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A Dangerous Friend
Political scientist Sydney Parade becomes part of a foreign-aid operation in Saigon. Before he arrives, some Frenchmen and Americans reveal to him the unsettling depths about the Vietnam conflict. Once in Saigon, the Vietnamese complicate matters by adding another dimension to the discord. Abridged.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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365 people want to read
About the author
Ward Just
36 books83 followersWard Just was a war correspondent, novelist, and short story author.
Ward Just graduated from Cranbrook School in 1953. He briefly attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He started his career as a print journalist for the Waukegan (Illinois) News-Sun. He was also a correspondent for Newsweek and The Washington Post from 1959 to 1969, after which he left journalism to write fiction.
His influences include Henry James and Ernest Hemingway. His novel An Unfinished Season was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005. His novel Echo House was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1997. He has twice been a finalist for the O. Henry Award: in 1985 for his short story "About Boston," and again in 1986 for his short story "The Costa Brava, 1959." His fiction is often concerned with the influence of national politics on Americans' personal lives. Much of it is set in Washington, D.C., and foreign countries. Another common theme is the alienation felt by Midwesterners in the East.
Ward Just graduated from Cranbrook School in 1953. He briefly attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He started his career as a print journalist for the Waukegan (Illinois) News-Sun. He was also a correspondent for Newsweek and The Washington Post from 1959 to 1969, after which he left journalism to write fiction.
His influences include Henry James and Ernest Hemingway. His novel An Unfinished Season was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005. His novel Echo House was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1997. He has twice been a finalist for the O. Henry Award: in 1985 for his short story "About Boston," and again in 1986 for his short story "The Costa Brava, 1959." His fiction is often concerned with the influence of national politics on Americans' personal lives. Much of it is set in Washington, D.C., and foreign countries. Another common theme is the alienation felt by Midwesterners in the East.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
June 19, 2009
The dangerous friend is Sydney Parade a 30 some, idealistic American in Viet Nam in the early 60s. Parade is there to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese through a nation building NGO. Rostok, a cynical bureaucrat who may be CIA and who cooperates with the military is Parade's boss. The problem is Parade, and his fellow Americans both military and non-military, have no clue about how to proceed.
Dede and Claude Armand own a rubber plantation in Viet Nam. There, they enjoy what they consider to be a superior lifestyle. She is an American who formerly worked in the U. S. embassy in Saigon and is now married to the French colonist, Claude. The Armands are reclusive and only wish to be let alone. They also have an uneasy relationship with the local VietCong.
Dede tells Parade he is a dangerous friend when she and her husband are forced to flee their plantation because ignorant American actions, military and non-military, have turned the VC against them.
America's ignorance is emphasized through the character Pablo Gutterman. He is an American but a long time resident in Viet Nam, married to a Vietnames women and knows the people and culture. Gutterman acting alone exceutes the only successful American action.
Just, who is strong on description and relatively weak on dialog, paints and excellent picture of Viet Nam complexities and how unprepared U. S. officials are to deal with them. There is obvious linkage between our troubles in Viet Nam and those in Iraq.
His word picture of Americans in Viet Nam is excellent but it is even better about them in post Cold War Berlin in The Weather in Berlin.
Dede and Claude Armand own a rubber plantation in Viet Nam. There, they enjoy what they consider to be a superior lifestyle. She is an American who formerly worked in the U. S. embassy in Saigon and is now married to the French colonist, Claude. The Armands are reclusive and only wish to be let alone. They also have an uneasy relationship with the local VietCong.
Dede tells Parade he is a dangerous friend when she and her husband are forced to flee their plantation because ignorant American actions, military and non-military, have turned the VC against them.
America's ignorance is emphasized through the character Pablo Gutterman. He is an American but a long time resident in Viet Nam, married to a Vietnames women and knows the people and culture. Gutterman acting alone exceutes the only successful American action.
Just, who is strong on description and relatively weak on dialog, paints and excellent picture of Viet Nam complexities and how unprepared U. S. officials are to deal with them. There is obvious linkage between our troubles in Viet Nam and those in Iraq.
