An important yet underrated memoir, In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994) is an exquisite work by Tobias Wolff. The book interpolates autobiographical elements and is essentially about the experiences of the author as an active officer in the Vietnam War, perhaps one of the most controversial international wars in which America was involved. In fact, Wolff first went to D.C. to learn Vietnamese and had trained as a paratrooper.
“…Evoking the blind carnage of the Tet offensive”, the author has written about the war with a candour that is rarely seen in this genre. He has exposed the themes of not just the reality of the war but also the futility of it at the face of a nationwide complex striving to push jingoism and normalize war.
