The Sorrow of War. What a book title! The name even discourages me from reading it.
I don’t know why I stilled picked this novel and read it. Maybe I am always hoping there might be a way to escape from war from other people’s experiences.
This is an astonishing novel by Bao Ninh, from 1991. The very heartbreaking situations in the book are not much different from the nightmares I have every night from my own experiences and their effects on my personality. Even today, while reading the last part of the book I felt terribly sad and had to rest a while before I could think properly.
The experiences that we Afghans have had from different civil wars are much the same as those of Kien, the character of the novel. The book is about the experiences of a soldier during the war between America and North Vietnam. It focuses on how his life was affected and how everyone else was so affected that even their successes seemed like big failures. Through his memories of grief, he explains there is no winner in war. Both sides always lose. War is not something that just happens and then goes away, but it leaves its roots in the lives of people for generations. War brings hatred into human lives and finds its place in their minds for a lifetime.
The book goes back and forth about whether humans want war. If not, then why don’t they find any alternative to avoid it? The answer could be that states go to war when the situation is “indivisible” — it will be zero or all — there is no space for bargaining. This comes about with religious arguments over lands, terrorism, or the fight for a state’s existence, as in Vietnam.
There always seems to be a justification behind each war that has occurred in the world. But even so I could not find any convincing reason for the civil wars in Afghanistan.
Why is there always war? Why do we kill each other constantly?
Vietnam went to war because the North wanted the country to remain as a single state, and they were successful in that. But was it really a success? Kien tells us that after the victory the North Vietnamese did not feel they had won anything because they had lost so much. The feeling of having their unified country became meaningless. “If we found a way to tell them [the dead soldiers] news of a victory, would they be happier?” Kien asks his fellow soldier after the war was over.
He continues with the line that touched me the most in this book: “Killing is a career for the living, not the dead.” This statement is very strong when you think about it. Humans go to war to get peace. But when they are dead, there is no difference between war and peace for them.
Reading the book was very disturbing for me as I followed the author along with his experiences because it reminded me of so many bad scenarios in my own country, which is always in a state of war. From the day I was born, I have not seen my country peaceful. There have been civil wars, ethnic wars, neighboring country conflicts, terrorism, and so many other wars that my people have been through.
What are we looking for? Peace? How will peace come when there is always killing going on? Have we ever thought whether the people of any state return to normal lives once they have gone through war?
I still have nightmares of the bombing every night from years back during the civil war in Afghanistan. I see myself injured again and again every night because I was injured when I was six years old. Often I ask myself: “Am I a normal human being now?” I wonder.
Kien talks about the after effects of war on the people. Those who died were a big loss, but the living are not equally alive. Everything changes for everyone. Hopes and wishes for a happy life seem useless and unreal for those who have been through war. Soldiers or civilians, everyone loses something.
In my personal belief, war makes those who remain alive inhuman in many situations. A scene in the book recounts how “Kien began stepping through the bodies as though it were an everyday event for him…” It goes on to say “Scores of bodies lay in all imaginable positions; there was nothing to scream or take fright about; to him, in his hardened state, it seemed perfectly normal.”
This scene reminded me a recent situation at home in Afghanistan when I was working in my office preparing a presentation for the Ministry of Education to approve an education project. With four other competitors for this project, I was worried that I had to make our project the best in order to win approval for my employer and get a promotion.
On the same day five suicide attacks occurred in Kabul city. The insurgents entered the Ministry of Finance and a bank. There was constant firing among police and NATO and the insurgents. I heard the gun shots as if they were next door, but I was busy working.
Later during the day, the firing was still going on and I was sitting with some of my colleagues, laughing and discussing our normal issues. At once I felt how cruel we have become. Are we getting used to war? We Afghans are no longer afraid of death. People are dying near every corner of our city, yet we don’t even worry about them.
I felt how distant people become from humanity when they constantly witness inhuman acts. I was not worried that I could die, I was more worried about my presentation. Is this how human beings should feel? Is this how we should take life for granted?
Often I wonder if I will be able to forget all the shootings and bombings. Will I forget the dead that I saw when I was six? Will I ever get rid of all the nightmares? Will I always be waiting for the bad news that someone in my family or one of my friends is dead?
Kien makes an astonishing statement in the book when he says: “How could anyone destroy a school? Don’t they have respect for life anymore?” In war no one has respect for anything.
By Lima
photo by Brian Howell
Excellent, and insightful book review, Lima.
