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Indlæser... Fortunate Son: The Autobiography Of Lewis B.Puller,Jr. (original 1991; udgave 1993)af Lewis Puller
Work InformationFortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet af Jr. Lewis B. Puller (1991)
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. An excellent autobiography that quite appropriately received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. In it, Lewis B Puller Jr. relates his very strenuous recovery and rehabilitation from horrific wounds suffered from a booby trap explosion in Vietnam. It is a well written, poignant documentary of one young man' s difficult but fulfilling life though wheelchair-bound. Three years after writing his biography, he committed suicide. 2577 Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller, Jr. (read 6 Feb 1994) (Pulitzer Biography prize for 1992) What a searing, worthwhile. poignant book! The author is the son of a famous Marine general, who became himself a Marine Lieutenant and went to Vietnam in 1968. He was horribly wounded--see pages 156-157--and he tells of his time in hospitals, his father's death, his campaign for Congress in 1978, his alcoholism, his recovery. The book eminently deserves the Pulitzer prize and is a major event in my reading. The book reduced me to tears many times and is surely unforgettable.
The son of "Chesty" Puller, the most decorated Marine the Corps' history, Lewis B. Puller, Jr. volunteered for the Marine Corps after graduating from college and went to Vietnam in the spring of 1968. A few months later, he returned home to his wife and soon-to-be-born child missing his left leg above the knee, his right leg at the torso, his left hand, and two fingers of his right hand. Lewis Puller would never walk again, though he would complete law school, serve on President Ford's clemency board, and run for Congress from Virginia. He would also live with nightmares about his wounding in Vietnam, with the daytime abyss of feeling "used up and discarded," and with a growing dependence on alcohol. But Lewis Puller's greatest challenge was to wrestle with the legacy thrust upon him and to attempt to come to terms with both its honor and its snares. "If I could summon the courage to forgive my government, to forgive those whose views and actions concerning the war differed from mine, and to forgive myself, I could perhaps move into the present, attain a degree of serenity, and find the reason for which I had been spared, first in Vietnam and then a second time, from an alcoholic death." Lewis Puller's is a story of the contradictory forces of tradition and reality, and the strains of deep feeling--personal, political, and professional--that have riven our country for so many years and that still play themselves out among thousands of veterans. Few have told their story more openly, more honestly, or more devastatingly. Er forkortet iHæderspriser
A Vietnam veteran who lost both legs and a hand in the Vietnam War recounts his homecoming and his attempts to come to terms with his life. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)959.7043373History and Geography Asia Southeast Asia Vietnam 1949- 1961–1975 Vietnamese War Participation of countries, localities, groupsLC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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Warning: If you have a soul, this book will make you weep. It is perhaps one of the most moving memoirs of war and its consequences that you will ever read. I read the book nearly twenty years ago, and when I picked it up and looked through it again yesterday, I remembered my near-visceral reaction to Puller's painful and heart-rending story.
There is a sad epilogue to this book. In 1994, after a long battle with alcoholism and addictions to painkillers for his still painful war wounds, Lewis Puller died of a self-inflicted gunshot. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington. His story, FORTUNATE SON, remains as a testament to his courage. I salute you, Lt Puller. R.I.P. This book should be required reading for all members of Congress. Sadly, it is not. My highest recommendation.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA ( )