Larry Heinemann

Infobox Writer


imagesize = 150px
name = Larry Heinemann
birthdate = 1944
birthplace = Chicago
occupation = Novelist, memoirist
nationality = American
period = 1977-
genre = war
subject = Vietnam War
influences = Herman Melville, Leo Tolstoy, William Burroughs, Hunter Thompson
website = "This article is about the American novelist, not the composer/musician known for his collaborations with Blue Man Group."

Larry Heinemann (born 1944) is an American novelist born and raised in Chicago. His body of work is primarily concerned with the Vietnam War. Mr. Heinemann served a combat tour in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 with the 25th Infantry Division, and has described himself as the most ordinary of soldiers. Mr. Heinemann's military experience is documented in his most recent work, "Black Virgin Mountain" (2005), his only nonfiction piece. "Black Virgin Mountain" also chronicles his return trips to Vietnam and his blunt personal and political views concerning the country and the war. He has often referred to his books about Vietnam as an accidental trilogy.

While serving in Vietnam, Mr. Heinemann fought in a battle near the Cambodian border in which filmmaker Oliver Stone also participated. Mr. Heinemann writes of the battle in his first novel, "Close Quarters" (1977), and in "Black Virgin Mountain", and it also forms the basis for the climactic battle scene in Stone's "Platoon".

His fictional prose style is uncompromisingly harsh and honest, and reflects his working class background. His second and critically acclaimed novel is "Paco's Story" (1986), which won the 1987 National Book Award for Fiction, topping Toni Morrison's "Beloved" in a decision that some thought controversial. [Menand, Louis. [http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/051226crbo_books?051226crbo_books "All That Glitters: Literature’s global economy"] (a review of "The Economy of Prestige" by James English). "The New Yorker" (26 December 2005/2 January 2006), Retrieved 11 December 2006.] At the time, Mr. Heinemann's only response to the controversy was that the prize, a check for $10,000, was already cashed, and that the Louise Nevelson sculpture, a gift from the National Book Foundation, was not likely to be returned. "Paco's Story" relates the quasi-picaresque postwar experiences of its titular protagonist, who is haunted by the ghosts of his dead comrades from the war. These ghosts provide the novel's narrative voice. The story deals with the role of the American GI as both victim and victimizer. It is interesting to note that ghost stories are common in both American and Vietnamese literature about the war.

His third novel, "Cooler by the Lake" (1992), departed from the topic of Vietnam and was not very successful, either critically and commercially.

Mr. Heinemann's short stories and non-fiction have appeared in Atlantic Monthly, GRAPHIS, Harper’s, Penthouse, Playboy, and Tri-Quarterly magazines, as well as Van Nghe, the Vietnam Writers Association Journal of Arts and Letters in Hanoi, and numerous anthologies including The Other Side of Heaven, Writing Between the Lines, Vietnam Anthology, Best of the Tri-Quarterly, Lesebuch der Wilden Manner, The Vintage Book of War Stories, and most recently Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace edited by Maxine Hong Kingston. His work has been translated into Dutch, German, French, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

He has received literature fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2002-03 Mr. Heinemann was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to research Vietnamese folklore, legends, and mythology at Hue University.

Mr. Heinemann is currently the Visiting Writer-in-Residence at Texas A&M University.

ee also

References

External links

* [http://logosonline.home.igc.org/heinemann.htm 2003 interview with Larry Heinemann] from "Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture"
* [http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/factfict/heinint.htm 1997 interview with Larry Heinemann] from "The Atlantic Monthly" online edition

Persondata
NAME=Heinemann, Larry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Vietnam War novelist and memoirist
DATE OF BIRTH=1944
PLACE OF BIRTH=Chicago
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=