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CARL MELCHER GOES TO VIETMAN
by Paul Clayton
Book Locker, February 2003
200 pages
$13.95
ISBN: 1591133009


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

We meet Carl Melcher on a plane heading for Vietnam. He is a young man just out of basic training who is very frightened. If he hadn't flunked out of State College he'd have been safe at home, but here he was in Nam and under attack almost as soon as he arrives.

This is not just another war novel. In this book we accompany Carl through the boring days, the terrifying patrols, and the loss of friends. He is just another grunt, no Congressional Medal winners here, just boys, children really, who are heroes just by being able to survive one day at a time while maintaining the will to fight the battles.  The reader is there when Melcher and his buddies first meet boom boom girls; we observe his first real love affair, and his hilarious loss of his 201 personnel file because of an officer with more hubris than sense. We also witness the incompetence of some officers who lead men into harm's way with no thought but how the sortie will play in headlines at home and how it will advance their careers. 

I enjoy war novels and am used the important battles, heroic deeds, larger than life fighters and constant activity that is usual in such books.  Carl's story allows a reader to experience the real life of a soldier which is composed of fear, waiting, boredom, lack of control over one's own future and the hope to be able to just stay alive until they are transferred back home. It means living in a foreign country with a difficult climate among people whose customs and traditions seem strange, who speak another language; it means long periods without a shower or good food. One would assume that this type of tale would be boring, a documentary, instead that is exactly where the strength of this novel lies.

Clayton is a compelling writer and he has excellent ability to create believable dialogue. The protagonist is well drawn and credible; the author shares not just his hero's experiences with battle, but his friendships, his love of reading, his homesickness, and his efforts to survive. We watch Carl and his buddies grow up a lot faster than their friends at home, and we ache when we see some these young lives ended or maybe worse irretrievably changed.

Reviewed by Martha Hopkins, July 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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