Roseville History Book Club Discusses
Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Roseville Library, 2180 Hamline Avenue North, Roseville, MN (Upstairs Board Room)
Wednesday, February 19, 1 p.m.

Join the East Side Freedom Library, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Ramsey County Libraries for the February installment of the History Book Club. We will be reading Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War by Viet Thanh Nguyen.

All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Sympathizer comes a searching exploration of the conflict Americans call the Vietnam War and Vietnamese call the American War—a conflict that lives on in the collective memory of both nations.

From a kaleidoscope of cultural forms—novels, memoirs, cemeteries, monuments, films, photography, museum exhibits, video games, souvenirs, and more—Nothing Ever Dies brings a comprehensive vision of the war into sharp focus. At stake are ethical questions about how the war should be remembered by participants that include not only Americans and Vietnamese but also Laotians, Cambodians, South Koreans, and Southeast Asian Americans. Too often, memorials valorize the experience of one’s own people above all else, honoring their sacrifices while demonizing the “enemy”—or, most often, ignoring combatants and civilians on the other side altogether. Visiting sites across the United States, Southeast Asia, and Korea, Viet Thanh Nguyen provides penetrating interpretations of the way memories of the war help to enable future wars or struggle to prevent them.

We meet in the upstairs Board Room at the Roseville Library at 1 p.m.

The History Book Club meets the third Wednesday of each month. Upcoming Book Clubs:
Mar 18: America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the U.S. by Erika Lee, U of M
Apr 15: Fortress America: How We Embraced Fear and Abandoned Democracy by Elaine Tyler May, U of M
May 20: When They Blew the Levee: Race, Politics, and Community in Pinhook, Missouri by David Todd Lawrence and Elaine J. Lawless.