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Kusaimamekirai's Reviews > In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War
In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War
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As I exited my morning train with what I was reading still reverberating in my head, I realized that despite the obvious and foreboding downpour happening around me, I had forgotten my umbrella on the train. I reproached myself briefly for my carelessness and lack of awareness until I had an epiphany of sorts.
There are some books, the very best books, that take you out of the moment. They absorb you, suffocate you, and leave you feeling that if you read this to the end, you’re not going to be the same person as when you started.
That is “In Pharaoh’s Army” by Tobias Wolff.
These short essays about his time in Vietnam as a young man in his early 20’s are by turns amusing and harrowing, altruistic and spiteful, poignant and petty. More than simply war stories, they are stories about human connection and loneliness, love and the futility of war.
There is nothing I can write here that will do these stories the justice they deserve. Rather than try, I urge you to discover them yourself. It will be one of the most powerful things you’ve read this year.
There are some books, the very best books, that take you out of the moment. They absorb you, suffocate you, and leave you feeling that if you read this to the end, you’re not going to be the same person as when you started.
That is “In Pharaoh’s Army” by Tobias Wolff.
These short essays about his time in Vietnam as a young man in his early 20’s are by turns amusing and harrowing, altruistic and spiteful, poignant and petty. More than simply war stories, they are stories about human connection and loneliness, love and the futility of war.
There is nothing I can write here that will do these stories the justice they deserve. Rather than try, I urge you to discover them yourself. It will be one of the most powerful things you’ve read this year.
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Reading Progress
October 10, 2018
–
Started Reading
October 10, 2018
– Shelved
October 10, 2018
–
10.86%
"“I saw something that wasn’t allowed for in the national myth-our capacity for collective despair. People here seemed in the grip of unshakeable petulance. The slump of their shoulders and in the plodding way they moved. A sourness had settled over the base, spoiling and coarsening the men."
page
24
October 10, 2018
–
10.86%
"“The resolute imperial will was all played out here at empire’s fringe, lost in rancor and mud. Here were Pharoah’s chariots engulfed, his horsemen confused, all his magnificence dismayed.
A shithole.”"
page
24
A shithole.”"
October 10, 2018
–
17.65%
"“When people asked me about my father I sometimes told them he was dead. I’m saying this I did not feel altogether a liar. To be dishonored and at the end of your possibilities-was that life? He appalled me and frightened me, because I saw in myself the same tendencies that had brought him to grief.”"
page
39
October 10, 2018
–
31.67%
"“You are fucking with my shit Lieutenant. I will not have my shit fucked with”
I have to use this line sometime."
page
70
I have to use this line sometime."
October 12, 2018
–
Finished Reading
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Greta G
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Oct 13, 2018 05:44AM
Wonderful review, Kusai! How could I resist reading this book, after reading your review?
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Thanks Greta. I really want to write what I felt about it but couldn’t find the words. Better to let it speak for itself I thought
I, too, am prompted to read after your review. Did you ever try out the response to the Lieutenant?
