Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong (Curbstone Press Contemporary Poets Series) by Kevin Bowen

Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong (Curbstone Press Contemporary Poets Series) Reviews

• 
  Pachyderm Bookworm

  Probably the most important book of Vietnam-era war poetry I've read since reading Yusef K.'s own offering, 'DIEN CAI DAU.'
  
• 
  Serena

  Kevin Bowen‘s Playing Basketball With the Viet Cong is his first collection of poems and they focus on his memories of the Vietnam War. Although there are moments of brutality and horrifying images, many of these poems intend to infuse the enemy with humanity — whether that enemy is a U.S. soldier or a member of the Viet Cong. In away these poems diverge from other war veterans’ writings in that rather than attempt to sort through mere emotional trauma, Bowen seeks to draw parallels between two nations that were once at war with one another and highlight their similarities in a way that will generate peace and forgiveness.
  
  From “Willie, Dancing” (page 27):
  
  When we moved south
  we found comfort
  nights at base in new dug bunkers,
  the womb hum of generators,
  artillery thud and mortars
  marking time. And whiskey,
  
  Please read the full review:
  http://savvyverseandwit.com/2010/10/p...