В армии фараона

[a_kleber]

Зашла в книжный, по сердечному наитию купила роман известного американского автора, у которого я вообще никогда ничего не читала - Tobias Wolff. Роман (сабж) автобиографичен - американцы во Вьетнаме. Война, оккупация, поражение. Книжка не объемна:

"I followed the muddy track through the base. The base was nothing but mud and muddy tents and muddy men looking totally pissed off and brutal and demoralized. In their anger at being in this place and their refusal to come to terms with it they had created a profound, intractable bog. Something was wrong with the latrine system; the place always stank. They hadn't even bothered to plant any grass.

At Dong Tam I saw something that wasn't allowed for in the national myth - our capacity for collective despair. People here seemed in the grip of unshakeable petulance. It was in the slump of their shoulders and the plodding way they moved. A sourness had settled over the base, spoiling and coarsening the men. The resolute imperial will was all played out here at the empire's fringe, lost in rancour and mud. Here were Pharaoh's chariots engulfed; his horsemen confused; all his magnificence dismayed.

A shithole."

Хорошо приложил национальный миф. А пассажи про пространство и время, растянутые в бесконечность постоянной возможностью смерти? Еще лучше. Не зря потратилась.

Кроме того все собираюсь прочесть наконец "Татарскую пустыню" Буццати. Фильм сразу понравился, скорее всего очень близок к оригиналу, но фильм это все же не то.

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По-русски наверное лучше "В фараоновой армии". In Pharaoh's Army: memories of a lost war.