The Sewanee Rewiew
I attend The Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York, and every year the whole school participates in what is called book day. Every year the whole school community must read a certain book, and the book chosen this year was In Pharaoh's Army:Memories of The Lost War by Tobias Wolff. This page was created for my Program Design class and serves as a reference for the book.
In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War is the stirring tale of author Tobias Wolff's years as a Lieutenant in the army stationed in Vietnam. He tells the story of his career in the army from when he first joined to after he finished his "tour " of Vietnam.
He, being able to speak Vietnamese "like a seven-year-old child with a freakish military vocabulary" was stationed as an advisor in a Vietnamese artillery batallion outside My Tho(in the Delta). Consequently, he did not see as much action as his fellow army officers in the Special Forces. He had to worry more about snipers and bombs in the road than actual combat.
This page contains reviews of several different books pertaining to the Vietnam War, including In Pharaoh's Army. The author of the review discusses the lasting effects of the war and how we, as a nation, are unable to put it behind us. Another book that he reviewed was written by a psychiatrist who talked about how when many of the soldiers came back from Vietnam they were unable to live normal lives. The author compares these men to those depicted in The Iliad. The reviewer seemed to prefer In Pharaoh's Army to the other books, and provides a brief summary of the book and then focuses on a few specific parts.
This page is not that useful for one looking for a brief overview of the book, as it focuses more on some specific details. In general, it seems as if the author is trying to paint a picture of the war as seen by different people in the hopes of understanding the war better.
This page is a review of In Pharaoh's Army in which the author seems to be going through the book, telling the reader what happens in each part, although not in a lot of detail. He uses quotations from the book to illustrate certain events/ideas depicted in the book. This page is basically just a long summary(with quotations) of the book or the short version of it. Take your pick.
St Mark's United Methodist
Church
In this church's weekly online newsletter, the pastor gives a brief summary of the book, which would be useful for people who don't intend to read it, and who have no interest in reading a longer review, which tells more about the book. The pastor focuses on a specific part of the book which he found moving.
Recommendations for holiday
reading or gift giving
This page has suggestions of good books to read, including In Pharaoh's Army, but tells relatively little about the book itself.
If you are looking for a short summary of the book, I would recommend this page, as it quickly summarizes the book, but also talks about certain details from the book.