A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain | Violence and Death
In this essay, the author examines how violence
and death are subsumed under lyrical beauty in
Robert Olen Butler’s ‘‘A Good Scent from a Strange
Mountain.’’
Robert Olen Butler has asked not to be categorized as a ‘‘Vietnam writer.’’ ‘‘I’m a Vietnam novelist in the way Monet is a lily-pad painter,’’ he insists. ‘‘For me, Vietnam is simply a metaphor in which I’m able to explore the human condition. Whatever Americans’ attitudes are about Vietnam, historically or politically, are of no consequence to me or my writing.’’ Certainly, the title story of his collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain seems to contain none of the didactic ghastliness that Americans have come to associate with literature...
[The entire page is 2383 words long]
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