His word picture of Americans in Viet Nam is excellent but it is even better about them in post Cold War Berlin in The Weather in Berlin.
August 31, 2007
Haunting. This book has stayed with me, not only for the picture painted of Vietnam early on in the US "intervention" there, but also for the description of complicated relationships between expatriates. And of course because it is such an indictment of a certain kind of American.
November 25, 2019
The "falling domino" doctrine, as laid down by president Eisenhower in the mid 50's, turned out to be one of the most tragic mistakes in political and military strategy of the 20th century; of course, there was sound justification for it, as it was what brought Hitler to dominate west Europe in the 30’s. Unfortunately, history repeats itself more unpredictability than we wish...
The "domino doctrine" was what drove the American intervention and escalation in Vietnam and what led the US to exchange for a piece of the cold war jigsaw what was instead a very local anti-colonialist and nationalist movement in Indochina.
I believe this original sin is what explains the gap in clarity of purpose which informed the American intervention in Vietnam on an ongoing basis.
Now, A Dangerous Friend is incredibly good at conveying such climate of extreme ambiguity, of inherent contradictions of the war in Vietnam; the protagonist is a member of a NGO deployed in South Vietnam on a humanitarian programme: helping the local population build schools, hospitals, bridges, etc. "Nation Building" is what their programme was named; so, the same America engaged in "nation destruction" with one hand, was also engaging in "nation building" with the other one. And it's not as if this was a diabolic move to confuse the enemy; no, it was just that one hand did not exactly know what the other was doing and why it was doing it. And the brain commanding the hands had not decided yet what was best...
The book portrays an intriguing context where the old breed of French colonialists, nostalgic and decadent, meets the newcomers, naively full of energies, optimism and money; like all youths, they think they know it all but history already knows they will end up in the same shameful bucket as their predecessors.
Ward Just confirms with this book to be a very under rated author: he's incredibly good at giving his characters a deep, complex inner life; he's able to create fascinating ambiences as a backdrop to compelling and sophisticated plots. Echo House was the best example of that and A Dangerous Friend is also a very good read.
The "domino doctrine" was what drove the American intervention and escalation in Vietnam and what led the US to exchange for a piece of the cold war jigsaw what was instead a very local anti-colonialist and nationalist movement in Indochina.
I believe this original sin is what explains the gap in clarity of purpose which informed the American intervention in Vietnam on an ongoing basis.
Now, A Dangerous Friend is incredibly good at conveying such climate of extreme ambiguity, of inherent contradictions of the war in Vietnam; the protagonist is a member of a NGO deployed in South Vietnam on a humanitarian programme: helping the local population build schools, hospitals, bridges, etc. "Nation Building" is what their programme was named; so, the same America engaged in "nation destruction" with one hand, was also engaging in "nation building" with the other one. And it's not as if this was a diabolic move to confuse the enemy; no, it was just that one hand did not exactly know what the other was doing and why it was doing it. And the brain commanding the hands had not decided yet what was best...
The book portrays an intriguing context where the old breed of French colonialists, nostalgic and decadent, meets the newcomers, naively full of energies, optimism and money; like all youths, they think they know it all but history already knows they will end up in the same shameful bucket as their predecessors.
Ward Just confirms with this book to be a very under rated author: he's incredibly good at giving his characters a deep, complex inner life; he's able to create fascinating ambiences as a backdrop to compelling and sophisticated plots. Echo House was the best example of that and A Dangerous Friend is also a very good read.
March 22, 2015
A stealthy book that numbs you in the beginning with a slow pace and hidden tension that builds up as you gradually realize who the "dangerous friend" is. The author makes no bones about how he feels about the Vietnam War. His narrator even says that he is looking back with 20/20 hindsight. He also references The Quiet American and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to anchor those feelings.
The story centers around an idealistic American who goes to Southeast Asia in the 1960s with the intent of winning hearts and minds. His motives are driven by a desire to do good, but also to make a mark for himself. He wants to contribute something positive to history. On his way, he wrecks his marriage and ultimately his own conscience.
