Going after Cacciato

Sometimes traveling on a long flight allows one to start and finish a book, and it did on a trip to Austria.  A classic 1970s book by renowned author and Viet Nam war veteran, Tim O’Brien, Going after Cacciato.  The book tells the story of an Army squad during the war in Viet Nam.  The group has faced many gruesome loses of lives from members of the squad and now faces another challenge, the disappearance of one of their men, Cacciato.  The lieutenant (Corson) in charge decides that the remaining men in the squad must try and find Cacciato by following where they think he is going, from Viet Nam to Paris, through Asia.  The journey includes escaping an underground tunnel, hiding in Mandalay, and being arrested while being in Afghanistan.  The squad is joined by a young Vietnamese woman, Sarkin Aung Wan, whose oxen is shot by one of the squad members.  She helps the squad many times escape difficult situations.  Paul falls in love with her.  During the various stops on their journey, Paul Berlin almost captures Cacciato numerous times, though he always escapes.   In the end the men lose Cacciato and are back where they belong, lost in isolation and psychological trauma, war that destroys dreams and has soldiers whose life is nothing but staying alive by the fear of death. O’Brien’s skillful knowledge on the psychological damage of the psyche from war is brilliant.  There are so many levels of soul searching we, as a society, should do before ever allowing more war to happen.  Hard to read, but important.  Captures the Viet Nam era perfectly, challenging the beliefs of our country that war solves conflict.  It doesn’t for the individual, who will carry it forever.