SOURCE: "Writing Under Fire: Postmodern Fiction and the Vietnam War," in Postmodern Fiction: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide, edited by Larry McCaffery, Greenwood Press, 1986, pp. 79-92.

[An American educator and critic, Klinkowitz has written extensively on contemporary American fiction and edited Writing Under Fire: Stories of the Vietnam War (1978). In the essay below, he surveys novels published during American involvement in the Vietnam War and focuses his analysis on innovative approaches to plot and structure.]

American novels and stories about Vietnam reveal a common, desperate search for meaning—a search for any shred of authenticity in this experience—that may be traced back decades before "our" Vietnam War and that extends forward to the decade that has now passed since the American withdrawal from Vietnam. Although many important novels about Vietnam have recently appeared—Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato (1978), Robert Butler's The Alleys of Eden (1981), John Cassidy's A Station in...