The country, the war, the old French Colonial life are all authentic feeling. The book is well worth the read. It's pace is slow at first, but it needs to be in order to deliver the impact it presents by the end.
My only complaint is the complete lack of quotation marks. The novel has dialog, but it is grammatically annoying not to have quotes. A small grievance, I guess.
The story centers around an idealistic American who goes to Southeast Asia in the 1960s with the intent of winning hearts and minds. His motives are driven by a desire to do good, but also to make a mark for himself. He wants to contribute something positive to history. On his way, he wrecks his marriage and ultimately his own conscience.
The country, the war, the old French Colonial life are all authentic feeling. The book is well worth the read. It's pace is slow at first, but it needs to be in order to deliver the impact it presents by the end.
My only complaint is the complete lack of quotation marks. The novel has dialog, but it is grammatically annoying not to have quotes. A small grievance, I guess.
May 8, 2014
A Dangerous Friend was a fantastic book. It really painted a picture of Vietnam early in the US "intervention". The book has many things in it that may make you emotional. This book is very well written and Just produced a wonderful piece that gives us an inside look on how times were. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is very interested in war and hardship that comes with times of war.
Just has great reason to be proud of this book. A Dangerous Friend is set in 1965 Vietnam as the U.S. comes close to beginning a war. Just gives readers an incisive vision or look of America's end of innocence. He does this with strongly limned characters who do not forfeit their individuality as they are overwhelmed by the history that has been made.
Again, this book has been very well written with many facts about Vietnam War. I would highly recommend this book because of all the information and content that it possess.
Just has great reason to be proud of this book. A Dangerous Friend is set in 1965 Vietnam as the U.S. comes close to beginning a war. Just gives readers an incisive vision or look of America's end of innocence. He does this with strongly limned characters who do not forfeit their individuality as they are overwhelmed by the history that has been made.
Again, this book has been very well written with many facts about Vietnam War. I would highly recommend this book because of all the information and content that it possess.
April 7, 2008
It's kind of a left-handed compliment but this leaves little disbelief to be suspended. It's so low-key, a trick for a plotline that, rightly appreciated, is devastating.
Ward Just is really an excellent writer and his characters are well-drawn. Still, just three stars. Very solid but I would have appreciated just a little pizazz here or there. But the real reason the 4th star is missing is this didn't hit as close to home as "The Translator."
Ward Just is really an excellent writer and his characters are well-drawn. Still, just three stars. Very solid but I would have appreciated just a little pizazz here or there. But the real reason the 4th star is missing is this didn't hit as close to home as "The Translator."
January 27, 2014
It's my second time reading this book and one of those instances where I feel like I enjoyed it more the second go. I was able to focus more on his writing, less on the story. I wasn't in Vietnam, can't say as I understand what it was like, but I do, in another sense, understand the sort of moral relativism that a story like this one describes. Just is masterful in his understanding of the subtleties of thought and action a complex world creates. I felt a kinship with all the characters, I wanted to drink with them, listen to their stories, spend an afternoon under the veranda with the rain pouring, cutting us off from the rest of the world.
Want to read
May 4, 2010America in Vietnam
August 8, 2024
I lived through the Vietnam War and if a quarter of what Just writes about is true, then most Americans have no idea what actually happened over there. He tells his story eloquently and leaves you thinking about the frailties, betrayals and disappointments we all experience at one time or another in our own lives.
September 5, 2012
Though Ward Just has distinguished himself as a journalist, he has also produced an impressive body of fiction. As a novelist, he has been compared favorably with Ernest Hemingway. Much of his work centers around war—portrayed by the keen eye of a newsman—as is often true of Hemingway; however, his characters and their settings would be out of place in most Hemingway-like fiction due to their affluence and jaded sophistication. The primary criticism of Just's work is that his action is slow and plodding. Although his characters are articulate and witty, they often do just sit and talk, especially in his novel of Washington during Vietnam, In the City of Fear.
