Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam

Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam
by Lynda Van Devanter

Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam
List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $22.04
You Save: $2.91 (12%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Lynda Van Devanter
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-04-01
ISBN: 1558492984
Number of pages: 331
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press

Book Reviews of Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam

Book Review: Great Way to Remember How it Really Was
Summary: 5 Stars

This eye opening book puts war in the proper perspective; it's ugly, hostile and sad. Never have I read a more personal view of how Viet Nam truly was. There is no sugar coating and it brings images back so vividly. This should be mandatory reading for anyone contiplating joining the military, especially the nurse corps. Once you read all the pages, you understand how it was. I highly encourage everyone to read this book.

Summary of Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam

"This incredible story, which plunges us immediately into the bloodiest aspects of the war, is also a suspenseful autobiography that will keep you chewing your fingernails to see if Van Devanter survives any of it at all. She proves herself a natural storyteller. . . . The most extraordinary part in this book is Van Devanter's plight after the war-her attempt to retrieve the love of her family, only to realize they don't want to see her slides, hear her stories; her assignment to menial duties at Walter Reed Army Hospital. . . . How Van Devanter survives all of this to become, incredibly, a stronger person for it is what makes her book so riveting."-San Francisco Chronicle

"An awesome, painfully honest look at war through a woman's eyes. Her letters home and startling images of life in a combat zone-surgeons fighting to save a Vietnamese baby wounded in utero, the ever-present stench of napalm-charred flesh, a beloved priest's gentle humor and appalling death, the casual heroism of her colleagues, a Vietnamese 'Papa-san' trying to talk his dead child back to life, a haunting snapshot dropped by a dying soldier with no face-tell the story of a young American's rude initiation to the best and the worst of humanity."-Washington Post

"Moving, powerful . . . a healing book."-Ms. Magazine

"This book reads like a diary: unguarded, heartfelt. . . . [It] is both moving and valu-able, for reminding us so vividly that war is indeed hell . . . and that its most tested heroes are the doctors and nurses who doggedly labor not just to save life, but also to keep their respect for it, even as their surviving patients are sent out, once more, unto the breach."-Harper's Magazine

"In Vietnam, reality hit fast: Van Devanter's plane was fired on when it landed in Saigon; and after three days of adjustment, she was assigned to the 71st Evacuation Hospital, a 'MASH-type facility' near the Cambodian border. There, the casualties, . . . the personal danger, the fatigue, the heat, rain, and mud, the harassment of officers enforcing petty regulations, and above all the meaninglessness of American involvement rapidly put an end to Van Devanter's blind patriotism, her innocence, and her youth. . . . Van Devanter brings us face to face with the toll that undeclared war took on its combatants."-Kirkus Reviews

"If you read only one work about Vietnam, make this the one. . . . This is the way it was, as seen through the eyes of an army second lieutenant when she was twenty-two. I believe her completely, because this reviewer remembers Vietnam the same way, when he was a nineteen-year-old Marine PFC."-Deseret Sentinel

General Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in War Medical Books
Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam (Studies in Health, Illness, and Caregiving) ImageWomen at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam (Studies in Health, Illness, and Caregiving)
by Elizabeth Norman
University of Pennsylvania Press; Published: 1990-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $27.50
Combat Medic: Vietnam: Combat Medic: Vietnam ImageCombat Medic: Vietnam: Combat Medic: Vietnam
by Craig Roberts
Pocket; Published: 1991-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $71.92
Combat Medic: World War II ImageCombat Medic: World War II
by John A. Kerner
IBooks, Inc.; Published: 2006-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops: $12.95
The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders ImageThe Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders
by Emmanuel Guibert
First Second; Published: 2009-05-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.99
Price in other shops: $29.95
War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq: A Series of  Cases, 2003-2007 (Textbooks of Military Medicine) ImageWar Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq: A Series of Cases, 2003-2007 (Textbooks of Military Medicine)
Dept. of the Army; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $65.62
Price in other shops: $71.00
Doc: Platoon Medic ImageDoc: Platoon Medic
by Daniel E. Evans Jr., Charles W. Sasser
IUniverse; Published: 2002-10-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.73
Price in other shops: $23.95
Doc: Heroic Stories of Medics,Corpsmen,and Surgeons in Combat ImageDoc: Heroic Stories of Medics,Corpsmen,and Surgeons in Combat
by Mark R. Littleton
Zenith Press; Published: 2005-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $33.78
Not On My Watch: The 21st Century Combat Medic ImageNot On My Watch: The 21st Century Combat Medic
by Joshua M. Peters , Josh R. Fansler
AuthorHouse; Published: 2004-12-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.47
Price in other shops: $23.95
Warrior Healers: The Untold Story of the Special Forces Medic ImageWarrior Healers: The Untold Story of the Special Forces Medic
by Leonard Blessing Jr.
iUniverse, Inc.; Published: 2006-07-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.60
Price in other shops: $18.95
Medic!: How I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs ImageMedic!: How I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs
by Robert "Doc Joe" Franklin
Bison Books; Published: 2008-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops: $12.95
Similar Books and other products
The Jungle (Bantam Classics) ImageThe Jungle (Bantam Classics)
by Upton Sinclair
Bantam Classics; Published: 1981-10-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops: $5.95
Who Built America? Working People and the Nation's History, Vol. 2: 1877 to the Present ImageWho Built America? Working People and the Nation's History, Vol. 2: 1877 to the Present
by American Social History Project, Christopher Clark, Nancy Hewitt, Roy Rosenzweig, Nelson Lichtenstein, Joshua Brown, David Jaffee
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2007-12-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $38.50
Light at the End of the Tunnel: A Vietnam War Anthology ImageLight at the End of the Tunnel: A Vietnam War Anthology
by Andrew J. Rotter
SR Books; Published: 1999-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.00
Price in other shops: $37.95
Vietnam Nurses with Dana Delany ImageVietnam Nurses with Dana Delany
Release date: 2006-08-18; DVD
Best price: $21.95
Out Of This Furnace: A Novel of Immigrant Labor in America ImageOut Of This Furnace: A Novel of Immigrant Labor in America
by Thomas Bell
University of Pittsburgh Press; Published: 1976-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops: $16.95
Vietnam Wars 1945-1990 ImageVietnam Wars 1945-1990
by Marilyn Young
Harper Perennial; Published: 1991-09-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.79
Price in other shops: $14.95
Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq ImageOverthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
by Stephen Kinzer
Times Books; Published: 2007-02-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $17.00
The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam ImageThe Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam
by Bao Ninh
Riverhead Books; Published: 1996-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.20
Price in other shops: $15.00
How the Other Half Lives ImageHow the Other Half Lives
by Jacob Riis
CreateSpace; Published: 2009-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.25
A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of 26 American Women Who Served in Vietnam ImageA Piece of My Heart: The Stories of 26 American Women Who Served in Vietnam
by Keith Walker
Presidio Press; Published: 1997-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.92
Price in other shops: $19.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories