Customer Reviews

The Long Walk

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"The Long Walk" was written by author George La Fountaine (1986). Mr. Fountaine is the author of several other novels including "Two-Minute Warning" and "Flashpoint". Among his many accomplishments, he is also known as a cinematographer. Selected novels have been made into movies. Consolidated biographical information on Mr. La Fountaine appears otherwise limited.

This novel is of the Literary Fiction genre and human interest drama. The story is told by an anonymous narrator. Character dialog is interspersed with narration and directly attributable to the person speaking. The prose is not complex but is rich in imagery and elegantly constructed. The electronic version of the novel contains a good deal of grammatical and spelling errors. The errors are obvious and while annoying don't markedly detract from the reading experience.

"The Long Walk" was written and published just over a decade of the ending of the Vietnam War. The opening scenes find Lieutenant William Hill, a POW for over nine years and the last POW in Vietnam, being turned over to Corpsman Stanley Baker. It becomes obvious that Hill has been beaten and savaged by his captors to the point of insanity and repatriation seems an impossible task. Born of a Navajo father, Stanley Baker has a special compassion for Hill and assumes a dedicated effort to help him. In the Navajo culture there was a period during the westward expansion when the entire Navajo tribe was moved to Fort Sumter. As it turned out, the tribe was eventually allowed to return to their home land but they were forced to walk the three hundred miles to get there. Many died and the experience was harbored in legend as "The Long Walk", a testament to a determination to survive in spite of overwhelming odds; so began The Long Walk for Lieutenant Hill.

This is a story so well told it rivals all for a position as a truly memorable work. The plot development is exceptionally well done. The characters are wonderfully developed and the reader will come away entranced by the persons of Branch, Adjiba and Stanley. The novel's theme of survival under the most adverse of situations is brought clearly to view in the nature of the remarkable characters; not the least of which is the protagonist of the story.

I highly recommend this novel to readers and rate it "Memorable". This novel belongs in the lofty 1% of exceptional works.