Just's unnamed narrator (a device reminiscent of Conrad) insists that in describing Sydney Parade's experiences he is not telling a war story, and indeed ''A Dangerous Friend'' contains little violence. Menace is conveyed through glimpses of Vietcong guerrillas moving at night on black bicycles, of an American officer alone in a Vietnamese village, of blood on the sleeve of a suit. Battle scenes are described obliquely through rumors and field reports discussed around conference tables, their effects hinted at on slips of paper passed anonymously in exclusive Saigon restaurants. Just has a veteran war reporter's eye for the telling detail -- light from phosphorus flares ''so fierce you could see it with closed eyelids'' -- and a reporter's skepticism about his Government's stated objectives. his central character retraces the route his Western predecessors took, stopping in Paris on the way to Saigon, Just begins to establish a convincing allegorical dimension to the novel. We learned from the French, he seems to suggest -- and, then again, we didn't. To young political scientists like Sydney, the success of the Vietcong defies military and political logic: ''We had so much and they had so little; our 19-year-olds were supported by an arsenal beyond the imagination of the guerrillas facing them.''
In A Dangerous Friend, Just pictured America on the brink of full commitment to the Vietnam War in 1965. Through the eyes of a misguided civil servant, the book superficially depicts with a bit of hindsight the nation's descent down the slippery slope to folly. The plot eventually turns on the fate of a captured American captain who is also the nephew of a Congressman. The captain was last seen in the Xuan Loc sector near Plantation Louvet, which is managed by a Frenchman named Claude Armand and his American-born wife, Dede. The Armands are living a premodern idyll in an ''ambiance reminiscent of Winnetka, if Winnetka were tropical.'' They have little sympathy for the Americans and want desperately to remain neutral, but the Llewellyn Group has other plans. The ultimate result of this episode does not reflect well on the Americans.
As in his previous novels (the National Book Award finalist ''Echo House'' foremost among them), Just uses a somewhat complex network of imagery that leads the reader to see the tragedy of Vietnam in ways that throw into high relief the conflicted array of Vietnamese, French and American interests. The most graphic metaphors include a torture victim and the stillborn Vietnamese children of French and American parents. More subtle is the Panama hat that comes to represent not only the country's climate but the customs and dreams of the Vietnamese, as filtered through the lives of a Vietnamese woman and her American husband, a member of the Llewellyn Group who, in the view of his colleagues, ''had lived in Vietnam for too long and had lost perspective.'' Though his prose occasionally betrays a reporter's fact-laden unwieldiness and a weakness for cliches, he succeeds in evoking the dense, tactile weave of life in country circa 1965. But the author, in spite of the complexity of the novel, is always clear where his sympathy lies. Not only the episode of the downed flyer, but the whole structure of the novel is set up to support a view that is dependent on retrospective knowledge that no one, least of all the Americans involved, could have had at the time. This left me with the feeling that this novel, while well written, had a facile plot that weakened the book's message.
Just's unnamed narrator (a device reminiscent of Conrad) insists that in describing Sydney Parade's experiences he is not telling a war story, and indeed ''A Dangerous Friend'' contains little violence. Menace is conveyed through glimpses of Vietcong guerrillas moving at night on black bicycles, of an American officer alone in a Vietnamese village, of blood on the sleeve of a suit. Battle scenes are described obliquely through rumors and field reports discussed around conference tables, their effects hinted at on slips of paper passed anonymously in exclusive Saigon restaurants. Just has a veteran war reporter's eye for the telling detail -- light from phosphorus flares ''so fierce you could see it with closed eyelids'' -- and a reporter's skepticism about his Government's stated objectives. his central character retraces the route his Western predecessors took, stopping in Paris on the way to Saigon, Just begins to establish a convincing allegorical dimension to the novel. We learned from the French, he seems to suggest -- and, then again, we didn't. To young political scientists like Sydney, the success of the Vietcong defies military and political logic: ''We had so much and they had so little; our 19-year-olds were supported by an arsenal beyond the imagination of the guerrillas facing them.''
