Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden (Tim Page, 1995)

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ISBN 0-6848-6024-4

Evidently the author of this book, Tim Page, was the "most celebrated photographer" of the Vietnam War. It says so on the back cover, and I certainly wouldn't know any better. Accomplished photographer he may be (though one suspects war photography is judged by different standards to the usual styles of the medium, and mostly have little to do with either aesthetic or technical facility) but Page is certainly not a writer of any merit at all. Those of us who have actually managed to struggle into the 21st century, intellectually, will simply barf at this kind of fodder:

'In a land that produces some of the most superior smoke you can toke, the population is remarkably unhip to the weed.' - p. 18

This manner of 1960's Western-drop-out-culture argot was quite ridiculous enough during the Vietnam war years; today it carries its age about as well as a paisley shirt and pastel flares. The author's infantile obsession with marijuana, and constant hankering after the mercifully vanished fashions of the Vietnam era, are simply tiresome.

The book is saved by its subject matter, and the author's relevant experience, alone.

Page recounts a journey through parts of Vietnam and Cambodia made some twenty years after his original tour of duty, during the war. The narrative frequently switches between then and now, which could be distracting but is quite well done, and served to just barely maintain my interest, which would otherwise been shut down by the uninspiring prose. Don't look for Paul Theroux - or even Tim Cahill! - between these covers. Passable reportage is all you'll find here.

Recommendation: Desperation material.

Look and Feel: My edition is the usual matt-finish paperback. As you'd hope, the photographs are excellent, and very well-reproduced in colour.

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Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden (Tim Page, 1995)

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