National Book Award Finalist From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory and the forthcoming Bewilderment, an exquisitely rendered novel set in the pediatrics ward of a public hospital that examines the power, joy, and anguish of storytelling. I’d probably have to read it at least 2 more times to truly understand all the levels. So we trace this from the Second World War to the U.S. Army in Vietnam, a division of psychological operations called Wandering Soul. In these cases, the sounds being beamed out into the night were joined by a rain of papers carrying frightening images and disturbing messages designed to incite terror, such as: We think of how these wounds torment your body until the day you die in the nooks and corner of the thick forests and mountains. Go home my friends before it is too late. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published With this review of Operation Wandering Soul, I also recommend all of Richard Powers' novels. Part of what they were involved in was sonic deception, putting loud speakers in the battlefield to create a false impression. Since the majority of the Viet Cong fighters were most certainly not to be afforded a proper burial and would die far from their homes, the operation that was to be called Operation Wandering Soul meant to exploit this ancient belief in order to rattle and terrorize the enemy, disorient them, or to even cause them to abandon their war efforts all together. However, there are many more reports that speak of the tape having other effects of varying success. It’s Hell, Hell! In one instance typical of these tapes, a man’s ghostly voice surrounded by a blood curdling medley of spooky sounds laments: My friends, I come back to let you know that I am dead! His novels range across the spectrum of United States taken on industry and cancer (Gain) and so much more. He is overwhelmed by his work load and often runs on autopilot. of the Vietnam War. I don’t know how to rate this. I came across a copy of this a month later, perhaps? There is no real hard, objective data to demonstrate just how effective Operation Wandering Soul actually was, and what data there is is muddied by the contradictory reports from the field as to how well it actually worked. In many cases, it was reported that friendly troops would retreat to their homes upon hearing the recordings, after which any remaining confused soldiers would be captured and brought in for questioning. Colonel Charles Shelton was an Air Force pilot … The operation played off the belief of many Vietnamese in the "wandering soul": "It is the Vietnamese belief that the dead must be buried in their homeland, or their soul will wander aimlessly in pain and suffering. And hellish it is too, for it depicts the inner (and outer) life of surgeon Richard Kraft as he works day and night in the emergency … I have decidedly mixed feelings about this one, and four stars may be too generous - as so often with Powers it is full of ideas and references - indeed it would have taken more than twice as long to read if I had looked up all of the unfamiliar words, events and scientific elements that Powers discusses. Certainly it isn't a light read, but a worthwhile one if you've got the attention for it. I have no idea what is going on and some pages had me falling asleep. This was a ghostly sound. Copyright © Mysterious Universe. There is beauty in the individual; as a mass, we are a disaster. The world is exactly the way we know it to be, only worse. Child abuse most agree is the lowest form of inhumanity, but then how can we rid the world of this bane once and for all? Hell, listening to that made me want to Chieu Hoi myself. Some of the audio tapes used in the Operation Wandering Soul also contained messages from so called Vietnamese people. It was a finalist for the National Book Award . Since the majority of the Viet Cong fighters were most certainly not to be afforded a proper burial and would die far from their homes, the operation that was to be called Operation Wandering Soul meant to exploit this ancient belief in order to rattle and terrorize the enemy, disorient them, or to even cause them to abandon their war efforts all together. Helicopter fitted with speakers for blasting the ghost tape. The ending was especially confusing, which may be the cause of my relatively low rating for a book I did mostly enjoy. ›. This exhibition sparked an immediate immersion into the cynicism that only released its grip periodically throughout the book. By: Richard Powers Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne Try for $0.00 $14.95/month after 30 days. ‹ The template below ( Disambiguation) is being considered for merging. Buy for $34.99 Buy for $34.99 Confirm purchase No default payment method selected. Powers is absolutely brilliant intellectually (this may be greatest strength and fault). See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. Perhaps those looking for a challenge would like it more. Operation