so as not to spoil the mental exercise of finding your way to the message of the novel.
All in, the authors views are well grounded, his messages resonate and, although the focus in on Vietnam, the conclusions have a universal application. This is a well thought out and well written book well worth the read whether or not you have any interest in Vietnam.
6 people found this helpfulReport
Patrick Mc Coy
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Analysis of War and MemoryReviewed in the United States on 11 April 2019
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Not long ago I read Viet Thanh Nguyen's prize winning debut novel The Sympathizers and enjoyed it. So I decided to read his non-fiction Vietnam book, Nothing Ever Dies (2016), while in Vietnam recently. It is along and detailed mediation on the Vietnam War and how it is situated in people's memory. The book is organized in several sections: Ethics, Industries, and Aesthetics. There is a remarkable list of references throughout the book-some which would have thought to be tangentially related to Vietnam, but that coupled with memory broadens the scope of the book to make it very inclusive. Some references used by Nguyen include the obvious-references to famous movie like Apocalypse Now! and Causalities of War and famous books on the war such as Bao Ninh's The Sorrows of War and Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Some of the more less relevant references included James Baldwin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Milan Kundera, Toni Morrison, Elaine Scarry, Flannery O'Connor, Art Spiegelman and many, many more. It is very much a though-provoking look at the Vietnam War and how it is remembered.
13 people found this helpfulReport
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