An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us | James Carroll

An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us | James Carroll | Remembering Conflict

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An American Requie...

	An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us James Carroll Mariner Books, 1997 - 296 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Joe Carroll was an Air Force lieutenant general who chose Vietnamese targets for American bombs. Joe's son James began adulthood by fulfilling his father's abandoned dream of joining the priesthood. But soon a father's hopes for his son--and a son's peace with his father--were ruined, yet another casualty of a war that tore apart so many families along generational lines.

A powerful work

This is a rare, beautifully written personal memoir of a most unusual family in the Vietnam war. The author was a prominent anti-war priest: his father was Lieutenant General Joseph Carroll, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Highly recommended.

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Remembering Conflict

An American Requiem

An American Requiem is a tribute to Lieutenant General Joseph F. Carroll, who, according to the Arlington Cemetery website, "was a US Air Force officer who was involved in national security affairs for 30 years. Headed Defense Intelligence Agency from creation in 1961 until he ret in 1969." He was the father of the author, James Carroll. The book is a biography of the father's adult life but it is also an autobiography of part of the life of the son.

In recounting the difficulties they experienced as a result of their taking opposite sides during the Vietnam War the book also becomes a memorial to the terrible confusions brought about by that still disputed conflict. Through the account of the pain of the father and of the son it also becomes a valuable account of the pain felt by many Americans who fought, protested or just tried to understand.

The final account in the book may also be a memorial to all who try to deal with the new Imperial role of the US.

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I made a mistake in trying to cancel my order for this wonderful book.

I forgot that I had ordered it on August 30 and tried to cancel, but you shipped it so quickly that it couldn't be canceled. Thank Heaven! It is truly a wonderful book (topical and timely and all of that). I am way over the age of 13.

The Second War that Split America

In this book we see Jim Carroll right of passage to manhood. It takes place during the same years of Vietnam. And his families like many others were placed in conflict by it; it split two generations apart like no other war. Father and son were being at odds with one another. And the author uses this book to support his position that he took in protesting the war.

Though his famous father, Ex-FBI Agent and Lt. Gen. Carroll in command of the DIA is the subject of some of his consternation. The book is not about him. It is about Jim Carroll and his relationship with his father who seemed to never be able to fill a void he made in himself by not becoming a Priest himself. And it seems to me this is the large reason for the conflict between them...Jim felt his father expected to be redeemed by his works as a Priest. Though his father never says this.

So when you pick up this book to read, remember it is about Jim Carroll's life and his struggle with his faith and his father. And it does show the spirit of those times. Worth the read.

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"An American Requiem" review

James Carroll's memoir, An American Requiem, displays many examples of scenes and narrative structures that are simply ineffective. As I was reading the book, I often felt as though I was skimming through a history textbook. Instead of focusing solely on his lifelong memories, Carroll often would jump into a long, detailed history lesson in which he would drop names in order to try and appear knowledgeable. While one can see why these can be necessary in some areas, it seems as though Carroll doesn't focus enough on himself. One of many examples of this can be found on page 37, where Carroll proceeds to give a detailed overview of various events that took place in the 1950's.
Another area in which I feel Carroll could improve is character development. I felt as though we were always being told of characters that affected his life, yet not shown how. In comparing this book to J.R. Moehringer's, The Tender Bar, it is quite easy to see how many characters in this book are underdeveloped. For example, when writing of Patrick Hughes, Carroll simply states why he and Patrick were friends, but refrains from really showing us how he was so different from the rest of the Paulists (p. 101).
Finally, Carroll has a definite ethos problem throughout the entire book. By oversimplifying his father, while also ignoring his side of the story, it appears as though Carroll always thinks he is right, and that his father is wrong. The final paragraph of the book proves this when Carroll states that his father is "fallible," yet forbears from looking towards himself with criticism (279). By the end of the book, I was completely turned off to the story because of Carroll's inability to look at his father's point of view instead of always assuming his own as the correct one.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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