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Praise for "The Cat from Hue"
John Balaban (International Voluntary Service worker in Vietnam; author: Remembering Heaven’s Face and ten other books; twice nominated for the National Book Award; winner of the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award.)‘The Cat from Hue is wonderfully vivid, wonderfully written. On our long shelf of Vietnam books, I don't think I've read anything that captures so immediately the peculiar taste of the war. Laurence writes as if it all were yesterday. In the clear time-capsule of his memory, the stories he renders with a fiction writer's skills are nonetheless never invented, always true to events, as if anything less would dishonor the dead.’
Michael Buerk (journalist and anchor: The BBC Ten O’Clock News)‘Jack Laurence is one of the world’s finest television reporters. He came professionally of age covering Vietnam—the first, and maybe the last, television war, where the technology would go as far as brave men (and women) were prepared to take it, and the military, not realising the consequences, helped them get there. Brilliant though they were, his award-winning television reports were only snapshots of what was an overwhelming experience of combat and its consequences. For twenty-five years, Jack Laurence has been putting together a personal account of a television reporter’s war, honest in its purpose, meticulous in its detail, as devastating in its impact as a burst from an M-16. It is all there, the cruelty and the courage, the dirt and the danger, and the numbing nothingness that’s left for those who survive. You can almost smell how it was, without even a whiff of bullshit. If you really want to know what war is like, and what television reporters do for their living, and sometimes their dying, this book is all you’ll ever need. A 20th century epic, where even the heroes are human, and you just know every word is true.’ Walter Cronkite (managing editor and anchor, The CBS Evening News, 1962-81.)Those of us who, with virtually unstinted admiration, followed Jack Laurence's seemingly fearless reporting from Vietnam have waited thirty years for this book. He does not disappoint. It is a classic of war reporting.’ Frances FitzGerald (author: Fire in the Lake: the Vietnamese and Americans in Vietnam. National Book award and Pulitzer Prize winner.)‘In this book Jack Laurence becomes the Odysseus of the Vietnam war, returning years later with fresh news of the battles and tales of his journey so vividly told that readers will feel they accompanied him and saw what combat was really like and what it does to the mind and soul. Possibly the best television correspondent of the Vietnam War, Laurence has written a book that is at once intelligent, perceptive and gripping. I, for one, couldn't put it down.’ David Halberstam (author: The Best and the Brightest, The Powers That Be, The Making of a Quagmire. Pulitzer Prize winner.)‘Jack Laurence went to Vietnam in 1965 when he was twenty-five and quickly established himself as one of the most distinguished correspondents of that war. No other reporter's work so successfully captured the feelings and emotions of the grunts who fought it. Now, more than thirty-five years later, he has finally published his memoir of that time - a kind of modern era Red Badge of Courage - a coming-of-age as a young man against a background of sheer terror. More than any book I know it explains what happened in the complicated collision between those who fought the war and those who covered it.’ Phillip Knightley (journalist and author: The First Casualty; twice winner of the United Kingdom Journalist of the Year award.)‘In a lifetime of reading there are few books ones will remember always. This is one of them. John Laurence, an American television war correspondent, has spent 25 years writing it, coming to terms with his experiences and nightmares of Vietnam, that brutal, tragic, futile war. From an idealistic, naive reporter--“In those early days I believed everything I was told”--who thought the American cause was an honourable one, we follow his development into a hardened, perceptive reporter determined to reveal the real face of the war. Against a background of America’s attempt to impose the attitudes of a modern, industrialised society on an ancient civilisation based on the land, tradition, family and philosophy, Laurence clings to his essential humanity as he unfolds an epic, inspiring story.’ General Robert Shoemaker, U.S. Army (Retired)‘A fascinating story that captures the tragedy of Vietnam superbly. I hope it finds a place on the bookshelves of all serious professional soldiers. They will profit from its incisive observation and masterful storytelling.' Colonel Robert Thompson, USMC (Retired),Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1968.‘I met John Laurence in Vietnam during the battle of Hue Citadel, Tet 1968. Since that time I have followed his career and have been impressed with his honesty in reporting and amazed at his vast experience in Vietnam and other hot spots around the world. He brings that experience and integrity to The Cat from Hue. If you want to know how it was in Vietnam, read this book – it is superb.’
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