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Cover

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Jack Ketchum has been hailed as a writer whose unflinching gaze at man's darkness is disturbingly thought-provoking. Consistently, he's displayed a knack for taking readers to uncomfortable places, daring them to stare harsh reality in the eye. Originally published by Gauntlet Press, "Cover" still finds relevance in today's world. In these pages, Ketchum captures the horrors of war, after a soldier has returned home, a supposedly "safe" place forever tainted by the violence he's endured.

The Vietnam War has left Lee Moravian a hollowed-out shell. A bundle of nothing more than trained impulses, Lee struggles for normalcy. The simplest emotions are atrophied muscles he doesn't remember how to use. When his wife finally leaves him, fearing for her and their son's safety, Lee is left alone to grapple with his ghosts, deep in the quiet forest he calls sanctuary.

A chance arrival of celebrity campers intrudes upon Lee's delicately strung-together world. The stress of solitude warps his mind, dredging horrifying flashbacks to the surface. Reality twists into a haunting reflection of the jungles of 'Nam, and as Lee slowly fades from the present into the past, he prepares to wage bloody war upon his newfound "enemies".

Though reflecting upon Vietnam, "Cover" is still relevant today. Ketchum aptly portrays the fragmented perspective of a man torn by a violence beyond most humans' understanding. It's a complicated work. It's hard to blame Lee, especially as Ketchum interweaves the veteran's terrible war experiences into the present-day narrative. It's an excellent re-printing choice by Leisure, because in this time of war and strife, amid political and military campaigns driven by agendas and "goals", it's important to consider the broken human lives that are often dismissed afterward.

It's kind of hard to lump this book into the horror section - I would consider it more of a horrifying thriller. A vietnam vet has determined that he is too dangerous to live in society and has removed himself far into the wilderness. He lives secluded from society with his wife and dog. His wife helps him to keep his last grip on his sanity - but when she leaves to go stay with family, his last grasp is gone.

Meanwhile we have a pack of well to do upper crust individuals, and author, a playwrite, a model, an agent and a photographer who are all planning on a camping trip. Their intermingled dramas are very realistic and border on annoying (much like real people). Unfortunately when they select their camping spot they may find themselves mistaken for a couple of Uncle Ho's minions by a man who has long ago left his sanity behind him.

The chapters from the vet's eyes are disturbing and all too real - frightening. Ketchum did a fantastic job of building him and making us care about him even though we are utterly terrified of him.

Although this is no "Girl Next Door" this is a wonderfully written book that will shock the casual reader, and be loved by the avid horror/thriller fan.

Jack Ketchum has written some of the best horror/suspense titles of the '80's and '90's--check out OFF SEASON, JOYRIDE, HIDE AND SEEK, and (if you've got the nerve for it), THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. He can probably be compared in some ways with Richard Laymon or Joe R. Lansdale in that he usually tells a very stripped-down, bare bones story. None of the self-indulgent bloat and needless flashbacks that mar most of the horror genres bestselling writers. COVER has a very exciting premise: A group of people on a weekend outing in the woods are hunted down by a psychotic Vietnam vet. And had Ketchum used his usual bare-knuckled formula of throwing you right into the story, right into the action, this would have been very good. Unfortunately, it takes a good hundred pages before ANYTHING happens. His characters don't work here, either. The Viet vet is very good, a very comendable portrayal of the suffering and needless horror of war. But the others characters, particularly the egotistic has-been writer Kelsey, are not believable nor exactly likeable. As an example of how ridiculous this gets, Kelsey has a beautiful, rich and powerful wife who is friends with Kelsey's ultra-beautiful, rich and powerful supermodel mistress. They both go on the weekend campout, happily. Yeah, right! (...) As it is, this one just doesn't work. You almost get the feeling that Ketchum was trying to write a mainstream literary work here, but at the last moment knew it wouldn't sell, so he through in some horror elements. Read his other books, though, you won't be disappointed.