You write eloquently and I wish the hell you are still living through would end. Please don’t stop writing. Women like yourself are the real heros and hope for a sane and just society.
“Everybody loses in war” Couldn’t have put any better, Lima and I am sharing your writing. I think everyone needs to hear and read your words. So when we all read the newspapers, we have the experiences of people like Kien and yourself in our minds.
Bless.
This is a great one, Lima. Very happy you decided to read that book and tell us about it.
Thank you all for the encouraging words. I always get energized for writing more when I see all the appreciations 🙂
Bests
Brilliant, Lima. I always tried to convey the pain of being a child of war and define miseries of my poeple in Afghanistan, but I failed to write it down as beuatiful as you did. Excellent, Bravo and God bless. Cant wait to read your writings. Keep it up.
Lima, it is a great piece of work. It is so precious that you reflected on the book based on your personal experience of war. As a victim of war, it makes more sense to define war and its social and psychological impact on people’s life. Great job and i hope that many people get to read this and build a sense of understanding with victims of war.
Great job and good luck on your future writing and advocacy.
wowwwwwwwwwwwwwww u r brillient i just dont have words…. very good job keep it up….
I wouldn’t call it inhuman. I would call it indifference. And that’s a coping method to live life forward. At the end, when there is nothing you can do about it, it is what it is.
Excellent Lima,
And thank you for writing such great things and encouraging me to read it as you know I hate reading –great job dear keep it up
Lima, I am really impressed…and can’t even explain how beautiful your writing is? I wish you success and best of luck. keep it up dear…
Great Job. proud of you.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWEST job Lima 🙂 Keep it up!
As always, Lima, your writing is inspirational and full of truth, with a great big dose of heart thrown in. We are so proud of you, keep up all of your good work!
Great Job Lima! I didn’t know you are that good at writing! 🙂 please keep writing! thats a powerful tool I believe.
Hi Lima, I just read your article. It is a wonderful piece of work. You should be very proud of it. I know there are many things you want to do in the future but don’t overlook writing, you are a great writer, you have such an interesting and analytical viewpoint on things and can take that and translate it into something that makes people think. That is a gift. Keep the articles coming!
Thank you all Dear friends,
Your appreciations mean a lot, and they help me keep writing. Ramin Jan I do write when i get chance from my busiest life…and I have other short articles in this website look for my name under writers names. And check out my personal blog too I will be posting a new entery on the commentators of the US on Afghanistan’s governing issues.
Lima, your writing is truly fantastic. Your insight regarding the invisible hardship that is distancing yourself from an inhumane situation is brilliant, and at the same time deeply saddening. I hope just as much as anyone that war isn’t a human inevitability, but humans have been fighting against each other for millennia. We can only hope that our generation will be the ones who change that.
I agree with so much you have said, Lima. I think too many people ignore the fact that the lingering effects of war often make it impossible for either side to truly win. I would like to find a copy of “The Sorrow of War”; though, as you said, the title is a little discouraging. I think I could learn much from it.
I think many people throughout the world would agree with what you said Lima. Unfortunately, as you stated, for many reasons people go to war and it makes no sense. The Vietnam war has a lot of historical similarities between the wars that plague your country, which is why I think you were able to connect with it so much. Hopefully peace and prosperity will come to your country soon.
Thank you for writing this, Lima. Your raise some very good and thoughtful points. I especially liked when you raised the questions, “Why is there always war? Why do we kill each other constantly?” Very thought provoking. Best of luck with your writing!
Wow Lima this writing is very powerful and it was very awesome i hope you keep writing you are very very good.
Have a very good day,
Michael
Lima, your blog/meditation on the nature of war is one of the more poignant things I have read in a very long time. The questions you bring up are some that I have asked myself throughout my life. Have you ever thought about writing a book yourself? From this post I believe you have the skills and the heart to do so.
Great job and this really means something to me keep writing!
Many people around the world will agree with you 🙂
This story is meanigful
“War never changes” humans have always found a way to kill each like with sticks and stones.But now humans have found ways to kill each other with high tech stuff and I think the end of humanity will end by humans.
keep reading the world needs more people like you
Never give up hope for a better life without war
i love you baby!!!!
This is sad that this is happening and life WOULD be better without war IAN
I agree.
You keep writing and i keep reading good JOB 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thank you very much Dear friends.
Your encouragement really motivate me to keep writting.