Customer Reviews

The Boy Who Picked the Bullets Up

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Labelled "fiction," this book has a hair-raising feel of the author having been there...in that war we remember as Vietnam. "Gripping" is an understatement, as the narrator (a young Marine medic) whipsaws schizophrenically between loving men's bodies while on R & R and working frantically to heal men's mutilated bodies while on duty. Among the war memoirs with gay themes that I've read, I rank it #2 after T.E. Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom." The book also leaves one with a realization that all the current hoohah about "gays in the military" is peacetime mickey-mouse. In wartime, it seems that the brass don't care who sleeps with whom, as long as the troops get the job done. This searingly honest and uncomfortably original novel deserves to be back in print and made into a film.

"The Boy Who Picked the Bullets Up," by Charles Nelson, is a novel that follows the military and sexual adventures of Kurt Strom, a gay professional baseball player who serves as a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman with Marines during the Vietnam War. The story is told in a series of letters from Kurt to his loved ones. Through Kurt's letters, the reader follows him from his family home in Louisiana to training at Camp Lejeune and to the war zone in Vietnam.

Kurt's Vietnam service includes time at both a hospital and with a front-line unit, as well as duty with a special unit designed to work with local Vietnamese militia and civilians. These diverse experiences result in a rich and complex set of encounters with both U.S. military personnel and Vietnamese people. The story offers a fascinating look at the various levels of the U.S. military presence in Vietnam.

This is a big, bawdy, outrageous novel that reeks with the smells of sex and violence. Kurt himself is a fascinating and very "politically incorrect" character. He is certainly no noble poster boy for gays in the military. On the contrary, he is lusty and sexually aggressive--just the type of amoral predator that inspires antigay fear. He also has a nasty racist streak that comes out in the form of many foul slurs and slams. Kurt's language is richly spiced with many cultural references, both "high" and "pop"--this, combined with his frequent Wildean comments, gives the book a remarkable flavor.

Through his protagonist, Nelson delves into the psychology of both military homophobia and military homoeroticism. It's an unflinching and sometimes graphic look at male-on-male sexuality in a wartime environment. The sex in the book is at times a site of abuse, dishonesty, and conflict. Nelson also rubs the reader's face mercilessly in the horror of war, with graphic accounts of nightmarish deaths and disfiguring injuries. The book also gives often revolting details on such medical procedures as changing a colostomy bag.

"Boy" attains a genuine epic sweep without losing an intimate human focus. In its relentless satiric and comic vision, together with the outsider perspective of its protagonist, the book reminds me somewhat of Ralph Ellison's classic "Invisible Man." Indeed, as a gay military man Kurt is a different sort of "invisible man." Furthermore, the level of detail in the book gives it a feel of authenticity comparable to that of some of the gripping Vietnam War memoirs I have read. Both horrifying and hilarious, this book radically expands the canons of both gay male fiction and Vietnam War literature.

This is a powerful novel that starts out very mildly and picks up to the point where the narrator's experiences in Vietnam are seen in a poignant and humanitarian light. Then, the overload occurs and the horrors of war takes its toll. The author accomplishes this with such a deft touch, you don't realize the path the novel takes until it is over. ....

READ THIS BOOK! Get your hands on it and I promise,you won't put it down until you are done... and even then you'll goback and re-read it!

Perhaps one of the most moving texts I've everread, the correspondence style was truly evocative of the relationship that the Kurt the protragnist has with his family, friends and comrades in arms. Nelson has created a life that is fully three dimmensional and naturally handles the issues of fear, hope, death, stigma management (of gay identity) and ok... I'm being far too cerebral about a book that moves one so deeply...

Truly this book should be: 1. reprinted... 2. read by everyone... 3. Might make an interesting movie or stage production... END

To say that this book is both a powerful story about war and a great erotic novel is to risk masking it as some hack's attempt at gravitas. However, this book is both. It is only too sad that such a great work is out of print. Find yourself a copy and get ready for a great read and a powerful experience.

This is one of the finest GLBT works I have read. The literary construct (letters to mom and/or to understanding friends from Viet Nam) is masterful. I have long since lost/lent my original copies. I have ordered it anew, to enjoy and share over and over again.