Hanging on [Paperback]

Dean R. Koontz (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 271 pages
• Publisher: Dell; First Edition edition (1976)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000CPL6LK
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,236,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born and raised in Pennsylvania where I graduated from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University). When I was a senior in college, I won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and have been writing ever since. My first job after graduation was with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where I was expected to counsel and tutor underprivileged children on a one-to-one basis. During my first day on the job, I discovered that the previous occupier of my position had been beaten up by the very kids he had been trying to help and had landed in the hospital for several weeks. The following year was filled with challenge but also tension, and I was more highly motivated than ever to build a career as a writer. I wrote nights and weekends, which I continued to do after leaving the poverty program and going to work as an English teacher in a suburban school district outside Harrisburg. After a year and a half in that position, my wife, Gerda, made me an offer I couldn't refuse: "I'll support you for five years," she said, "and if you can't make it as a writer in that time, you'll never make it." By the end of those five years, Gerda had quit her job to run the business end of my writing career. Gerda and I, along with our dog, Trixie, live in southern California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hilarious Comic Novel, May 26, 1998

By 

Ivan Tritch [e-mail] (Bono, Arkansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hanging on (Hardcover)

When I finally found a copy of this book, I was not disappointed. Different from other Koontz tomes, this novel, set in World War II, has a great cast of characters, and is full of laughs, sex, and zany insights into something (war) that is normally not funny.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Forgotten Gem From Koontz's Early Career, June 18, 2007

By 

Thriller Lover (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hanging on (Hardcover)

Dean Koontz is currently one of the most popular writers in the English language today, with over 300 million books in print. Given this fact, it's hard to believe he spent the first 20 years of his writing career in virtual obscurity. Indeed, most of the novels he wrote before 1975, including all of his science fiction work, is out of print and almost impossible to find at a reasonable price.

In 1973, Koontz wrote HANGING ON, a military comedy in the spirit of books like M*A*S*H and Catch-22. The book flopped, and has been out of print for the last thirty or so years. There is little evidence that Koontz or his publisher will ever re-issue the title. This is unfortunate, because it's a very fine book.

HANGING ON is about a US military unit stationed behind enemy lines in France, during World War II. Essentially, the unit's job is pointless: to keep a bridge open that serves little practical utility. The Germans keep bombing the bridge, and the unit keeps on rebuilding it. In the meantime, the unit tries its best to avoid being discovered by German patrols.

The major point of this book is the humor. All the members of the unit are eccentric, mainly as a way of "hanging on" to their sanity in the face of violence. This leads to a lot of joking, chicanery and casual sex -- with a particular emphasis on the sex. This is easily the raunchiest book that Koontz has written, which may surprise some of his long-term fans. Think of the original movie version of M*A*S*H, and that's the type of graphic humor you will often find in this book.

Overall, HANGING ON is a fine effort and perhaps the best of Koontz's 1970s novels. However, it is nothing like his more famous work -- it is not structured as a thriller or horror story (although suspenseful things do happen). Still, it's a fun read for people interested in a screwball story with a lot of off-color humor. I really enjoyed it.