The Sorrow of War is a novel, originally written in Vietnamese, translated into English, about how the Vietnamese War affected post-War life for many different people. This novel in particular vividly describes love and loss and how it greatly impacts a person. The main character Kien, watched people die right before his eyes, and he was forced to move on as if nothing happened. He also dealt with his significant other developing feelings for his father. There was an unrealistically large number of women that were forced into prostitution, because of their unfortunate circumstances. There were several situations in this novel, where the average person unaware of what War life was like, would crumble. The average person would not be able to deal with the aftermath of the Vietnamese war the way Bao Ninh describes these characters as doing so. The Sorrow of War was unlike any other, it was unique and very well written.
I enjoyed every single chapter of this novel. Each sentence was constructed with so much creativity. The characters’ personalities were different from how most characters in a fiction novel would be. The storyline was very one of a kind and every scene was described with so much imagery to where I could imagine whatever part it was that I read in depth and with so much detail. The Sorrow of War assisted me with understanding how post-War life is for people and that one should be appreciative for what they have, whether it be a person or a prized Possession. Life is not something one should take for granted. I learned much more than I thought I would. I highly recommend this novel to others.