In A Dangerous Friend, Just pictured America on the brink of full commitment to the Vietnam War in 1965. Through the eyes of a misguided civil servant, the book superficially depicts with a bit of hindsight the nation's descent down the slippery slope to folly. The plot eventually turns on the fate of a captured American captain who is also the nephew of a Congressman. The captain was last seen in the Xuan Loc sector near Plantation Louvet, which is managed by a Frenchman named Claude Armand and his American-born wife, Dede. The Armands are living a premodern idyll in an ''ambiance reminiscent of Winnetka, if Winnetka were tropical.'' They have little sympathy for the Americans and want desperately to remain neutral, but the Llewellyn Group has other plans. The ultimate result of this episode does not reflect well on the Americans.
As in his previous novels (the National Book Award finalist ''Echo House'' foremost among them), Just uses a somewhat complex network of imagery that leads the reader to see the tragedy of Vietnam in ways that throw into high relief the conflicted array of Vietnamese, French and American interests. The most graphic metaphors include a torture victim and the stillborn Vietnamese children of French and American parents. More subtle is the Panama hat that comes to represent not only the country's climate but the customs and dreams of the Vietnamese, as filtered through the lives of a Vietnamese woman and her American husband, a member of the Llewellyn Group who, in the view of his colleagues, ''had lived in Vietnam for too long and had lost perspective.'' Though his prose occasionally betrays a reporter's fact-laden unwieldiness and a weakness for cliches, he succeeds in evoking the dense, tactile weave of life in country circa 1965. But the author, in spite of the complexity of the novel, is always clear where his sympathy lies. Not only the episode of the downed flyer, but the whole structure of the novel is set up to support a view that is dependent on retrospective knowledge that no one, least of all the Americans involved, could have had at the time. This left me with the feeling that this novel, while well written, had a facile plot that weakened the book's message.
April 4, 2015
I called this book historical fiction as well as fiction (and those other categories) because it was set in the beginnings of the US Vietnam War. The days when the military were already there and were bombing but "advisors" were still talked about, debated about, and marveled over--as excuses to get into a never-ending war such as the French had been in for two decades. The characters include Sydney Parade, a second level in the fictional Llewellyn Group: ". . . a benevolent arm of the government wholly separate from the Pentagon" (p. 40). Supposedly, Llewellyn Group were to build and keep in repair infrastructure of the sort that the Americans thought would bring Vietnam into the "real world."
Ward Just is one of my favorite writers. His books are always slender tomes but each sentence, each phrase packed with references and innuendo. A Dangerous Friend refers specifically to Sydney Parade who has tried to befriend people at different levels but especially a French man and his American wife who have a rubber plantation and want to keep their lives as separate from the war as possible. One key event pulls Sydney, another friend Pablo, a military man captured by local Vietnamese who are ready to turn him over to the VC, and Sydney's ambitious, credit-seeking boss. This leads to a horrible revenge bombing (leave it there for now) and a riff in a tapestry of "friendship" that had barely started and was soon damaged. While A Danger Friend refers to Sydney, it also refers to almost all of the key players.
I remember when my husband was finishing Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI, and he and his friends were awaiting their first "orders," all dreading that they might be sent to Vietnam. I also remember how we debated this war--doubting President Kennedy and his administration's involving the USA in it. Then as that war became LBJ's war: "Hey, hey, LBJ/How many kids did you bomb today?" And later meeting John Kerry's wife and seeing the film that our friend (and Kerry's best friend) George Butler gathered on the anti-war protests and testimony. And that film continued into the days when John Kerry ran for President--and will probably come back now during the days of the Iranian/western powers negotiations. "Up the River with John Kerry."
