The Circle of Hanh: A Memoir

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Summary: An introspective and lyrical reflection
Review: Poet Bruce Weigl invites his reader to share with him this meditation on his past, a look back that then moves constantly forward to the closing of the circle. If you enjoy incomplete stories that nonetheless make great narrative sense, you will enjoy this memoir. Weigl is a fine and sensitive writer.
I came to this book with certain expectations based on some very minimal knowledge of who the author is. I imagined the story of a young man who goes to Viet Nam, is tramautized by the experience and slowly finds his way back through... well, that's what I wanted to find out. I was mainly wrong. This is not really an autobiography in that Weigl leaves out large segments of his life. He tells us rather little about his time in Viet Nam as a soldier. There is almost nothing, for example, about his life as a poet, about the history of his creative efforts, the evolution of his books, etc.
Yet, this is a compelling story and the final chapter is a real page-turner. I left with a strong desire to read more of his poetry.

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Summary: a most powerful memoir of vietnam and its aftermath
Review: this is an amazing book and an amazing story. it is the memoir of bruce weigl, a raw teenager when he fought in the US army in vietnam. it is a very personal account of his profound spiritual and emotional devastation that resulted from the war. in the end, despite enormous, seemingly insurmountable difficulties, he finally achieves some level of redemption by returning to vietnam to adopt an orphaned vietnamese girl as his daughter.

weigl is one of the leading poets of his generation and this book soars with his poet's sensibility. this book helped me to understand better the personal experience of fighting in vietnam and its impact on american soldiers, as well as the vietnamese people.

this is a very emotional, uplifting book which will fill you with hope.

Rating:
Summary: The Circle of Hanh
Review: When I read this marvelous memoir for the first time, I was struck with its florid style, which reveals Weigl as a gifted poet. Weigl's journey takes him from his boyhood in Lorain Ohio, through his tour of duty in Vietham, his visit to North Vietnam in the mid 1980s, and his subsequent adoption of a North Vietnamese girl, Hanh. Though his story is riveting and painful at times, the author manages to bring the important message that sometimes beauty and pain must coexist. "The Circle of Hanh" is especially comforting to post-September 11 Americans in its message that the stories we hear and remember and relate can save us, just as the author's story has done for him.