Sympathy for the Devil

By: Kent Anderson, David Morrell - foreword

Narrated by: Chris Ciulla

Kent Anderson's stunning debut novel is a modern classic, a harrowing, authentic picture of one American soldier's experience of the Vietnam War - "unlike anything else in war literature" (Los Angeles Review of Books).

Hanson joins the Green Berets fresh out of college. Carrying a volume of Yeats's poems in his uniform pocket, he has no idea of what he's about to face in Vietnam - from the enemy, from his fellow soldiers, or within himself. In vivid, nightmarish, and finely etched prose, Kent Anderson takes us through Hanson's two tours of duty and a bitter, ill-fated return to civilian life in-between, capturing the day-to-day process of war like no writer before or since.

©1987 Kent Anderson (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Fiction that wounds and stings.... Sympathy for the Devil is a wonderful achievement , written fluently andperceptively, and with the kind of unsparing intelligence that is rooted in careful observation.... Kent Anderson has outwritten just about everybody who preceded him in trying to make fictional sense out of the war." (Peter Straub, Washington Post)

"An ending unlike anything else in war literature ... a nihilist ordeal of such power that comedy and tragedy flow into one another, and you can only watch numbly as your values float away facedown in the river." (Los Angeles Review of Books)

A moving story of a strange war

I lived on the beach in California and worked to invent hippie while the Vietnam war was going on. Now I know a lot more about what it was like for the men who lived another reality at the same time. Anderson gets us into the heart and soul of the day way over there in a strange land fighting a foreign culture so we would never see communism here in the US. Read it and make sure that never happens again.

Unforgettable

Those of us Combat Veterans from other wars can relate to much of this exemplary writing just a little too easily.
Thanks Kent Anderson for penning such an amazing tale and sharing it with us.

The truth is disturbing

I’ve always loved this book, only recently it’s been available on audio. The book is very disturbing, it’s a good story, I believe there’s a lot of truth in this story, it is not a boring book, Time will fly while listening. I gave the performance less than five because the sound quality goes up and down

Gut-Wrenchingly Good

Engaging in its intimate brutality and searing honesty, “Sympathy for the Devil” is a fantastic Conradian glimpse into one of the darkest moments in American history. Complimented by an excellent vocal performance, this novel takes the listener into a journey of philosophy, sadism, deep brotherhood, and beyond into the depths of the human condition. A war in which many men fought and died, told via this man’s war.

unbelievably dark account of man's inhumanity

I read this book years ago in paperback but I had forgotten just how filled with violence and despair and cruelty this account of the Vietnam experience was. the word gritty is often overused in book reviews but if ever there was an account that would fit that description this is it. The random violence and ill fortunes delivered through fate and stupidity are at times overwhelming. If even a small portion of this story is true it explains a lot about why Vietnam Vets had such a tough time getting back into what we refer to as polite Society.

Great book!

5 stars for the book. 1 star for the reader. Oh well. But that’s ok.

Good story lousy narration

I read this book many years ago and really enjoyed it. Couldn't wait to pop on the headphones and listen. Then the narrator started and pretty much made it difficult for me to listen. To put it in a nut shell it was plain over acting. Read the narrative and let the listener apply the emotion to the character.

Kent Anderson

My FAVORITE author after 45+ years of reading. Just a master of teaching young men how to be men in a dangerous, deadly world.

Incredible story of war

I read this before I deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Now I am rereading it almost 15 years later. It really came alive for me after those experiences.

Anderson teases out some incredible aspects of war. He makes it accessible in a way that few others have matched. I will come back to this in another decade and see how much richer it is!