Here are some of the things readers are saying about HOTEL CONSTELLATION: Notes from America’s Secret War in Laos.
This memoir is engaging and well-written and more honest than Haase had to be about how callow and inexperienced he was with just about everything.
Anybody enthralled by evocative writing of exotic places and critical times should read Hotel Constellation; you won’t be disappointed.
— T.M., Amazon
[Haase] is no hero, even at the center of his own experience and even when he might tell it any way he chooses to tell it. Because of this, “Hotel Constellation” never soars to the height of a seemingly all-knowing, all-seeing historical oversight. It stays rooted where it begins and evolves insofar as the author did. It is an act of courage to write it that way.
— E.S.L., Goodreads
On the surface, this appears to be a book about a part of the Vietnam war that we often hear little about. In reality, this is much more a memoir of one college student’s experiences in Laos during the conflict. Not exactly, a coming of age story, and not really a war story, reading Hotel Constellation is like a night of sharing drinks with friends and regaling each other with stories. Through the author’s playful, easy to read writing, and simple (sometimes embarrassing) honesty, the reader relates to the humanity of it all – a college student trying to make sense of the world, neither a hero nor a villain, but a human being (in a rather unique circumstance) that we can all relate to.
— E.L., Goodreads
At last an eyewitness narrative from that part of the war that Walter Cronkite and Ken Burns forgot. A must addition to anyone’s collection of on the ground accounts of the war in Southeast Asia.
— K.L, Amazon
The part of the war in Viet Nam that we didn’t see on the evening news, HOTEL CONSTELLATION is a riveting and vivid memoir, by turns funny and frightening and always, always deeply honest.
— M.L.T., Amazon
This memoir of the author’s experiences in Laos during the Vietnam war captured my attention from the first page. The writing is excellent, telling the story without getting in its way. The voice is authentic 1970’s language, style, and way of thinking. The author has heard his younger self in his journals, and rather than imposing maturity or the wisdom that comes from living a longer time, has faithfully allowed his young self to tell his compelling story.
— S.F., Amazon
David L. Haase 