Bruce K. Berger, Ph.D., U.S. Army veteran, former chair and professor emeritus of Advertising & Public Relations, will perform a reading from his newly published book Brothers Bound with a lecture on November 14 at 5:30 P.M. in 118 Lucy Hall. Berger will share how his experiences in Vietnam shaped his generation and taught him necessary lessons. The event will be followed by a reception where Brothers Bound may be purchased and signed.
“I’ve long wanted to write these books, and now late in my life I found the time and passion to do so. I wanted to write them shortly after I returned from Vietnam in 1970. I tried but just couldn’t get the right focus” said Berger, “Like most vets, I just wanted to leave it all behind in my mind and forget it, which I did for nearly half a century.”
Berger began writing in 2018 after he found his diary he kept in Vietnam forgotten in his attic. His poetry collection Fragments: The Long Coming Home from Vietnam blossomed from that diary and meditations on war.
“I sat down and literally read the whole thing on the spot. And then I began writing the poems which grew out of the images, feelings and memories of that time and place captured in my diary,” he said.
Berger began writing Brothers Bound after reconnecting with two fellow Vietnam veterans in 2020.
“That brought back more memories—good and bad—that I felt I needed to try to capture in a book, eventually my novel Brothers Bound,” Berger stated, “And honestly, finishing the two books, rethinking that time in my life and so much I learned, well, it was a positive and powerful experience. It was liberating.”
Brothers Bound is set during the Vietnam War and focuses on the unlikely brotherhood between a white teacher and a multiracial preacher in the late 1960s. After their helicopter crashes and they are captured, the two rely on each other to survive capture through hope, love and memory. The book pulls from Berger’s experiences during the war, giving his writing a realistic and visceral nature.
“I wanted to express some lessons other Vietnam veterans, and I learned in our time in that nasty, unpopular war half a century ago. They were lessons that helped us survive tough times in the jungle. The novel brings those lessons to life,” Berger said. “It’s a tough story of survival that draws from positive powers we all have and can share with others. In our bitter, angry, divided, and warring world today, I believe those same positive powers can be used and shared by all of us.”
Dr. Berger’s career in communication began while working in the U.S. Army’s casualty branch, where he wrote death notifications to send to families. From there, he worked for 20 years in public relations for The Upjohn Company and Whirlpool Corporation.
Berger concluded his PR career at The University of Alabama where he taught and researched communication and public relations at The University of Alabama. He was the founding director of The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, which advances the next generation of public relations professionals through mentorship and research-based insights.
To learn more about Brothers Bound, Fragments: The Long Coming Home from Vietnam or his other books, visit Berger’s website.