Gordon's Review

Gordon Ely, who wrote for the Richmond Times Dispatch and Billboard for nearly two decades, has written this e-mail to me. He has given me permission to share it.

Dear Evie,
This is a tremendously courageous book. The craftsmanship is impeccable. The tone and pace is pitch-perfect. Your commentary...the "thread" that ties it together with facts, opinions and deep emotion...is perfectly placed. Donn's letters paint the day-to-day drudgery, and sheer irony and banality of war, with no intent of literary style-- in a way that becomes the most powerful style of all: The voice of the writer. Quite amazingly, your voice not only does as well, but the two merge; almost like a conversation between the living and the dead, in the present tense and the past tense, until all sense of "tense" and linear time is suspended.

I have read so much about Vietnam, but this is the first time I've felt someone telling me about it. The need to diminish more and more of oneself-- just to survive the horror that's all around-- while also groping to hang onto humanity, when humanity is becoming more and more a memory.

I watched closely throughout to follow how being in a "hot," ugly war affected him (without much knowledge or preconception that it had). You "steered me through," precisely when and as I wanted and needed, with perfect feel for what the reader required from you in order to better understand Donn, and you, and that war, and any war. How dehumanizing "the enemy" (on both sides) becomes a survival skill. And when the referees blow the whistle, you go back to "civility." The preciousness of "home" (crunchy peanut butter), and the indifference-- even sport-- of killing. I've never seen or read the irony of war depicted better.

And he was happiest when he was on the move, and in the action. Finally the sense of possible redemption in "fighting to win," not just "being there." It's the love that pervades everything that keeps him human to the reader. I read it with the strangest feeling--toward the end-- and I don't think I could compliment you more than this. I knew what was coming, but I kept counting the days, thinking to myself, "Come on, Donn! Get the FUCK out of there! DEMAND that r&r! Look out! Over there! No, over there! Don't go up that hill!" I was rooting for him, as if I just read it ten more times, maybe it would finally end differently.

But he had to go up that hill. Had it all changed him into some person you didn't know? I really think not. If it wasn't presumptuous of me to tell you, I'd say I know not. And if we figured out answers to any of this, we'd have figured out what no one else before us has.

I have read a great deal of history about Vietnam.

I've never cried over it until now.

Thanks and love,
Gordon

Problems

I am asked why I don't market the book more aggressively. Marketing is its own beast, and I am not geared that way. Also, I have serious problems if I think about this book too often. I do college presentations when asked, and I would like to see more happening with this blog, but I do not have the emotional capacity to work on anything related to the book every day. In fact, a woman at the dentist's office recently mentioned to me that she had just read the book and loved it. She wanted to engage in conversation, but I needed to have a day away. Another well-intentioned friend e-mailed with lots of suggestions to get the blog moving. I cried for two days. So if you don't hear from me often, it isn't because I don't care. Many have suggested that writing the book must have been cathartic. Writing the book was something, but I wouldn't use that word. It was painful, it was necessary, and I am glad I wrote it. I am glad to have my brother's voice back in my world. I am pleased with many things about the book and its reception. I believe that many good discussions have been generated. But I am sure that words like catharsis and closure still do not apply.

Presentation info

This is an example of what I do when I give presentations at colleges. Each school comes up with its own approach -- panels, discussion groups, questions and answers afterward. I have learned a great deal on each occasion, from a host of interesting people. One panel had a college prof who survived Vietnam; he turned to art as a way to cope with his experiences. He introduced me to the Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago. Another panel had a photographer whose brother had come home from VN only to commit suicide some time later. Her photography is an attempt to understand.....Another session included a talk by a woman who was fourteen and in the Middle East when bombs were blowing up outside her home....
I look forward to the GA College event.
Here is the link:
http://www.gcsu.edu/adp/warletters.htm.

Interesting question

The best part of any presentation I give is the Question and Answer section. At one venue, a person in the audience followed me outside to ask one more question: "What do you think Donn would say today about you?" I thought about it a minute, and then gave this answer: "I think he would be sorry that I have been sad for so long."
Donn was more like our mother: upbeat, carpe diem, and if there's a party, let's go! He had the sign over his tent in Vietnam that said, "Smile! That's an order!" It is tough to find a picture of him without a big smile on his face.
I never had that joie de vivre. Must be a hardwired component that I missed out on. But Donn had it, and he spread it wherever he could. His letters sparkle with his humor and his fondness for his comrades and for the South Vietnamese people. He was, as one soldier wrote to me, "One of the best human beings I have ever known."

Do you know this soldier?

That is Donn on the right. Does anyone recognize the soldier on the left? This picture was taken near Dong Ha, sometime between Sept.'67 and July '68.

Donn's Namesake!

I have received a lot of mail and e-mail since the book came out in January of 2008, but nothing made my jaw drop on the floor like one I received in spring of '09.
A man wrote that his dad had been with Donn at Fort Sill, when they were in OCS. His dad and his mother, who lived near the base, became good friends with Donn. And when his parents had a baby boy in 1969, they named him Steven Donn.
The writer told me that he had never known much about "the guy he was named after," other than that he had been killed in Vietnam in 1968.
Steven Donn thanked me for the book, saying that he finally had some context for his name after forty years. And that he finally had an explanation when people continually ask him, "Is it Donald? Why two n's?"
My sister, my mother, and I are absolutely flabbergasted that there is someone named after Donn. We never would have known!

Donn Stories

Do you have any good Donn stories? He was a wild and crazy guy, and smart and funny. Here is a place on the blog to share some stories.