Product Description

Lynda Van Devanter--author of the backlist classic Home Before Morning, which inspired the TV show "China Beach"--edited this powerful collection of poems reminiscent of Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. All author proceeds from the book will go to the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project. 6 photographs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #354839 in Books
• Published on: 1991-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 214 pages

From Library Journal
Whether in war or peace, women's concerns are universal: Lily Lee Adams states that "Being a vet/ Is like/ Losing a baby"; Dana Shuster ironically asks, "What do you pack/ to take to a war?" These are the nurses and entertainers, women America did not want to accept as veterans, many of whom kept their war memories secret until now. Few have received any recognition as writers, yet two poems included by Grace Paley seem weak by comparison with works by Sharon Grant, Marilyn McMahon, or the poets quoted above. Most poems here were written in the 1980s yet speak in the present tense--long enough after the fact, perhaps, that pain and memory can be transformed into art. Surprisingly, the weakest poems are those inspired by the Vietnam Memorial. Long overdue, yet aptly coinciding with news stories of women who served in the Persian Gulf, this is essential for all libraries. Coeditor Van DeVanter is also coauthor of Home Before Morning ( LJ 3/1/83), inspiration for the TV series China Beach .
- Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Walking in a woman's combat boots
Ten of the poems in this book were wrenched from my innermost feelings... All of the poems are a true experience of the women who were and are touched by entering the man's world of war. I didn't carry weapons, didn't walk the bush, but I saw the carnage and felt the then seeming helplessness of the wounded bought in by dust-off. Intolerant of being helpless, I lived my tour in numbness and left Vietnam as only a shell. Who wouldn't in those conditions? To see and feel the real experience of war - read and know what it's like to walk in this woman's combat boots. N. Griffiths

Heart-breaking, heart-warming, heart-informing
I first read this book in the mid-1990's. Recently I picked it up again. The insanity of war is just that, regardless of whether it happened when I was in my twenties or now in my sixties. As a non-participant in the immediacy of war, I can still feel my heart wrench as I read these poems. I cannot even begin to imagine the agony of working day to day in a combat hospital. If I had a son at war now, I would hope that women such as these would be there for him.

I admire Van DeVanter and Furey's courage in presenting such a wide range of poetic expressions. Some are, admittedly, the work of rank amateurs, but many carry the power of the true poetic voice. They included a few poems by Vietnamese women, with no indication of which "side" they were on. Loss of a loved one in war is, after all, a tragedy. Period.

VISIONS OF WAR, DREAMS OF PEACE is a monument, as lasting as the Wall itself. If someone you know is in Iraq, or has returned from Irag, or will never return from Iraq, here is an outcry against war, an eternal wish for peace. I wish you well.

phenomenal
I have returned from Iraq this year and found this book an incredible read. The stories, poems and letters written by nursses in the Vietnam War are the same stories that can be retold by the nurses from this Iraq War. We all share that same bond. I have given this book to many friends who have served in Iraq or who have recently returned. This is a book written from the hearts of those that have served our wounded heroes!