Wandering Soul requires slow--and multiple--reading, but it repays richly. There were many moments when I was a hummingbird's flutter from throwing the book across the room. Just this morning headlines include a story of widespread child trafficking ring busted up and the gripping details exposed. David Foster Wallace vouched for this book, so I read it. The time seems to be the near future. Ultimately the book is a kind of elegy for childhood in our modern and fast paced society. He meets a therapist called Linda Espera and between them they look to treat a group of children who have damaged bodies and souls. I think Powers is amazing, a brilliant writer, a treasure. Operation Wandering Soul was a propaganda campaign exercised by U.S. --USA Today. This one sucked. Operation: Wandering Soul. Go home! It must have been effective as hell in the jungle at night. Be the first to ask a question about Operation Wandering Soul. I could not finish it and I was on a desert island. Operation Wandering Soul mostly takes place in Carver Hospital in “Angel City”. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Nevertheless a sense of hopefulness emerges as the retelling of the Pied Piper of Hamelin comes to its inevitable end. The language used throughout is astonishing, conveying the fast descent into madness of the young surgeon and the frenetic activity in the children's ward. The resulting compilation of recordings was unofficially often called “Ghost Tape No. And hellish it is too, for it depicts the inner (and outer) life of surgeon Richard Kraft as he works day and night in the emergency … Operation Wandering Soul exploited Vietnamese spiritual beliefs and involved playing ghostly sounds to scare the North Vietnamese! One of my absolute top five novels ever. Operation Wandering Soul took advantage on Vietnamese or Buddhist beliefs on life after death. Looking back through our long history of war is like looking through an encyclopedia of the numerous injustices and atrocities our kind is willing to inflict upon each other. It seemed to me the ending had the kids escaping with the "Pied Piper" named Christopher to nowhere? Hurry! The caregivers slowly lose themselves as the pain of caring for terminally ill children overwhelms them. Operation Wandering Soul. The PSYOP unit hired South Vietnamese voice actors to play the role of ghost soldiers and their families lamenting in an echo chamber . The language used throughout is astonishing, conveying the fast descent into madness of the young surgeon and the frenetic activity in the children's ward. This is easily the darkest and least accessible Powers novel I've read yet, and I'm not entirely sure whether to admire it or be confounded by it. These “wandering souls,” as they were called, were said to be mostly invisible to the living, but could be contacted on the anniversary of their deaths, when a channel is believed to be formed between the two worlds, or near the spot where they had met their doom. Well, a nov. "OWS" was a psychological warfare tactic employed to disrupt the enemy during the Vietnam War and Richard Powers adopted it for a title to his book about the plight of children worldwide and across time, a topic sadly relevant today as ever. I felt like this book was over my head in parts. I liked it, but not enough to read it 2 more times, especially because there is no guarantee I would understand it any better at that point. Operation Wandering Soul may refer to: Operation Wandering Soul (Vietnam War), an American psychological warfare campaign. Forces during the Vietnam War. This involved helicopter-mounted loudspeakers playing simulated Buddhist chants, fabricated sounds of the dead ancestors of the Viet … Some of the effects used were recording voices through echo chambers or speeding up or slowing down the audio to produce a ghostly effect. Start by marking “Operation Wandering Soul” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Got me through my son's surgeries. Whether any of this truly worked or not, Operation Wandering Soul reminds us that not all of the craziness of war is tied up in the merely physical damage it inflicts, and that there seems to be no end to the lengths we are willing to go to torment the enemy and gain some advantage by any means. The story opens in a city of angels where automobile traffic congenially flows within the perimeters of multiple lanes with drivers occupying every open space in the concrete canals without walls, and where Dr. Richard Kraft's descriptive impression of it ensued. Charles Shelton. This is one hell of a novel, not surprisingly a National Book Award Finalist. Who will think of you?