A classic novel of Vietnam and its aftermath from Philip Caputo, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir A Rumor of War is widely considered among the best ever written about the experience of war.
At thirty-three, Nick DelCorso is an award-winning war photographer who has seen action and dodged bullets all over the world–most notably in Vietnam, where he served as an Army photographer and recorded combat scenes whose horrors have not yet faded in his memory. When he is called back to Vietnam on assignment during a North Vietnamese attempt to take Saigon, he is faced with a defining choice: should he honor the commitment he has made to his wife not to place himself in any more danger for the sake of his career, or follow his ambition back to the war-torn land that still haunts his dreams? What follows is a riveting story of war on two fronts, Saigon and Beirut, that will test DelCorso’s faith not only in himself, but in the nobler instincts of men.
“[Caputo’s] descriptions of combat photographers and war correspondents are right on the money.”–The New York Times Book Review--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
From the Back Cover
“An old-fashioned novel, crisply written.”–Time
“[Caputo’s] descriptions of combat photographers and war correspondents are right on the money.”–The New York Times Book Review--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Novelist and journalist Philip Caputo (1941 -- ) was born in Chicago and educated at Purdue and Loyola Universities. After graduating in 1964, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps for three years, including a 16-month tour of duty in Vietnam. He has written 14 books, including two memoirs, four books of general nonfiction, and eight novels. His acclaimed memoir of Vietnam, A Rumor of War, has been published in 15 languages, has sold over 1.5 million copies since its publication in 1977, and is widely regarded as a classic in the literature of war. His 2005 novel "Acts of Faith," a story about war, love, and the betrayal of ideals set in war-torn Sudan is considered his masterpiece in fiction, and has sold 102,000 copies to date, His most recent novel, Crossers, set against a backdrop of drug and illegal-immigrant smuggling on the Mexican border,was published in hardcover in 2009 by Alfred A. Knopf and in paperback by Vintage in 2010. He is now working on a travel book, "The Longest Road: From the Southern Cross to the Northern Lights." It describes an epic road trip from the southernmost point in the U.S., Key West, Floirida, to the northernmost that can be reached by road, Deadhorse Alaska, on the Arctic Ocean. The journey took 4 months and covered 17,000 miles. Though it bears his unique stamp, the narrative fuses elements of John Steinbeck, Jack Keruoac, William Least Moon, and Charles Kuralt. Caputo interviewed more than 80 Americans from all walks of life to get a picture of what their lives and the life of the nation are like in the 21st century. He expects to finish in June of the year. Henry Holt will publish the book in May, 2013.
In addition to books, Caputo has published dozens of major magazine articles, reviews, and op-ed pieces in publications ranging from the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Washington Post to Esquire, National Geographic, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. Topics included profiles of novelist William Styron and actor Robert Redford, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the turmoil on the Mexican border.
Caputo's professional writing career began in 1968, when he joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune, serving as a general assignment and team investigative reporter until 1972. For the next five years, he was a foreign correspondent for that newspaper, stationed in Rome, Beirut, Saigon, and Moscow. In 1977, he left the paper to devote himself to writing books and magazine articles.
Caputo has won 10 journalistic and literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 (shared for team investigative reporting on vote fraud in Chicago), the Overseas Press Club Award in 1973, the Sidney Hillman Foundation award in 1977 (for A Rumor of War), the Connecticut Book Award in 2006, and the Literary Lights Award in 2007. His first novel, Horn of Africa, was a National Book Award finalist in 1980, and his 2007 essay on illegal immigration won the Blackford Prize for nonfiction from the University of Virginia.
He and his wife, Leslie Ware, an editor for Consumer Reports magazine, divide their time between Connecticut and Arizona. Caputo has two sons from a previous marriage, Geoffrey, a jazz composer and music teacher, and Marc, a political reporter for the Miami Herald.
It is somewhat hard to describe this book in a few sentences. Even though mostly fiction, the main character plays an uncanny resemblance to the author himself. Something that is especially noticeable if you ever read Caputo's Autobiography "Means of Escape." The picture this book paints of Beirut is frighteningly realistic, something that even non-fiction books written about the War fail to achieve. Likewise, the portrayal of a photojournalist, one who is asked to risk his life "to beat AP by 5 min." is superb by any account. Anyone who is familiar with Caputo's literary work knows how good this man is at molding and developing complex, intelligent, and memorable characters. Delcorso's Gallery is a prime example of this. I urge anyone who at the least is curious about what happened in Beirut to read this novel in addition to the history books out there. I do not know if history will repeat itself somewhere else in the future, but it is important to be aware.
Faisal Juma.
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Wow. Awesome story about war. Makes war more real than anything you see on tv or read in the news. A very personal story. Great psychological drama about the photographer and his conflicts.
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Caputo, Philip....is repeating himself here. Or actually he's selling a rough draft. DelCorso's Gallery (published 1983) is Means of Escape (pub. 1991) in fictional form.
Instances in Rumors of War are repeated here too, as they also are in Means of Escape, sometimes word for word.
The quality of writing is subpar compared to Horn of Africa (fic), The Voyage (fic), Acts of Faith (fic), Means Of Escape (nf) even A Rumor of War (nf), In fact it's hard to believe that Delcorso's Gallery is his third book and not his very first. It's that poor.
The story is the life (including family) of a war photojournalist with a cast of war correspondents going from Vietnam to the mideast.
I recommend you skip this and go straight to the finished non-fiction version Means of Escape.
Books by Philip Caputo
A Rumor of War (1977)
Horn of Africa (1980)
Delcorso's Gallery (1983)
Indian Country (1987)
Means of Escape (1991)
Equation for Evil (1996)
Exiles (1997)
The Voyage (1999)
Ghosts of Tsavo: stalking the mystery lions of East Africa (2002)
Means of Escape: A War Correspondent's Memoir of Life and Death in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Vietnam (2002)
In the Shadows of the Morning: Essays On Wild Lands, Wild Waters, and a Few Untamed People (2004)
Acts of Faith (2005)
Ten Thousand Days of Thunder: A History of the Vietnam War (2005)
13 Seconds: A Look Back at the Kent State Shootings (2005)
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