Review by Karl Verhoven

The Heart That Fed concerns Carl Sciacchitano’s loving, yet complicated relationship with his father. Having dropped out of college in the mid-1960s, David Sciacchitano was smart enough to volunteer for the US military before he was conscripted, knowing it was likelier to result in a less dangerous posting in Vietnam during the war. Despite a relatively safe period of service he never left Vietnam behind.

There are only hints of this at the beginning as Sciacchitano takes us through David’s training, which is much like that endured by hundreds of thousands of other conscripts. Signing up for intelligence, he was instead assigned as an aircraft mechanic, and bored with training he volunteers to leave early for Vietnam. His experiences are sifted through with an occasional scene beyond the 1960s, differentiated by the greater use of dark shadows, as David looks back. Other portions are delivered with David’s eyes as the viewpoint, while the letters he wrote home to his sister at the time are reproduced as written.

A pared down delicacy characterises the artwork, people supplied with personality, and action reminiscent of Will Eisner’s storytelling, although with a realistic style applied throughout. That’s also applied to the technology, like vehicles and guns, and although the art is kept simple to focus on necessary people, there’s an elegant neatness to backgrounds.

In places Sciacchitano complicates matters through constantly naming those his father served with, presumably a matter of respect, yet a roll call of people is irrelevant to his story as a graphic novel. Everything else flows smoothly, though. Although David only spent one night under shelling, he did experience stressful occasions and saw the effects of war and his letters while serving question the purpose. They reveal a self awareness such as “sensible advice doesn’t seem to help me out because the unfathomable part of the problem is me, and if I can’t deal with myself I’m lost whenever I return”. Key to David’s life is that there’s one aspect he’s in denial about.

The young Carl is well aware of anger issues manifesting, loud fireworks trigger flashbacks and his father can take any conversation back to Vietnam, but denies he has PTSD. The way one experience flows into the next is almost a procedural investigation process and while some stops along the way are horrific, Sciacchitano is careful not to sensationalise. Two further trips to Vietnam occur, one just before the fall of Saigon and one more recently with Carl accompanying his father in 2020, during which the title is explained.

Just as the Vietnam War was a conflict with no easy solution, so are David’s feelings about his service and what it accomplished, although unlike many veterans he doesn’t generalise his anger against the people. He’s surprised at the lack of hostility in Vietnam, and tellingly wonders whether Americans would be that way were the situation reversed. At no point, though, does he consider his presence in terms of history, which is very human, and contributes greatly to The Heart That Fed being constantly understated and extremely readable.