Customer Reviews

One to Count Cadence

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was in the Phillippines and Vietnam some two or three years after Mr. Crumley. His view of the places and times, and his description of the now defunct Army Security Agency is eerily accurate, as is his insight into the type of persons in the Agency at that time. Intelligent, anti-social misfits that left college from boredom and did not want to get drafted. Mr. Crumley has my highest respect

This book has been in print almost continuously for nearly forty years now. I'm not surprised. I first "discovered" OtCC around 1971 and it was like reading about my own first hitch in the Army Security Agency and all the crazy guys I served with. Except this is fiction, and there are some memorable and absolutely unforgettable characters here, in the protagonist, Slag Krummel, and his best-friend-sometime-nemesis, Joe Morning. About a platoon of hard-drinking and fornicating ditty-boppers, TA's and DF-ers who are a tight bunch - in more ways than one. The story is set in the Philippines and Vietnam in a time when many Americans had never heard of that small country. But check your history. The first U.S. casualty in Vietnam was an ASA soldier. I loved this book so much I bought several copies and passed 'em out and sent them to my buddies. In the past 37 year I have probably re-read this book several times. It gets a little better each time. Author Jim Crumley died this week, on 17 September 2008, out in Missoula, MT, at the age of 68. Since OtCC, he wrote several acclaimed hard-boiled private eye mysteries that won him a faithful readership not only in this country but also in Europe, particularly France, where he was very popular. I've read some of those books, including his last one, The Right Madness (2005). Crumley was a masterful storyteller and he still had it with that last book. I always hoped for another story of Slag Krummel. No such luck, I guess. R.I.P., Jim. You'll be sorely missed. - Tim Bazzett, author of Soldier Boy: At Play in the ASA

Jim Crumley died in the fall 2008, I think, posting out a little early. He suffered from Slag Krummel syndrome (Krummel is the protagonist and narrator in OtCC). I had the pleasure of knowing James Crumley. I met him in 1970..winter quarter, just after the first of the year. I was two years back from Viet Nam, and he was the writer in residence at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins. He was a helluva man, as old school as you can get, and a fine writer. He missed out on Viet Nam and was still frettng over it when I knew him.

Anyway, One to Count Cadence is a fine piece of literature. In it, you can hear the echoes of Crumley's influences..those you might expect...Hemingway, Mailer, James Jones. Crumley was a man who did indeed drive life into a corner and shake it by the ears. Married and divorced several times, I know that he was proud that he managed to stay current with his child support.

Try this book. If you like Jim Harrison or any of those influences I mentioned above, you'll enjoy the book.

I found this book while I was staying at a castle building thing in France. Here I was, middle of rural Provencial France, tons to see and do and watch and I spend my time sitting on my door step, drinking wine and smoking cigarettes and reading this book. I have never had anything to do with the armed forces (other than read other classic war books), but this one brings you in and forces you to drop and give it twenty. Excellent story and twists.

This was the best book ever written about the old Army Security Agency; maybe the best written about the Vietnam War. You'd always hear about it at DLI, but nobody ever loaned out their copy.

Dave Taggart. late of the 265th ASA Company,1st COMEX Plt (the Fighting Tigers of the ASA)

This is an outstanding book and it reminds me of my time of service in Vietnam.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys light reading that deals with
a wartime situation.

I loved this book and couldnt put it down. Made me laugh and made me cry. The best use of words I have come across in a long while.

mr crumbley captures the mood of this unique setting i can almost fit his characters with my eras personnel .it brings nostalgic memories too mind .we were young intelligent wild happy fun filled american youth living an adventure of alife. time the book is a classic !

the author takes the personage of slag krummel, a man of warrior tradition, torn by the contradictions of war ... emphasized is the interpersonal relationships of the charactors.

I like gritty, edgy stories and this one is about as gritty and edgy as you can get. But, I can't say I felt it had much more to offer. The characters are pretty over the top and not well enough developed that you feel like you can relate to them. The same criticism would apply to the story. I also never really felt like I was in the scenes as their descriptions were not vivid enough to put me there.

I'll try at least one more Crumley novel before I write his work off and move on to other writers. I think this was his first work and I also believe most of his other work is detective related. Maybe he can bring the grit and the edge a little more fluidly to that genre. It was simply too much of a chore to get myself to finish this book.