All I Thought Was True

By Kenneth Kottka

Book Overview

This bawdy, satirical look at the aftermath of the Vietnam Experience is as relevant today as it was a generation ago. This is a unique, poignant exploration of society's corruption and the hope of individual redemption, seen through the eyes of a returning veteran whose life and homeland have been changed forever.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1882897315
• ISBN13: 9781882897315
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Lost Coast Press
• Length: 177 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good reading here

This story is set in the 1960's. Art is a lieutenant just back in the States from Nam. He had done his BA at Oklahoma University and was returning to teach and finish his masters. This book is one year of Art's life as he begins to see himself and the world as it really is. The picture is not pretty.Anyone old enough to remember the 1960's, or to have been one who had to serve in the war, will thoroughly understand and empathize with Art. Anyone who does not know what the 2S Deferment is, will get a little understanding of it and how many used it to their advantage. The author, Ken Kottka, does not insult the Reader's intelligence and go into detail. Personally, I liked that.A word of warning. This book has much sex, violence, adult situations, all types of substance abuse, and of language. Never say you were not warned!

Be warned of adult situations.

This story is set in the 1960's. Art is a lieutenant just back in the States from Nam. He had done his BA at Oklahoma University and was returning to teach and finish his masters. This book is one year of Art's life as he begins to see himself and the world as it really is. The picture is not pretty. Anyone old enough to remember the 1960's, or to have been one who had to serve in the war, will thoroughly understand and empathize with Art. Anyone who does not know what the 2S Deferment is, will get a little understanding of it and how many used it to their advantage. The author, Ken Kottka, does not insult the Reader's intelligence and go into detail. Personally, I liked that. A word of warning. This book has much sex, violence, adult situations, all types of substance abuse, and of language. Never say you were not warned!

Engrossing book; reads like a movie!

Once I started "All I Thought Was True" by Ken Kottka, I couldn't put the book down. It reads like a movie.In this thoughtful and humorous book, the central character, Art, tries to understand his life and the events occurring around him. Returning from Vietnam, Art and his college friends are going through some very difficult times, and the world is in the worst trouble of all. The book uses flashbacks to the Vietnam war to show the extent of Art's pain and his subsequent growth. The details and the mores may change, but the questions that face Art are the same as those faced by every thinking human being today. Art tries to answer some of those questions for himself in this book.I previously worked with Ken Kottka and was lucky enough to hear a preview of parts of this book. I always knew he would be published some day. I look forward to his next book(s).

An intriguing search-for-self journey; a winner.

Defined by South Chicago and Vietnam, Art Patowski lands in Norman, Oklahoma, to pursue grad studies in English, and the professionals of Academe present a new kind of struggle for him. He searches for self within a passionate and intellectual landscape of characters fighting their own demons, not always successfully. With a core of friends--some enlightened, some lost--and a series of lovers, Art grows in self-understanding. The highs and lows of his journey are intense and poignant, and, in the end, the reader comes to share a substantive part of it.Ken Kottka has created a fine piece of fiction in "All I Thought Was True." I hope to see more of him.