Myers, Walter Dean (1998). Fallen Angels. New York, New York: Scholastic Paperbacks. ISBN: 9780545055768
336 pages
Classification: Fiction
Genre: Historical Fiction
Age Level: 15-19
Stars: 4 stars
Subjects: War, Vietnam, Relationships, Friendship, Death, Grief
Reader's Annotation
Richard Perry sets aside his dreams of college and a writing career and enlists in the army to get out of Harlem and support his family and finds himself in Vietnam, facing the horrors of war, violence, death, and questions about racism and virtue, good and evil in a war that means so little to him.
Summary
This book is set in Vietnam in the late 1960s, where Richard Perry, a Harlem teenager, finds himself after his dreams of college fall through. He is the sole supporter of his family, and even though he could have gotten out of the draft with a medical condition, he enlists to uphold his obligation to them. As he and his comrades face the horrors of war and the basest levels of human existence, Richard is able to contemplate meaningful life questions about the nature of good and evil, and how to find virtue in soldiers trained to kill without question. As the war continues, he starts to realize the disturbing trend that black troops are given the most dangerous assignments, and he seeks to understand what the US is doing there in the first place.
Notes
Richard Perry is a skilled narrative guide throught the trenches of Vietnam. Although it can be graphic and difficult to read at times, the sensitive narrator will draw readers in as he questions the fundamental basis of society and war. These questions that he asks are the same that readers will have, and his exploration of these topics is poignant and sincere and make this book readable in spite of the horror.
Awards
1989 Correta Scott King Award
Author Information
