Start Reading And A Hard Rain Fell Designed By John Ketwig Released As Bound Copy

don't usually like autobiographies but this boom was amazing, Sheds light on the Vietnam war Ketwig's personally subjective account of a non combatant in Vietnam at the age of nineteen is brutally raw and emotionally insightful.
It chronicles his experience, during which he confronted death and disillusionment not only with his country but with humanity and most importantly, with himself especially upon his return to American soil.
Sadly, the same many faced during this horrific time in our Nation's history and to date, emotional detachment is a continued battle as P.
T. S. D. is prevalent in many of the lives of our Vietnam Veterans,

In my opinion, it wasn't a spellbinding read but it does offer a good recollection of war whose insights are as applicable today as the time period it describes.
A type a personality with an anxiety disorder and perhaps a lot of good reasons to have it exaserbated.

I wasnt quite sure what to think of this book when I started it, It seemed like a stream of consciousness though I did notice that it became more focused toward the middle of the book.
Maybe this is to clarify confusion I dont know, The last thing I read about the Vietnam war was probablyyears ago out of college so I was glad to see that the knowledge I had picked up then I retained because I knew the names of places and I understood the concepts that were being expressed in the book.
They seemed to line up with what I had read and what others had told me,

This book was probably not what I expected, I know there is and was a lot of opposition to the war but I dont think I really expected all the sexual information.
I wasnt put off by that I just dont think I expected it, Sometimes I wondered if he was expressing the feelings that he had about the war and its activity and all of its philosophy in hindsight and I suppose that is not objectionable in a book.
It seemed as if he had thought through some of this and was expressing it all after the fact although he was trying to line up his feelings with what his experiences were both in Vietnam and in Thailand.
I read this book in doses but finally about the middle of the second year I got to the point where I needed to finish it.
I thought OK I cant read this much longer, I understand the discouragement and all of that I just need to get through this, I thought it was interesting that he had gone on to marry the person he was writing the letters to and had established a career because some of the things Ive read about the vets point to that not happening.
I do know some people that went through that and they have establish careers but I havent read much about that.
I havent read many books on the subject since college so my information has been fragmentary,

I did enjoy the book if you can enjoy a book like that, Its always hard to peer into a persons soul, It was enlightening and it was political and factual and expressed a lot of feelings that I thought were dramatic.
But that is as a friend of mine says, the human condition, We all have flaws in our thinking somewhere so I dont doubt the veracity of the experiences expressed.
There were parts that were predictable, For example, I knew he wasnt going to get the girl, Something just told me the way he was writing about her that he wasnt going to get her.
And
It was worth the read for sure, I know Ill pick up more books on the subject but I dont know if Ill encounter one quite like that.
I hope it accomplishes the goal that was set before it,

there is one more thing that comes to mind as I finish this review, I guess you can call it my training as a possible historian in college, I have always learned that one should cite examples and in one particular instance in this book when he discusses the Pentagon papers he expresses the opinion that they were full of lies but he doesnt tell you what kind of information he reads in the papers to back that up.
He may have made that point by talking about it during the book itself but I wasnt familiar enough with the Pentagon papers to see if that was the case or if he just expressed an opinion and left it at that.
I guess it just kind of makes me want to go read the Pentagon papers that sounds like something I would do.
: So just something else to go research, I think I saw another book by this author so Ill have to check it out and see if it is a continuation of this book or something entirely different.
If Im thinking about the book a few hours after I finish it definitely makes an impression.


Something else that just comes to mind is the use of music in the book.
I am a musician and I can relate to listening to music to help sort through feelings.
I know that he was using marijuana and other things to do that but he did mention the use of music and I thought I could at least relate to that part.
So Ill need to go look up some of the songs he mentioned because I didnt know all of them but I was happy to see that I recognized a lot of the band names.
: Its been a long time since I read a book where I could relate to all the musical information in it.


Another thing that stood out to me when I was reading this was his interaction with the locals not only in a sexual way but getting to know them and eating the food and getting into the streets and seeing the temples in the shops and the people.
He was trying to use all those things to help come to grips with what he had experienced and I dont think Ive read too many books where people do that.
I know it might have been the fact that he was in Thailand which gave him that freedom and he appeared to put it to good use.


The last thing Ill mention in this review is that it seemed sometimes as if he was turning against America but he was using his American standards to judge the American conduct of the war but he was also using those expectations to try to sort out his own feelings even though he was turning against them.
I was thinking about his sexual activity, His upbringing would not have a proved of the way in which he conducted himself there, He was trying it seems to break free of those expectations in all cases but was constrained by them.
I wonder if in the entire expression of his revulsion and his developing philosophies if he was trying to come to grips with what he experienced and what his expectations were.
That idea needs a little more exploration, The book also emphasizes that Americans tend to what we call compartmentalize things, In for example, we must put on a mask and act as if everything is OK if it isnt.
You must try to have a social life, a family, a job, a measure of success that makes it appear to others around that you are OK.
We like to keep our feelings constrained and we dont feel like we have the freedom to discuss those with others or even admit them to ourselves.
I know that things have changed in

those regards to some degree with a more ready willingness to go into therapy or be more honest with ourselves about our own feelings.
I think this book was definitely a look at how we treat our own feelings and dont want to face those of others because they dont always express our preconceived ideas of success.
He did have a family and buy houses and do all those things but these feelings and experiences were so traumatic that they were forced to the surface by ordinary events such as the viewing of movies and documentaries.
I have read that and other books about other Vietnam vets, I think that is some thing that happens to other people,

I just thought all of the feelings in this book reflected on so many things that you could spend pages analyzing the analysis.
I wonder in closing if I would have understood this book if I had read it in my college history classes about the Vietnam war.
I think as I have learned other things about history over the years combined with all of the other information I have taken in about the human condition and how we respond to things that those two major ideas help to deep in the understanding of this very complicated book.
And then again maybe inyears Ill pick this book up and think its not so complicated after all.
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