Carry Me Home [Mass Market Paperback]

John M. Del Vecchio (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1996

A sequel to The 13th Valley finds a band of veteran survivors of Vietnam attempting to return to their American homes, where they are given a hostile homecoming and form an allegiance to one another in the hill country of Pennsylvania. Reprint. NYT.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this immensely detailed and nearly humorless final installment of his trilogy about America's war in Southeast Asia (The 13th Valley; For the Sake of All Living Things), Del Vecchio focuses on veterans who returned home in the late '60s only to find themselves viewed largely as lepers. Back from his second tour in Vietnam, Marine Sgt. Tony Pisano, 20, bears a leg wound, is assigned to burial detail, marries student nurse Linda, tries out college and faces widespread hatred. Tony's story, central to the novel, melds with that of his doomed buddies, who are now rootless "expatriates" in their own country. More grounded is the also returned Capt. Robert Wapinski, whose Pennsylvania farm becomes a haven for many vets fighting public castigation, post-traumatic stress disorder and the effects of Agent Orange. Del Vecchio shows these vets' fury at the V.A. (which combats recognition of their various addictions, insanities, damaged genes, etc.) at the whinings of the"Me" generation, and at the media, which the vets accuse of misrepresentation, and for which they hold a mock trial at Wapinski's farm. In one telling moment, Tony, recovering from one of many breakdowns, is told by his indignant wife, "Your daughters' daughters will live with your psychosis long after you and I are gone." At every turn, Del Vecchio sacrifices pace for infinite detail, but the overall purpose of his powerful proletarian art demands such detail to underscore his characters' pain and, for a few, uplifting recovery.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In The 13th Valley (1982), which has become almost a cult classic, Del Vecchio battered away at the reader with cruel, gritty, deeply sympathetic portraits of black and white soldiers in Vietnam. Carry Me Home completes a trilogy (the second novel, For the Sake of All Living Things [1990], dealt with Cambodians and the Khmer Rouge) begun by The 13th Valley, and deals, much like James Jones' Some Came Running, with veterans trying to adapt to civilian life. Robert Wapinski and Tony Pisano, both from a Pennsylvania mill town, are done in by their demon memories of combat. Wapinski, jilted by his fianc{‚}ee, catches another woman on the rebound and follows her to California where he makes money selling real estate but poisons his soul; Pisano falls into a deep spiral of drug abuse and then, as he begins to pull himself together, becomes physically sick from the effects of Agent Orange. (The scenes in veterans' hospitals, in which Del Vecchio takes the wholesale administration of psychotropic drugs to task, are so sad and bitter that they are difficult to read at one sitting.) Also in California, and crossing paths with Wapinski, is Tyrone Blackwell, a black veteran who is drawn into various quasilegal housing schemes. Del Vecchio's method with all three is to trace the history of their relationships with mostly patient, sometimes unadmirable, but always recognizable women. These volatile relationships become, ironically, rather tedious, but in the end they gain a frightening power from Del Vecchio's accretion of utterly authentic detail. And Wapinski, at least, comes to a hard-earned redemption through the example of one fine old man and a beautiful, communitarian idea. John Mort --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam (April 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553572768
• ISBN-13: 978-0553572766
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,635,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An almost perfect book - "The Deer Hunter" in book form, December 2, 2001

By 

William Sugarman "nprfan1" (Great Neck, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Carry Me Home (Hardcover)

I remember seeing the film "The Deer Hunter" years ago and being blown away by the excellent performances, characters, and story. I never thought I'd see or hear of anything like that movie again, but thankfully I was wrong.

"Carry Me Home" is "The Deer Hunter" in print. Don't infer any hidden meaning from that sentence; the plots of the two are as different as night and day. But they both deal with the same subject - the aftermath of the Vietnam war, what that means to several men (and women) in small-town America, and how each of them deals with it.

The two main characters in this book are Robert Wapinski and Anthony Pisano, of Mill Creek Falls, PA. In such an environment it seems incredible that these two men apparently never met before the events in this novel, but that's what Del Vecchio seems to imply. And it really doesn't matter whether they did or not, because their lives become more and more intertwined as the story unfolds.

Their lives take radically different turns. Robert becomes moderately successful as a real estate broker and then as a pioneer in the solar and ecology field. Tony, on the other hand, drops out of society - he just can't handle what people think about him as a Vietnam vet (and more importantly, he can't handle what he thinks about himself as a Vietnam vet). That statement, including the parenthetical comment, may not make any sense unless you know something of the history of US involvement in Vietnam (e.g., Lt William Calley and the My Lai massacre). But Tony does try for a little while - he courts and marries a girl and has two children, but the pressure just becomes too much for him. And even though Robert seems able to integrate himself back into society, he too is haunted by what happened and what he did in Vietnam.

What these two men do to heal themselves and other vets forms the crux of this story, and Del Vecchio never falters in the telling of it until the very end. At that point he seems to deal too much in psychology and not in the people themselves. But until then this is a fantastic story of a subject that not too many novels deal with. The Chicago Sun-Times said of Del Vecchio's "The 13th Valley", "...quite simply, THE novel about the Vietnam war." Well, quite simply, "Carry Me Home" is THE novel about that war's aftermath.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Friend...great book..., May 20, 2000

By 

Jeffrey Belcher "gigusa" (East Hartford, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Carry Me Home (Mass Market Paperback)

I know John Del Vecchio, he's a friend of my ex-girlfrind's mother and I met him on several occasions. He was always such a nice guy to me and I bought this book because of several recomendations and because he's just a genuine, nice guy. I read the book and was blown away by his attention to detail and emotional weight. Being to young to remember the Vietnam war, this was an interesting lesson in coping with the seriousness of war and a country that doesn't want you back. The story is very involved and very fine tuned. Though not exactly light reading, the book is involving and beckons you to read on.

I had a chance to discuss the book with him a while after I read it and expressed my admiration and respect for him and his book. He was gracious and said he was working on a new book. This soon turned out to be "Darkness Falls"...Another great book by Del Vecchio. "Carry Me Home" requires dedication to read, but you're left with a real connection with the characters and a feeling of accomplishment...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favorite books, August 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Carry Me Home (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read both of Del Vecchio's earlier books and looked forward to the release of Carry Me Home for a number of years. I certainly hope it is reprinted since I gave away my only copy. The book is an excellent story about the returning Vietnam vets and an inspiration to present day persons in all walks of life. DelVecchio is my favorite author.