Ward Just is one of my favorite writers. His books are always slender tomes but each sentence, each phrase packed with references and innuendo. A Dangerous Friend refers specifically to Sydney Parade who has tried to befriend people at different levels but especially a French man and his American wife who have a rubber plantation and want to keep their lives as separate from the war as possible. One key event pulls Sydney, another friend Pablo, a military man captured by local Vietnamese who are ready to turn him over to the VC, and Sydney's ambitious, credit-seeking boss. This leads to a horrible revenge bombing (leave it there for now) and a riff in a tapestry of "friendship" that had barely started and was soon damaged. While A Danger Friend refers to Sydney, it also refers to almost all of the key players.
I remember when my husband was finishing Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI, and he and his friends were awaiting their first "orders," all dreading that they might be sent to Vietnam. I also remember how we debated this war--doubting President Kennedy and his administration's involving the USA in it. Then as that war became LBJ's war: "Hey, hey, LBJ/How many kids did you bomb today?" And later meeting John Kerry's wife and seeing the film that our friend (and Kerry's best friend) George Butler gathered on the anti-war protests and testimony. And that film continued into the days when John Kerry ran for President--and will probably come back now during the days of the Iranian/western powers negotiations. "Up the River with John Kerry."
September 11, 2009
I finished reading the book. How do I feel? Sad. Still confused. Maybe even some denial going on. I just don't want to think that any country would go in and bomb a village because they wanted to "get even". Simply because of a pride factor. So, I say to myself, "Gayla - this was a fiction story, and written with every ounce of the authors own prejudices involved.". I want to believe that our government uses common sense, and we fight with dignity and pride and honor. So, I am left with no more answers after reading this book. I'm left feeling like I want to rush right out and get some happy, humorous, light, easy reading book that reeks of Pollyanna!
There is a part of me (very small part of me) that is glad I read the book. I had to question my own values around war...and weigh them against others.
Having just finished the book, I can't tell you that I will recommend the book to my friends. I'm left feeling like it would have been a good book to read while taking a "history of the Vietnam war" class. Obviously, I have mixed emotions.
The one thing that I know, and I knew it before reading this book - WAR IS UGLY. People play at war unfairly, and there are no real loyalties...except to ones self. War is a struggle between powers right down to the small divisional heads.
So, with this....I'm looking forward to reading something a little lighter next month. Maybe as the conversation pursues, I will participate and get a better perspective than I have tonight. I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of you feel when you complete this read!
There is a part of me (very small part of me) that is glad I read the book. I had to question my own values around war...and weigh them against others.
Having just finished the book, I can't tell you that I will recommend the book to my friends. I'm left feeling like it would have been a good book to read while taking a "history of the Vietnam war" class. Obviously, I have mixed emotions.
The one thing that I know, and I knew it before reading this book - WAR IS UGLY. People play at war unfairly, and there are no real loyalties...except to ones self. War is a struggle between powers right down to the small divisional heads.
So, with this....I'm looking forward to reading something a little lighter next month. Maybe as the conversation pursues, I will participate and get a better perspective than I have tonight. I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of you feel when you complete this read!
October 29, 2024
Viet Nam 1965, the big buildup has just begun. An idealistic American named Sydney Parade comes to Saigon to work for a private "consulting" group. His boss, Dicky Rostok, has recruited him because Parade has a slight familial connection to a French planter. This planter, married to an American, is trying to stay neutral, Rostov wants to cultivate him as an intelligence source. It may be impossible not to take sides, but the consequences of doing so can be catastrophic.
Idealism, greed, hubris, sex and a can-do mindset are a heady mix in a tropical paradise. Add self-righteousness and cultural ignorance, the result will be a decade of a futile war.
Just was a journalist in Viet Nam at this time. The book was published in 1999 so there may be some hindsight involved. However, right at the beginning of the 21st century the U.S. was back into nation building.
Sherman said, "War is hell". We remember that for some war can be heaven on earth. In the last chapter Parade watches as a freighter is unloaded at a Saigon dock. It isn't guns but butter: freezers, air conditioners, frozen steaks and Scotch whiskey, filé cabinets and reams of paper. It takes a lot of butter for Americans to fight a war.
