The Memorial: A Novel of Vietnam [Paperback]

James Amos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1990

The Memorial is an extraordinary, thoughtful novel by a former Vietnam Marine that evokes the sounds, smell and feel of combat. It portrays the terrible price this, of all wars, demanded of the human soul.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This first novel about a Marine lieutenant's five months with Alpha Company in Vietnam is based, Amos tells us, on facts. Unfortunately, they have yet to be fictionalized. He has all the material at hand--a telling cross-section of young Americans, the lived knowledge of jungle fighting--and he asks all the proper questions about that war. He also has attempted, in the tradition of Stephen Crane, to write matter-of-factly of war's horrors, using a small action to serve as exemplar--the novel details Alpha Company's role in the attack to cut the Viet Cong's supply lines through Laos--but Amos is more often inadvertently flat than evocative. His knowledge of details can result in eloquence: "They each wore one dog tag strung around their neck and the other through one boot lace; in case either the leg or head was lost the remains could still be identified." But sentences too often expire in muddle: "An NVA squad remained in the tree line on each side of the fire support base to lay down suppressing fire as the others attempted to compromise the perimeter by penetrating the lines."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

A novel in the tradition of Larry Heinemann's Close Quarters (LJ 6/1/77), The Memorial is the story of Jake Adams, a young by-the-book Marine Corps lieutenant stationed in Vietnam during the heat of the Vietnamese conflict. When Jake visits the Vietnamese War Memorial some 15 years after his tour of duty, he learns the fate of many of his friends who died or were taken prisoner during Operation Dewey Canyon. Through vivid flashbacks he relives those days of fighting and camaraderie in the Ashau Valley, as his platoon helps to take Erskine hill, but retreats in defeat at Tam Boi. The author has taken a few liberties with history, but his story rings true, as though it might be personal narrative rather than fiction.
- Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale Lib.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (October 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380711958
• ISBN-13: 978-0380711956
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,170,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The A Shau Valley Was a Meatgrinder for These Marines, June 19, 2006

By 

Mouthpiece "ilike2fish" (upstate NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Memorial: A Novel of the Vietnam War (Paperback)

Very good Nam novel about a group of Marines known as "the walking dead." (Do you want your Purple Heart now, or do you want to wait and get it later?) Jake Adams is a young, newly commissioned 2nd Lt. whose platoon is in plenty of firefights with the VC and NVA. The sweep through the A Shau valley toward Laos at the whim of some REMF colonel trying to get some combat experience results in many contacts with the gooners, and heavy casualties on both sides. You can actually experience the terror of NVA sappers penetrating the perimeter at night causing all kinds of havoc and confusion for the weary Marines, and the tension of trying to evacuate a PZ (pick up zone) while under fire from the gooks all around. As you get to know Boston, Preacher, the Professor, Bo and other members of this Marine company you will understand their frustration at taking and retaking the same ground from the enemy for no apparent purpose other than to get some body count. What does winning in Vietnam mean? Why aren't we loved by the Americans we are risking our lives for over here? They keep mentioning the fact that their country has never lost a war and they don't intend to lose this one. The setting is 1969 just before the troop withdrawals of Vietnamization start.

The title comes from Adams' visit to the Wall in D.C. some 17 years after the war is over and he flashes back to his whole Nam experience from coming in-country to being sent home.

This book is a real tribute to the men of that generation who did their duty courageously and died for each other, even if the American people they were fighting for didn't appreciate their sacrifices.