…. . [it] is bedtime reading for the future.” —USA Today . Just this morning headlines include a story of widespread child trafficking ring busted up and the gripping details exposed. To see what your friends thought of this book, I have decidedly mixed feelings about this one, and four stars may be too generous - as so often with Powers it is full of ideas and references - indeed it would have taken more than twice as long to read if I had looked up all of the unfamiliar words, events and scientific elements that Powers discusses. Cancel anytime. The most pessimistic of Powers’s novels, Operation Wandering Soul uses a pediatric surgical ward as the microcosm that exposes what modern American society does to its children. Opaque to the point of oblivion. Yet looking through the tapestry of death, destruction and blood that is scrawled over our history it is easy to be overwhelmed by the violence and to overlook the many ways we have attacked not physically, but psychologically. How quaint that memory remains: I printed an article and kept it with me for weeks: it was the 90s. There were also concerns voiced over the effectiveness of the sounds in causing defections, as how would the enemy possibly choose to defect when they knew that they were almost always immediately fired upon when coming out of hiding upon hearing the ghost tapes? His novels force the reader to focus on humanity as a whole rather than the narrower, individualistic focus of traditional novels. Operation Wandering Soul tells the story of a children's ward in "Carver Hospital" from the point of view of Richard Kraft, an overworked surgical resident, and therapist Linda Espera. that's how I got to this one, through my love of the author. But when I realized the truth, it was too late. There were also serious doubts as to how much the enemy really bought these recordings as voices from beyond the grave, with arguments that it was the fury of having their culture abused by the foreign enemy that caused such rage filled responses rather than any true fear of wandering spirits or belief that the sounds belching forth from the speakers were real. It brings in a lot of other elements, though, including the doctor's own childhood and various fables from around the world. Well, a novel can speak to and show fault, even display hope, but the work is ours. His novels range across the spectrum of United States taken on industry and cancer (Gain) and so much more. The Vietnamese believed that the dead must be properly buried in their own homeland, lest their soul become a shadowy, wandering wraith forever doomed to constantly meander in pain and anguish through a dark hinterland between the worlds of the living in the dead. 10,” and featured ghoulish voices urging the enemy, which they often called their “descendants,” to turn and flee lest they meet the same gruesome fate. The Last P.O.W. Highly imaginative and emotionally powerful, this stunning novel about childhood innocence amidst the nightmarish disease and deterioration at the heart of modern Los Angeles was nominated for a National Book Award. A Kit Carson Scout told me what the music was. From the battlefields of the Vietnam War comes one such case, which is a bizarre story of a weapon of psychological warfare which sought to use the perceived presence of the tormented ghosts of the fallen and supernatural beliefs as a weapon to inflict terror upon the enemy. Operation Wandering Soul by Faust Arp published on 2016-12-08T16:04:43Z. I found the parallel stories/metaphor of the Pied Piper, the children's crusade, and the dying children in a pediatric oncology floor in an LA hospital very moving. His books are a challenge. Wandering Soul is one fascinating example of the psychological operations the United States implemented during the Vietnam War. On one occasion the sounds led … Friends, while you are still alive, there is still a chance you will be reunited with your love ones. This novel didn't resonate with me at all. Yet the language never fails to convey the pain and loneliness of children in an age when they seem to matter less and. We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day. I think Powers is amazing, a brilliant writer, a treasure. But it is the final resting place, many, many kilometers from the graves of his ancestors. The first 50 or so pages were daunting - but once the rhythms of the novel catch hold you will be amazed that this first rate novelists is not better known. It almost read as if the author had something to prove; why else write an entire book with so little actual plot and character development? Over the course of a few weeks, sound engineers and these South Vietnamese volunteers went to work recording a series of eerie voices that were altered, engineered and remixed to make them as otherworldly and terrifying as possible, and which were joined by a cacophony of other bizarre sounds, such as funeral music, mournful wailing, sobbing, shrieking, screaming, the banging of metal gongs, and even the sound of an angry tiger’s growl, all made to sound as preternatural as the technology would allow. During my reading of Infinite Jest I printed an interview with Mr. Wallace from salon.com. Powers is absolutely brilliant intellectually (this may be greatest strength and fault). 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