Idealism, greed, hubris, sex and a can-do mindset are a heady mix in a tropical paradise. Add self-righteousness and cultural ignorance, the result will be a decade of a futile war.
Just was a journalist in Viet Nam at this time. The book was published in 1999 so there may be some hindsight involved. However, right at the beginning of the 21st century the U.S. was back into nation building.
Sherman said, "War is hell". We remember that for some war can be heaven on earth. In the last chapter Parade watches as a freighter is unloaded at a Saigon dock. It isn't guns but butter: freezers, air conditioners, frozen steaks and Scotch whiskey, filé cabinets and reams of paper. It takes a lot of butter for Americans to fight a war.
January 16, 2016
This is a strange book. On the one hand you’ve got leftover French colonials trying to pretend that the French Empire would hold on after it collapsed, expecting the North Vietnamese to win and expecting that they would break with all history and just let the French keep farming. The book ends before the North Vietnamese broke the peace treaty, but those French rubber farmers probably died in a labor camp a decade or so later.
On the other hand, the story centers around a civilian nation-building company stationed in South Vietnam trying to help the locals by building bridges, renovating buildings, and bringing in water and power, but none of those efforts are part of the story.
Neither the military nor the war are really part of the story. The military barely shows up except as background, and Ward Just deliberately avoids mentioning any dates, making it difficult to fit the story into real world history.
It’s a sort of fog of war applied to the readers, and I’m not sure it works well. But as usual, Ward Just’s characters are fascinating and well-realized, and the writing is worth the confusion.
On the other hand, the story centers around a civilian nation-building company stationed in South Vietnam trying to help the locals by building bridges, renovating buildings, and bringing in water and power, but none of those efforts are part of the story.
Neither the military nor the war are really part of the story. The military barely shows up except as background, and Ward Just deliberately avoids mentioning any dates, making it difficult to fit the story into real world history.
It’s a sort of fog of war applied to the readers, and I’m not sure it works well. But as usual, Ward Just’s characters are fascinating and well-realized, and the writing is worth the confusion.
July 19, 2022
The writing in this book is excellent. I felt as if I was there, seeing the early years of the Vietnam conflict unfold before the United States had engaged in the substantial buildup that occurred in the last half of the 1960s. The author uses a relatively small number of characters to maximum effect. The story moves along quickly and no pages are wasted. I have read many books about the Vietnam War, both fiction and nonfiction and this book went a long way toward tying it all together for me. I often felt like an insider as the various characters discussed in clear unambiguous language using few words how they saw the war at that point and why they had come to the conclusions that they did. I saw at various points throughout the novel why the United States could not win following the paradigm that it did starting with the war's earliest stages. I highly recommend this book if you have an interest in or have done other reading about the Vietnam conflict.
December 18, 2018
This story, although fictional, will give you some good background information on the early years of America's involvement in Vietnam.
This story is not really about combat, political, or clandestine activities and such, but rather a look at a private citizen and his endeavor to make a difference in Vietnam with money and material while working for a private company that perhaps received payments from the government for information.
You will also get a good picture of what a foreign family looked like who chose to ignore the looming war and troubled politics of Vietnam for as long as possible, determined not to leave their homes in Vietnam to return to their European and American countries.
Well worth reading for those interested in this time in history or just a well told story.
This story is not really about combat, political, or clandestine activities and such, but rather a look at a private citizen and his endeavor to make a difference in Vietnam with money and material while working for a private company that perhaps received payments from the government for information.
You will also get a good picture of what a foreign family looked like who chose to ignore the looming war and troubled politics of Vietnam for as long as possible, determined not to leave their homes in Vietnam to return to their European and American countries.
Well worth reading for those interested in this time in history or just a well told story.
March 1, 2011
This book was interesting on a number of levels. Told from the perspective of a civilian bureaucrat in the early years of the Vietnam war, this book discusses some aspects of Vietnamese history that are generally lacking in typical "war stories." I learned quite a bit about the complex relationship between France and Vietnam, and about Vietnam's relationship to most of the world. There are some terrific insights into Vietnamese culture as well.
