The Gulf [Hardcover]

Charlie McDade (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McDade is trying for Significance, but an overly earnest, plodding style and melodramatic action eventually do his novel in. Marine vet David Hodges returns home from Vietnam to Witman, Tex., but rejects the hero's welcome planned by his fiancee, Kate Riley. Soon after, Peter, David's brother, returns from exile in Canada as a draft-dodger. The brothers are slowly reconciled, David and Kate revive their romance and, despite problems with Kate's loutish cop brother Pat, life in the Gulf-coast town settles down. The calm doesn't last long when a group of Vietnamese refugees arrives (including David's ex-girlfriend), planning to work as shrimp fishers. Witman's shrimp industry is already depressed and a majority of townfolk are against the refugees. There's violence, then death and finally a showdown between David and Pat Riley. The talky characters are paper-thin, the plot contrived and the reader is left uninvolved. McDade also wrote Almost Dark. January 23
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; 1st edition (January 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 015136446X
• ISBN-13: 978-0151364466
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,733,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Gulfs -- not just water but of relationships and more, June 29, 2002

By 

R. Tiedemann "Sunnye" (Bellevue, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gulf (Hardcover)

Isaac Roth, running away from grief after the death of his beloved wife, moves to a small Texas town on the Gulf of Mexico. David Hodges returns from Vietnam, scarred by the war. David's brother, Peter, returns from Canada, where he fled to escape the draft. Kate Riley has waited for David for four years and now she expects him to marry her so they can live happily ever after.

Witman, Texas is the sleepy little Gulf coast town where these characters all come together, with Vietnamese fishermen who come to ply their trade in the already depresses fishing industry.

The gulfs in this story are far more than a body of water. There are gulfs between city life and small town life, between humans in relationships, between cruelty in society and in the cruelties in war.

This is a story of long, manipulation, of bitter emotion and senseless violence. It is also a painfully accurate portrayal of the human condition. It will hold your attention. It may hurt your heart.