Rating: 
Summary: Evocative, powerful prose
Review: "A Dangerous Friend" is the second best novel of its type, but that is high praise indeed, since it is only edged out by Graham Greene's "The Quiet American." Just's prose is a joy to read. He was a first-rate journalist in his younger days, and it shows. His economy with words and syntax is a marvel. Not a word is wasted, not a sentence tortured. Beyond that, the story is gripping and poignant. Just, like Greene before him, re-creates Vietnam on the page in a way that makes it startlingly real. The characters not only fulfill their symbolic function but also engage the reader on a human level. Finally, this is the book that makes you really feel what America did in Vietnam, as the U.S. is clearly the "Dangerous Friend" of the title.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative, powerful prose
Review: "A Dangerous Friend" is the second best novel of its type, but that is high praise indeed, since it is only edged out by Graham Greene's "The Quiet American." Just's prose is a joy to read. He was a first-rate journalist in his younger days, and it shows. His economy with words and syntax is a marvel. Not a word is wasted, not a sentence tortured. Beyond that, the story is gripping and poignant. Just, like Greene before him, re-creates Vietnam on the page in a way that makes it startlingly real. The characters not only fulfill their symbolic function but also engage the reader on a human level. Finally, this is the book that makes you really feel what America did in Vietnam, as the U.S. is clearly the "Dangerous Friend" of the title.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent novel of the early days of Vietnam
Review: A subtle, perfectly nuanced depiction of the early days of the Vietnam war. The tension of combat lingers through the book, but the bombings and firefights are largely kept to the background. What Ward Just creates is an authentic story of the civilians, soldiers and bureaucrats who laid the foundation for a war that would eventually become a catastrophic failure for the United States. Just does an excellent job of showing the complexity of Vietnam; the bureaucrats vs the military, the new American imperialists vs the old French colonialists, nation-building vs firebombing. The book centers around Sydney Parade, a sociologist sent to Vietnam to work with a somewhat mysterious government agency, the Llewellyn group, which is charged with collecting information and winning the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese though community projects. He is tasked with winning the cooperation of a French rubber planter and his American wife, relics of French colonialism who are living "between the lines" in an effort to avoid choosing sides and therefore becoming involved. "We went to Vietnam because we wanted to." Explains the narrator. "We were not drafted. We were encouraged to volunteer and if our applications were denied, we applied again." Just captures the optimism, confusion, bureacracy, and overconfidence of America's early days in Vietnam, and we soon get a glimpse of the impending disillusionment. Just covered the Vietnam war as a correspondent, and his first-hand familiarity with the conflict shows. An excellent novel.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent novel of the early days of Vietnam
Review: A subtle, perfectly nuanced depiction of the early days of the Vietnam war. The tension of combat lingers through the book, but the bombings and firefights are largely kept to the background. What Ward Just creates is an authentic story of the civilians, soldiers and bureaucrats who laid the foundation for a war that would eventually become a catastrophic failure for the United States. Just does an excellent job of showing the complexity of Vietnam; the bureaucrats vs the military, the new American imperialists vs the old French colonialists, nation-building vs firebombing. The book centers around Sydney Parade, a sociologist sent to Vietnam to work with a somewhat mysterious government agency, the Llewellyn group, which is charged with collecting information and winning the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese though community projects. He is tasked with winning the cooperation of a French rubber planter and his American wife, relics of French colonialism who are living "between the lines" in an effort to avoid choosing sides and therefore becoming involved. "We went to Vietnam because we wanted to." Explains the narrator. "We were not drafted. We were encouraged to volunteer and if our applications were denied, we applied again." Just captures the optimism, confusion, bureacracy, and overconfidence of America's early days in Vietnam, and we soon get a glimpse of the impending disillusionment. Just covered the Vietnam war as a correspondent, and his first-hand familiarity with the conflict shows. An excellent novel.
Rating:
Summary: Part II of Graham Greene's "Quiet American"
Review: Comparisons of Ward Just's "Dangerous Friend" with Graham Greene's "Quiet American" are inevitable, not just because of context and setting, but because of the gauzy style in which the lyrics of both stories are told. But there are important differences. Greene evokes a tropical melancholy, a vague portent of things to come. Ward Just picks up about where Greene leaves off and leads us slowly into the vortex of senseless American arrogance that came to typify our war in Vietnam. It's mostly a gentle journey with a solar plexus punch at the end. Just's insight is unerring, crystal clear, and his language is a model of simple eloquence. "A Dangerous Friend" reminds us vividly of much we would like to forget.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly Just's best book.
Review: I found A Dangerous Friend sexy and sad and incredibly moving -- you feel the ignorance and idealism of the volunteer Americans who come to Vietnam just as the war is beginning, and the terrible consequences of their ignorance. A stunning book.
Rating: 
Summary: A poor imitation of greater works
Review: I got two things from this novel; That the author likes A) France, and B) Anonymity. The narrator never emerges, but chronicles the activities of the protagonist beautifully. And that's the crux of the problem. Greene's (IMHO much better) novel, The Quiet American, did not allow for neutrality or pacivity on the part of the characters, or the reader. Just's novel allows for a certain level of detatchment that does not fit. This novel never surfaces any issues in any way that makes the reader question what they'd have done differently. And this detatchment is far too safe for the subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: A poor imitation of greater works
Review: I got two things from this novel; That the author likes A) France, and B) Anonymity. The narrator never emerges, but chronicles the activities of the protagonist beautifully. And that's the crux of the problem. Greene's (IMHO much better) novel, The Quiet American, did not allow for neutrality or pacivity on the part of the characters, or the reader. Just's novel allows for a certain level of detatchment that does not fit. This novel never surfaces any issues in any way that makes the reader question what they'd have done differently. And this detatchment is far too safe for the subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: Not quite there
Review: I liked this book and liked seeing the civilian side of the war revealed. What a crock these people must have been about in the early days of the war. As an Army helicopter pilot, we viewed their efforts and flew them around on their missions to improve this country. Watching their seriousness and intrigue was amusing and quizical at best. We flew a lot of single ship missions in support of MACV and USAID; thank God our seriousness was about flying the Huey.
Read further about our side of the war with OUTLAWS IN VIETNAM; my book on flying UH-1D's out of Vinh Long in the Delta. Ward Just's book shows a very interesting story of what it must have been like to be French as this American involvement unfolds.
Rating:
Summary: A Dangerous Friend
Review: I liked this book and liked seeing the civilian side of the war revealed. What a crock these people must have been about in the early days of the war. As an Army helicopter pilot, we viewed their efforts and flew them around on their missions to improve this country. Watching their seriousness and intrigue was amusing and quizical at best. We flew a lot of single ship missions in support of MACV and USAID; thank God our seriousness was about flying the Huey.
Read further about our side of the war with OUTLAWS IN VIETNAM; my book on flying UH-1D's out of Vinh Long in the Delta. Ward Just's book shows a very interesting story of what it must have been like to be French as this American involvement unfolds.
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