Why are We in Vietnam?

by Norman Mailer

Published April 1969
A novel about a hunting trip in Alaska which turns into an initiation rite. Vietnam is mentioned only once and the book can be seen either as an allegory or a symbolic psychic explanation of America's fighting in Vietnam. The author has won the Pulitzer Prize, The National Book Award for Arts and Letters (1969) and the 14th Annual Award for Outstanding Service to the Arts, McDowell Colony (1973).