My Detachment

A Memoir

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Mountains Beyond Mountains presents an “acerbic, honest, moving memoir” (The New York Times Book Review) of his tour of duty in Vietnam.

“With a terrible beauty, [My Detachment] tells an old story—the illusions of war—in a new and compelling way.”—USA Today

“Gripping . . . remarkable . . . poignant . . . perfectly rendered by one of our most original writers.”—The Boston Globe

My Detachment is a war story like none you have ever read before, an unromanticized portrait of a young man coming of age in the controversial war that defined a generation. Master storyteller Tracy Kidder reflects on his service in Vietnam, looking back at himself from across three and a half decades and confessions how, as a young lieutenant, he sought to borrow from the tragedy around him and to imagine himself a romantic hero.

Unrelentingly honest, rueful, and revealing, My Detachment gives us war without heroism, while preserving those rare moments of redeeming grace in the midst of lunacy and danger. The officers and soldiers of My Detachment are not the sort of people who appear in war movies—they are the ones who appear only in war, and they are unforgettable.

A CHICAGO TRIBUNE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Reseñas de la Crítica

“With a terrible beauty, [My Detachment] tells an old story—the illusions of war—in a new and compelling way.”—USA Today

“[An] acerbic, honest, moving memoir . . . [The] prose is drawn so tight it seems to shimmer under the reader’s gaze.”—The New York Times Book Review

“At once hilarious and sad, sweet and distressing, a compelling, candid, and poignantly comic portrait.”—Jonathan Harr, author of The Lost Painting and A Civil Action

“You’d be hard pressed to find a better book, fiction or otherwise, about the challenges of retaining one’s humanity amid the chaos and carnage of war.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Gripping . . . remarkable . . . a poignant memoir . . . perfectly rendered by one of our most original writers.”—The Boston Globe

“Tweaking multiple genres, Tracy Kidder has written a war story without violence. . . . [Full of] candor and humor.”—The Village Voice

“Muted, ironic, thoughtful, My Detachment is a meditation in a time of war—and a candid depiction of how the misdirections of youth can shape and haunt a life.”—San Jose Mercury News

“Kidder’s great talent ever since his Pulitzer-winning The Soul of a New Machine has been his ability to take ordinary details and give them the shape, metaphors, and rhythms of a novel. . . . [The] book works because he’s so candid about his insecurities, and how they played into his need to deceive others (and himself) about his role in Vietnam.”—Chicago Sun-Times

“In Kidder’s world, the absurdities and dark comedy of war mix with danger and the solace of comradeship. The result is a breezy and concise tale, the work of a master craftsman. Don’t miss it.”—Houston Chronicle

Job job Shakey!

interesting and relatable. I was in the ASA at the same time, but missed out on Nam. Missed the rank and the stories. Glad Tracey could fill in the blanks of wha I missed.

Our GIs in Vietnam were largely leaderless

Our GIs in Vietnam were largely leaderless. Of course there was a chain of command that directed activities but it was ineffectual. Reminds me of Lincoln during the civil war. He kept looking for a general that would fight and finally got Grant and Sherman. In Vietnam our generals acted like they were designing strategies for a game. They wanted to show they could win but in their hearts they knew their homes and families weren’t invested in the outcome.
A great glimpse into a soldiers life.

An Antiwar Memoir

I am a fan of Tracy Kidder and have read all of his books. Like John McPhee he has a true ability to convey what is taking place around him. In this volume he reveals the Viet Nam war through his own eyes and his own point of view. Certainly, he shares his own failings and change during this tour of duty honestly.

You'll not find anything really heroic in this volume. In the end, it seemed as though Kidder picked up his former fiction manuscript and decided to write a memoir about his experience. Unfortunately, he still seems to be nursing old "wounds" about slights and bureaucratic snafus that he endured while there.

The reader is warned by Kidder at the outset that this is the saddest story you'll ever hear. That is self serving and not really true. The reader will get a distinct picture of one Officer's experience in and feelings about the war. The volume is well read and written. Ultimately, it contains insight into the conflict that is narrow in focus, but valuable nonetheless.