This was an interesting morsel that took no time at all to get through, in fact I gobbled it up in half a day and was ready to tackle even more reading that day. Ketchum enchants the reader with his smooth prose and easy to digest writing, making the story shocking, quick and genuinely real when it comes to the crazy characters and the trouble they got into. Lee, the mentally confused Vietnam vet isn't the only odd ball character here, some of the people who go camping are even stranger than him, maybe not deadly enough to kill someone but they sure have issues. When the two intense worlds combine the battle is not only for the sake of their own interests, but a battle for life and survival in its crudest and rawest form.

Lee Moravian is startled by his unwelcome guests, but his clouded mentality never stops keeping track of Kelsey, his wife and also his mistress and a few of his guests. Pretty soon the city people find themselves cornered by war style traps and a stalker who has nothing better to do than outwit their every move and make their camping trip a living hell. I thoroughly enjoyed the tale and was on the edge not only about the vet but also about the complex and volatile relationships between the other characters. I was instantly drawn into the book and had a good time reading it on a lazy Sunday. I love theses types of stories, the lost in the woods tales, or creepy islands, Antarctic or desert tales when the wish for survival makes the desperation swell and the story grow into something intense. This was a fun, quick read that was thoroughly enjoyable. The ending was a surprise as well, it left me with a feeling of buzzing unease but also a deep curiosity of what the future held, well done and not obvious at all.

- Kasia S.

A washed up writer takes his wife and his mistress (accepted by the wife), his agent, a friend, and a photographer to go camping on a weekend getaway so that a magazine article can be written about him. Kelsey, the washed-up writer, is trying to grasp the image Hemmingway held be being the manly man doing manly things and having multiple women fawning over him. However, his inner self-confidence is shattered and his current attempts at stories are showing a rapid decline and weakness.

Unbeknownst to them, but knownst to us, they pick the wrong spot as Lee Moravian happens to reside in this particular area. Lee, a Vietnam veteran, is also battling inner demons as his grasp on the past and present fluctuates. Throw in the paranoia he has due to the fact he makes his living growing marijuana and the situation becomes even more unstable. Haunted by his war past, Lee takes offense to the intruders in his range and proceeds to take them out.

This was Ketchum's third book and while solid enough it is far from his best work but still way ahead of his worst. It's a steady performance in literature that pulls away from the horror genre he was clumped in to but not quite far enough to be an outright suspense thriller. It's readable, it's enjoyable, but outside of the antagonist, the characters are weak and not terribly likeable. Worth reading at any rate.

No one would argue against the proposition that the Vietnam War permanently imprinted itself on the minds of those born shortly after World War II, both those who traveled to that far off land, and those who stayed home to fight the battle of the resistance. Writing about this phenomenon in his Foreword to the Gauntlet limited edition of COVER, Ketchum opines:

"There's nobody in my generation of US citizens who doesn't know somebody--or for that matter hasn't lost somebody--in that goddamn war. And I doubt there's a writer of my generation who hasn't wanted to address the subject in one way or another."

Put simply, COVER is a novel about a group of campers who, wandering into the wrong patch of forest, suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives against an implacable foe. That plot sounds like it was taken directly from James Dickey's 1970 thriller DELIVERANCE. As in that book, the conflict becomes a journey of self-discovery for some of the combatants, who, pushed to extremes, discover unsuspected reserves of courage and resourcefulness. Consider too the fact that the conflict could be characterized as between civilization and savagery, and the connection deepens.

Another novel that immediately comes to mind is David Morrell's FIRST BLOOD. Published in 1972, it featured Vietnam vet John Rambo, who pushed to his limit, decides not to take it any more. That novel too ended with the Vietnam vet dead, an inconvenient development which moviemakers later decided to ignore. But certainly, Rambo and Moravian are kindred spirits, tortured souls who avoid civilization because of the potential trouble it might generate.

Of course, in writing COVER, Ketchum goes beyond these simple themes, addressing topical social issues, creating a book as touching as it is hard hitting, as tender as it violent. To borrow some useful concepts from Freudian theory, the author assigned the roles of the Id, Ego, and Superego to himself and to his cast. As the third person narrator, Ketchum himself assumes the role of the controlling Superego. COVER, as a whole, represents his assessment of the war, but at a distance of years. That assessment allowed him to channel emotions that had been haunting him for decades, as he considered his early indifference, his later activism, and even later, his achieving a more mature and complex appreciation of the war as being beyond anyone's total understanding.

