At first glance, comparing the Vietnam War to events talked about by a blind bard nearly 3,000 years ago seemed like a rather far-fetched and heavily contrived idea to me. I wondered how a work of fiction meant to entertain the superstitious Greeks could possibly pertain to our modern society. Well, Shay quickly answered this question within the first few chapters of the book, and I began to realize what a work of genius it really is.
Achilles is revealed to struggle with feelings of desolation and becomes consumed by rage. This parallels with the interviews Shay conducts with Vietnam veterans in psychiatric wards suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders. The comparison between the two subjects is clear and generates new thoughts and insight into both the classical work and our own understanding of the veterans. More than anything, I now feel a profound need to help those that went off to war, fighting for America, and returned home as something less than they were before, bereft of hopes for the future and a connection with society.
The one thing this book does not question is our motives for being in the war in the first place. Menelaus goes off to Troy to retrieve his wife and Achilles follows as a man loyal to his allegiances. Why did we go?
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