F. N. G. [Hardcover]

Donald Bodey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 11, 1985

"One of the most hard-hitting of all the Vietnam novels." The Boston Herald.

In Vietnam, a new guy loses his rawness fast. Almost as fast as he can lose his life.

Gabriel Sauers of Two Squad is newly arrived in Nam, a graduate of basic training ill-prepared for the realities of war. In the coming months, he'll get his real training: incoming mortars and relentless enemy attacks will turn the green recruit into a death-hardened veteran . . . or kill him.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

F.N.G. stands for "fucking new guy"the nickname given to incoming Vietnam recruits by the infantrymen who have arrived before them. Gabriel Sauers is the F.N.G. of Bodey's first novel, which is essentially a documentary-style account of the young Ohio house painter's year-long term of duty in a series of mud-soaked dugouts near the Cambodian border. While the narrative does provide us with a fiction-verite chronicle of the combatants' grim existencefrom simply enduring the tedium of waiting for time to pass, to seeing comrades maimed and killedwe are always kept at a certain critical distance from the protagonist's deepest inner experience of the conflict. It is only toward the end of the novel, when a therapist coaxes a particularly traumatic event from Sauers' blocked memory, that we begin to feel with him. The effect of that delayed emotional proximity is that we're left wishing that the author had broken through to Sauers's subconscious earlier on. Foreign rights: Joseph Spieler. December
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

"One of the most hard-hitting of all the Vietnam novels." The Boston Herald.

In Vietnam, a new guy loses his rawness fast. Almost as fast as he can lose his life.

Gabriel Sauers of Two Squad is newly arrived in Nam, a graduate of basic training ill-prepared for the realities of war. In the coming months, he'll get his real training: incoming mortars and relentless enemy attacks will turn the green recruit into a death-hardened veteran . . . or kill him. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First edition (December 11, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670807249
• ISBN-13: 978-0670807246
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,428,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A brief review of F.N.G, March 8, 2003

By 

Nick Harding (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: F. N. G. (Hardcover)

I've read 'Chickenhawk', and 'Into the Green' and various other books by Vietnam Vets. This ranks up amongst the best. It is well written (which many aren't) and I believe it is probably autobiographical. It really describes well the day to day grind and general misery of a typical grunt in the field,moving across the complete range of emotion, from watching his buddies getting shot to pieces, to watching his own body gradually disintegrate from the ravages of jungle rot, and eventually..........well just read it!!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars - Great book , and perhaps more ... -, March 25, 2002

By 

Stephanie Orban (Belgium) - See all my reviews

This review is from: F. N. G. (Hardcover)

Okay , I bought this one , and got grabbed by the story of this soldier trying to survive in the 'Nam , and gets bullied off of a Chieu Hoi . It's sorta become my bible , and I carry it around with me everywhere I go .