Meditations in Green
by Stephen Wright
List Price:
Our Price: $8.97
You Save: $5.98 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.45 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Stephen WrightEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2003-08-12
ISBN: 0375712933
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Meditations in Green
Book Review: Imagine Catch-22 about Vietnam as written by an incredible prose stylist
Summary: 5 Stars
It's obvious, having read the two so close to each other, that Meditations in Green is heavily influenced and inspired by Catch-22, but it's also obvious that whatever its genesis, Meditations is a wholly unique work. Like Catch-22, Wright takes a massive array of characters and creates a book more about episodes than a cohesive narrative; while it's not as train-of-thought as Heller's work, it's still wandering from story to story, jumping from character to character. But while Catch-22 is laugh out loud funny, Meditations is filled with the sort of humor that always seems to arise from books about Vietnam - that dark, brooding humor than only results in uncomfortable silence from those of us who weren't there. There's also unimaginable horrors here, as well as copious drug use; in other words, it's definitely Catch-22 filtered through the Vietnam experience. But the feel of the book is wholly different. There are no innocents in Wright's world, only less damaged people, and no one comes out unscathed. "It meant there were cliffs where he once assumed there were fences," Wright writes about a character who discovers unpleasant truths about the war, and that feeling of trying to cope with and comprehend the horrors of Vietnam permeate the book. But what will always set apart Wright's work, especially Meditations, is the masterful writing. Wright brings a wholly new dialogue and language to the book, crafting images of the jungle as massive, abandoned hotels, or creating a nightmarish firework display and a torn, leaking sky out of a midnight gun battle as observed by stoned soldiers. The combination all adds up to a book unlike anything you have ever read, creating an experience that lingers in a visceral, vibrant way long after the book is done. There's no through message here, no central metaphor, no ability to laugh at the war; there are only survival techniques - be they drugs, insanity, routine - and horrors. What Wright creates is one of the finest, most literate, and most sadly neglected books about Vietnam ever written. An unknown masterpiece.
Summary of Meditations in Green
Sardonic, searing, seductive and surreal, the award-winning Meditations in Green is regarded by many as the best novel of the Vietnam War. It is a kaleidoscopic collage that whirls about an indelible array of images and characters: perverted Winky, who opted for the army to stay off of welfare; eccentric Payne, who?s obsessed with the film he?s making of the war; bucolic Claypool, who?s irrevocably doomed to a fate worse than death. Just to mention a few.And floating at the center of this psychedelic spin is Spec. 4 James Griffin. In country, Griffin studies the jungle of carpet bomb photos as he fights desperately to keep his grip on reality. And battling addiction stateside after his tour, he studies the green of household plants as he struggles mightily to get his sanity back. With mesmerizing action and Joycean interior monologues, Stephen Wright has created a book that is as much an homage to the darkness of war as it is a testament to the transcendence of art.
Historical Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Books on my reading list, part 2
Terra Nostra (Latin American Literature Series)by Carlos Fuentes
Dalkey Archive Press; Published: 2003-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.22
Price in other shops:
Meditations in Greenby Stephen Wright
Vintage; Published: 2003-08-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.97
Price in other shops:
The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll (New York Review Books Classics)by Alvaro Mutis, Francisco Goldman
NYRB Classics; Published: 2002-01-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.67
Price in other shops:
Hortense Is Abductedby Jacques Roubaud, Dominic Di Bernardi
Dalkey Archive Press; Published: 2000-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.62
Price in other shops:
Every Man Dies Aloneby Hans Fallada
Melville House; Published: 2009-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops:
What Can I Do When Everything's On Fire?: A Novelby António Lobo Antunes
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2008-09-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
Op Oloop (Latin American Literature)by Juan Filloy
Dalkey Archive Pr; Published: 2009-08-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.78
Price in other shops:
Close to Jedenew (The Contemporary Art of the Novella)by Kevin Vennemann
Melville House; Published: 2008-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Summer Will Show (New York Review Books Classics)by Sylvia Townsend Warner
NYRB Classics; Published: 2009-06-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.60
Price in other shops:
How to Quiet a Vampire: A Sotie (Writings from an Unbound Europe)by Borislav Pekic
Northwestern University Press; Published: 2003-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.97
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Steven Wright - I Still Have a PonyRelease date: 2007-09-25; Music CD
Best price: $8.32
Price in other shops:
In Country: a novelby Bobbie Ann Mason
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.84
Price in other shops:
Dispatches (Everyman's Library (Cloth))by Michael Herr
Everyman's Library; Published: 2009-02-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.36
Price in other shops:
Paco's Story: A Novelby Larry Heinemann
Vintage; Published: 2005-04-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.01
Price in other shops:
In the Lake of the Woodsby Tim O'Brien
Mariner Books; Published: 2006-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.28
Price in other shops:
Going After Cacciatoby Tim O'Brien
Broadway; Published: 1999-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.09
Price in other shops:
M31: A Family Romanceby Stephen Wright
Vintage; Published: 2004-03-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.46
Price in other shops:
The Amalgamation Polka (Vintage Contemporaries)by Stephen Wright
Vintage; Published: 2007-06-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.30
Price in other shops:
Close Quarters: A Novelby Larry Heinemann
Vintage; Published: 2005-08-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.65
Price in other shops:
Going Nativeby Stephen Wright
Vintage; Published: 2005-04-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.65
Price in other shops: