A Mortal

A MORTAL S.I.W.

Correspondent Michael Herr was Esquire’s man in Vietnam. He is talented, brave, intelligent. When he gets going he produces a tough, breezy prose that lights up narrative landscapes like a noonday sun. But he is also big on the dreary “American shame” number. “The Command … a blue-eyed, herofaced general, geriatrics-emergency ambassador. … It seemed the least of the war’s contradictions that to lose your . . . American shame you have to leave the Dial Soapers in Saigon . . . who spoke good-works and killed nobody themselves, and go out to the grungy men in the jungle who talked bloody murder and killed people all the time.”

JA

About the Author

Joseph A. Rehyansky

A MORTAL S.I.W.

Correspondent Michael Herr was Esquire’s man in Vietnam. He is talented, brave, intelligent. When he gets going he produces a tough, breezy prose that lights up narrative landscapes like a noonday sun. But he is also big on the dreary “American shame” number. “The Command … a blue-eyed, herofaced general, geriatrics-emergency ambassador. … It seemed the least of the war’s contradictions that to lose your . . . American shame you have to leave the Dial Soapers in Saigon . . . who spoke good-works and killed nobody themselves, and go out to the grungy men in the jungle who talked bloody murder and killed people all the time.”