Having assumed the role of the Superego, Ketchum assigns the role of Ego to his chief protagonist, author Bernie Kelsey, who leads his entourage into the woods on a camping trip. Kelsey is ego in all senses of the word. As a writer, he is in tune with his external reality, able to assess and judge his experiences and successfully relate those judgments to others through his writing. He also is very proud and brash, believing himself to be larger than life, as witnessed by his bravado in all things, especially in his relationships with women.

Troubled Vietnam vet Lee Moravian, is cast in the role of the Id. No longer civilized, Moravian has become a slave to his battled honed instincts. Thus, when confronted with what he perceives as a threat, he reacts violently, seeking to remove it as quickly as possible. Moravian starts to run on autopilot, taking a kill or be killed attitude towards those who have invaded his territory.

The heart of COVER is consumed by the battle between Ego and Id; with no Superego to referee, the clash becomes a literal fight to the finish. Clearly, the skirmish will end only when one or the other perishes.

COVER has much in common with other of Ketchum's books, but its most obvious connection are its themes of sudden violence and of how ordinary people react to extraordinary situations, as in novels like HIDE AND SEEK, OFF SEASON, RED, JOYRIDE, and THE LOST. Although COVER fits neatly into this grouping, Ketchum sees it a little more broadly.

"Pretty much all my books share that trait in some way or another. I think it's a result of both conscious choice in that I'm aware that characters who have to change in some fundamental way make for good drama, and that my natural bent is toward exploring our resources or lack of them, what we don't know about one another and about ourselves and can't possibly anticipate, and then suddenly there it is."

But certainly, Kelsey and company have much in common with other Ketchum creations, in that, through no fault of their own, they've been placed in a situation where they have to struggle for survival. Moravian survived one battle, in effect, by "dying", hiding under corpses until the enemy departed. The civilized Moravian died that day, and was replaced by the feral Moravian. Kelsey's reaction to this force of nature will determine whether he lives or dies; it will also determine how he sees himself in the future. Kelsey is being tested; unlike Moravian, it's possible for him to pass the test.

Before publication, COVER seemed to many to be Ketchum's best chance for a so-called breakout novel. Due to lack of support from an unperceptive publisher, however, that was not to be. But, COVER was nonetheless a triumph for Ketchum, a sensitive, well-written treatment of what has become an oft-repeated cliché of the Vietnam War, that of the troubled Vietnam vet going off the deep end. COVER literally and metaphorically grapples with the unfinished business of a conflict that still haunts combatants and civilians alike. A grueling examination of a soul in torment, and of the power of love to redeem, COVER stands as a highpoint in Ketchum's canon, a grueling yet poignant book of people pushed beyond their limits, forced to confront a reality that threatens their very existence.

A trend I'm noticing in Jack's books is that his characters aren't always very believable, especially the women...he just doesn't write women very well. But at least the women in this book have a little more depth than some of his other books.

I enjoyed "Cover". My favorites by Jack are still "The Girl Next Door" and "Off Season" though. I'm about to try "Hide and Seek" and hope it lives up to it's reviews!

This is a good little quick story.

Unless it is at the beach, in a poshly appointed RV, or nestled in a cabin complete with amenities such as running water, electricity, and a comfortable bed, I've never been one to enjoy the supposed "fun" of camping. To me the idea of a small, confined tent, cold nights and the danger of getting dirty doing absolutely nothing is the furthest thing from "fin" in my mind. Now thanks to Jack Ketchum, I have to add in crazy, mountain men, ex-Vietnam veteran killers to my dislikes of trekking into the forrest for "pleasure".
And that is the best thing about "Cover". It's an entirely plausible, and in being such, scary and suspenseful novel.
And don't get me wrong, while it is well written (what Ketchum novel isn't?) and thoroughly enticing, this is far from Ketchum's best work.

First of all is the depressingly short length. At a measly 308 pages, "Cover" can barely constitute for a "novel". And again, understand me when I say I have nothing against short, quick paced books, but also when 15 of those 308 pages are a forward by the author and an afterword that is basically a tyrying-to-be-smart rehash of the forward, the actual book length gets cut down to an even smaller 280ish pages. Add in a story, that while well concieved and decently penned, moves along at an erratic (and often times slow) pace, and you're left with a story that really does not do much in way of afterthought.

