Abstract

This Boy's War

The article focuses on the book "In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War," by Tobias Wolff. With "In Pharaoh's Army," Wolff has reclaimed his subject from flawed fiction and his own reluctance. There are intimations of scenes here and there reminiscent of Wolff's novelistic places and situations, but the present perspective and form broaden in scope to illuminate the narrator's character before and after the war. By listening to the power and immediacy of his own voice rid of earlier fictional clutter, Wolff has forced himself and his writing to confront Vietnam head-on. As a way of telling the story of Vietnam that Wolff wishes to tell, the artifice proves inadequate, is awkwardly conspicuous and creaky. The plot that follows the two friends through their Vietnam experiences seems too facile. There are added problems of odd mixtures of scene and summary, and the climax of the novel-a double epiphany-is a device more common to short fiction than extended works.