Reviews for Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrance from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The average rating for Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrance from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-10-04 00:00:00 Jill Kristyniak Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by: Laura Palmer is an inspiring memoir. This book is unique due to the powerful letters that appear from way back around the heat of the 60's. The draft came around and took many precious lives away from mothers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, fathers, wives, girlfriends and gave them nothing but a memorable story to tell about their loved ones. In this memoir they share with you everlasting moments they have held on for so long to give you a sense of direction onto a bittersweet path. Just because someone is gone doesn't mean the relationship is to and that's exactly what this book shows. 58,196 names are on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Wouldn't you want to know at least one of those stories of a brave one? When I read this memoir I stumbled along a story that touched my heart. It started off with a loving and passionate poem in there that also brought my eyes into reality. It talked about a young man named Gearwin Phillip Tousey, and along those lines I could relate to his loved ones very much. It was stated that he was always chipper and knew how to make people happy just by his presence. He reminded me of my cousin I lost about 6 months ago because of the similar personality they shared. I'm almost positive that you will find a connection to one of these stories and that's what I respect about this memoir. I would recommend this book to young adults and adults. The era is more appropriate and easier to comprehend when reading it. I feel like in order to get a feel of this book you would need to some how relate to it, and if you're a younger person you might've not yet gone through things until you're older to be able to do so. The importance of this book is to never forget and carry memories of a lost one as strong as yesterday for tomorrow, next week, next month, and years to come. It's worthwhile to read.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-02-20 00:00:00 Larry W Plemons Jr This book is a 1988 collection of intensely personal stories of the men, both draftees and volunteers, who died in Vietnam, most of them between 19 and 22 years old. The stories derive from writings left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., and interviews with the people - family and spouses and children (many of whom never knew their fathers) and best friends and fellow veterans - who left these memories, which are now gathered in a museum. There are pictures of many of the young men/boys. The stories are, quite simply, heartbreaking, perhaps even more so for those of us who can't help reflecting that there, but for purest luck, go I - now, 50 years later, having had the opportunities in life that they never had. For those of us who came of age in the late 1960s, the war in Vietnam was of course at the core of our lives. All of the American boys/men who were born in the late 1940s were subject to the draft; all of us knew someone (or many) who drew the low numbers, and were faced with the choice of military service, Canada or jail. All of us knew someone who made each of the choices. And thus were our lives shaped: by the purest luck of the draw. I drew 247; my best friend drew 13. Everyone up through 195 was called up. I went to the Wall several times on East Coast trips with a group of middle school children from eastern Washington several years after I became a teacher in the early 2000s. It was the one place that I had to say to them, "I can't walk here with you - I'll meet you at the other end. I have to walk it alone, because to me, this is not just another historical monument; I know some of the young men whose names are on this Wall, and it is just too real and personal for me to share with you." And these young people, born thirty or so years after these men died, were quiet, and reflective, and respectful as they walked along the Wall, because I had explained to them in class how I had gotten the high number and how such a random event had helped determine that my path at that junction in my life.