Back to the pace now. "Cover" moves along at such a bizarre clip that it's hard to really get into the story. I'm not kidding when I say that the story doesn't even get moving until around page 120 and even then nothing good happens (by good I mean the first death) until page 173. In between are over 100 pages of pointless back story and set up that are not exactly necessary for a book of such minuscule length.

So I stated that "Cover" was well written, despite my rant about pacing and length, and I still stand up to that statement. In much the same way "Joyride" and "The Girl Next Door" kept us wide-eyed and tongue-tied with suspense and horror, so too does `Cover", but I strongly suggest to skip this one as a first Ketchum novel.

Another tale of human horror from Ketchum, Cover revolves around a severely PTSD-afflicted Vietnam vet and a group of upper-crust Los Angelinos who end up intruding into his private world. There's a lot that Ketchum does well, and some of his strengths - his knack for writing damaged psychoses, his ability to pace out the horrors well, his strong grasp of interesting and flawed characters - are definitely in evidence here. But for the first time in my experience, Cover also ultimately feels a little cliched, giving the reader a strong sense of "been there, done that." The idea of a deadly Vietnam vet has been done before, and although Ketchum does it with more sympathy for the vet than the genre typically brings, this still feels like familiar ground. I wouldn't go so far as to call Cover a bad book - it's too well-written, too well-crafted, and too character-driven to be generic and forgettable - but neither does it feel as effective as Ketchum's best works. It may have felt more original when it came out, but to me, it's definitely a lesser work among Ketchum's confrontations with human evil.

Cover by Jack Ketchum is a true horror story. Not a true story, but a truly horrific story, about a Vietnam veteran name Lee who has an off the scale case of post traumatic stress disorder. Lee was in the thick of it during his days in 'Nam and saw many, many horrific things and done some of them himself, as detailed in the book.

The author started the book with a little background info on the subject and what he was doing at the time. The way Ketchum describes himself sounded a lot like a hippie, so I was initially very skeptical about the book. I was guessing that someone with such a background would just be running down the soldiers, those that lived and died in 'Nam. To my surprise, that was not the case. Lee, as evil as he was, was the type of character you sort of empathize with and understand. He went to a foreign land and lived in the worst conditions and watched his friends die in the most horrible ways and came back an utterly broken being. Everyone he loved feared him, he feared himself.

The story begins with Lee in the "present" day, which seems to be somewhere around the mid to late 80's. There are no cell phones and other technology so don't think "why don't they just call", of course it also takes place in a very remote area. Lee has found himself in a pot farming business and lives on the land that he farms in a primitive (relatively speaking) campsite. Well, one day a group of campers show up and it brings back everything back to Lee.

The campers are a group of fairly famous group of people including a bestselling author (Kelsey), his wife (Caroline) and a model (Michelle) who are the three main characters. Graham and Ross are two of Kelsey's friends that are also along. The relationship between Kelsey, Caroline and Michelle is very complex and strange. There is a lot of tension between all of the characters and the three main characters and Lee are all very deep and well fleshed out.

If you've read a Jack Ketchum book before you will be familiar with the level of raw, brutality that he writes with. There is a lot of gore, violence, and a fair serving of sexual content. These are all hallmarks of Ketchum's work. So if you have a weak stomach and are easily disturbed, you may want to choose another book to read. You want to know what 'Nam felt like, looked like, and smelled like. This is the book for you. If you want to try to understand the mind of a man ruined by the horrors of war, this book for you. I've been told by a couple of Vietnam vets that read this book and they said Ketchum captured 'Nam extremely well for someone who hadn't been there.

Overall, I can say that Cover is an original book, I've read nothing like it before. Ketchum seems perfectly suited to write about something as brutal as the Vietnam War and it shows in this book. Well researched, well written and deeply disturbing. If this book does not make your list of most disturbing books, I don't know what could. The only disappointing thing about the book was the ending which seemed to come so quick without and hint or warning of any kind. If something had lead up to how it ended it wouldn't seem so much like the simplest way to end it. On the other hand, it didn't end the way I thought it was going to end and that is good.