I've rated the book three stars because the writing style wasn't that appealing to me and the book was pretty slow. This is one of those books that is worth reading once you get to the end, but the final destination really is better than the trip itself ...
I've rated the book three stars because the writing style wasn't that appealing to me and the book was pretty slow. This is one of those books that is worth reading once you get to the end, but the final destination really is better than the trip itself ...
March 16, 2016
It’s 1965 in Viet Nam, before everything went to shit, and Sydney Parade is a dangerous friend for anyone trying to remain on the sidelines. Sydney is new “in country,” a member of the Llewellyn Group working in uneasy concert with the military to win the hearts and minds of the people of Viet Nam. His good intentions are thwarted by glory seeking higher-ups and victory seeking military commanders. This is never clearer than when Sydney engineers the release of an American POW captain (a congressman’s nephew) with catastrophic consequences for the villagers who oversaw the captain’s release. Excellent novel that exposes how every action, whether for good or ill, is likely to have unforeseen reactions.
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January 24, 2018The Unfinished Season is one of my favorite books, and this one is also quite good. There are many ways to tell the story of a war, the Vietnam War in this case, and here we have a story with violence understated and the fuzziest of ideals center stage. The main character represents the naivete of America as it enters this war. He hopes he will make the world a better place but mostly wants to be part of the greatest drama of the age. it is Kafka- like in the portrayal of maddening bureaucracy. The most likable characters are family men without illusions but have a purpose in staking a claim to a little piece of the world that just happens to be in Vietnam.
July 13, 2018
A early entry into the novels-about-Vietnam genre, Just, like Graham Greene in The Quiet American, looks at the huge role played in that disastrous exercise by non-combatants. His focus is on the honorable (if naive) intentions of at least some Americans and the terrible consequences wrought on the inhabitants of the war zone. Beautifully written by someone so confident of the power of his story that he can let it tell itself. A book that will, I fear, remain relevant until the US decides to get out of the foreign war business.
March 2, 2015
This book had a slow start in my opinion, but it all came together at the end, and I'm still thinking about it and about why the United States persists in getting into impossible wars and backing corrupt governments. Everybody suffers as a result--our young people in the military, the citizens of the countries where we are waging war ("collateral damage"), and world-wide opinion of the US.
January 16, 2010
A peek into the early years of the Vietnam War when intentions were good, idealism and naïveté were high, and no one knew what to do or what they were getting into. Beautifully and lushly realized with tragic characters and heart-wrenching consequences. Highly recommended.
October 21, 2012
Interesting look at the Vietnam War. Reminded me of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, which talked about how the US government uses private agencies as a front to do illegal/unethical actions in other countries (think Halliburton). A good look at the times and history of Vietnam mid 1960's.
February 8, 2014
"I agreed with her about writing your own history and being present at the end of one era and the beginning of another. Meaning, not to allow history to unfold in your absence or as a consequence of your indifference."
May 23, 2016
This book was very well written and showed me the American side of the Vietnam War, which included tough decision making that caused tension between many soldiers. It was also very emotional especially during the bombings of villages and execution of families.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 16, 2018
Really interesting view of American civilians fighting for hearts and minds in Vietnam. Not a war story and it does not pick sides, but a back story that you rarely, if ever, think about. Ward Just is an excellent writer, and the build-up tension he creates in this story is wonderful.
July 29, 2018
Beautifully written. I felt like simultaneously nothing much was happening and a ton was happening. I feel constant tension as I was reading this book. There were ordinary conversations with a lot unsaid and going on it the background. I love Just’s focus on politics and political events.
May 3, 2021
Ward Just was a great writer. He's overlooked and underrated. A DANGEROUS FRIEND is set in Saigon in 1965. The protagonist, Sidney Parade, is optimistic about "reforming" Vietnam. The besutifully written novel tells of Parade's (and the U.S.) experience in that year.
June 20, 2007
vietnam was bad news.
February 26, 2022
Great to read with Grahame Greene
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