Customer Reviews

Of Rice and Men: A Novel of Vietnam

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Of Rice and Men

Richard Galli's novel, "OF Rice and Men" is the MASH of Vietnam - humorous, sensitive, poignant and serious. You take a group of college educated men, some with Peace Corps experience, you draft them in the Army and place them in the same platoon in Vietnam and give them an impossible humanitarian mission. The consequences become Galli journey through the "heart's and minds" rear area battlefield of Vietnam.

The story to me is more personal than distant, more fact rather than fiction for the character Paul Gianelli was modeled after me and my two tours with this unit. As our brothers in arms died in the rice fields our small group tried to bring peace and development to the civilians that were caught up in the daily horror of surviving in Vietnam. Like Iraq today, the civilians seemed to be in the way of "our" war and both sides had no problem murdering the innocent. Galli's words give no images of battle hardened American soldiers attacking jungle fortifications but it gives a good look at what little American soldiers were dying for in Vietnam. As our foreign policy tried to "bomb" democracy into Vietnam with a strategy of "destroying villages in order to save them" many of us working at village level realized that America would never be victorious if our actions betrayed our own US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

This is a critical must read book for those not only interested in the history of Vietnam but in the history of why we fail so often in our foreign policy. It should be a text for all military in "Civil Affairs" operations. For the current history student the parallels to what is currently happening in Iraq are too clear. Today Civil Affairs has increased importance in Iraq. Many point to the "good" work our military is doing in civic action projects in our newest war zone. The men of the platoon in Hue City know that unless "good works" is intertwine with respect for culture, religion, families and human rights then the only result will be defeat. Richard Galli's book does not necessarily lead us to this conclusion but the reader will be drawn there once they read "Of Rice and Men".


Paul Giannone
Expert in Disaster Response and Planning
Experience in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the US

This is a big book - big emotions, big characters, big stories. It is the paper trail tale of war, the non-combat troops who fought the battles of civil affairs, soldiers ordered to engage the indigeneous Vietnamese and teach them how to grow rice and build permanent structures. In Of Rice And Men, author Galli focues on the remf's - the rear echelon mother fu--ckers as they were so designated by the grunt on the line - who were forced to venture out into the hills and paddy fields without weapons, without support, and daily put their lives on the line.

This is a gloriously dramatic book in the fashion of Catch-22 and Tim O'Brien's best works, a shining light on the stupidity, savagery, and sometime sweetness of the Vietnam War.

The author was there and it is in these pages. Beautiful prose and deadly accurate.

We had our "Naked and the Dead" with "Better times than These",
our "Guadalcanl Diary" with "We Were Soldiers Once and Young".
Now we've finally got our very own "Catch-22" with "Of Rice and Men". It's a very funny and insightful story of one man and his
tour of duty as a translater with a civil affairs unit up in Hue City. Well at least the central character, Guy Lopaca, thought he was a translater till his CO has him delivering "Miracle Rice" that the 'Yards don't want to plant nor grow because it tastes awful so they end up selling it to the NVA. The story illustrates the stupidity of the military with bewildered humor and the futility of trying to make sense of why we were there to begin with. There's even a Christmas Carol:
"Jingle Bells, Mortar Shells.
VC in the grass,
take your Merry Christmas
and stick it up your ass". If you were there get this book and read it...hell, get it and read it even if you weren't there. You won't be disappointed.

Most Vietnam novels and movies focus on the bloody battles between the soldiers of both sides. Of Rice and Men is the story of the other army personnel who actually outnumbered the combat troops by a large number but also risked their lives daily for a cause they didn't understand any more than the combat soldiers did. This fictional story follows the lives of a few of these men and women in a traditional war time told story mixed in with a mild Carl Hiaasen type surrealness in its characters, which lightens the tale and allows the reader to laugh at a situation where death can come to those there at any minute. An interesting and informative read that makes you think about aspects of the war, we've never really been told about before.

There is not one wrong word in this bitter-sweet but humorous account of the war in Vietnam.

Richard Galli may have found his Vietnamese language skills lacking, but his heart and compassion, his bravery and committment to duty never failed him.

For me, also a translator-interpreter in Vietnam, assigned to another platoon of the same Civil Affairs Company Richard served in the year after he went home, everything rings exactly dead-on.

I knew the same people he knew (with the possible exception of the Virgin Mary), so it seems, or their replacements. The circumstances and situations had not changed during my time. I am so grateful he has captured the lighter moments amongst both the Americans and the Vietnamese and Montagnards with whom we worked. The horrors and tragedies of that war have been well-documented; the lighter moments, hardly at all.

Even with the overwash of humor, the underlying futilty and horror still resonate. Galli has done an amazing job.

Everyone, Vietnam vet or not, should read this book. I hope it evolves into the MASH of Vietnam.

Outstanding book that brings back many memories. I don't know how the author remembered such details of life in Vietnam whether you were a combat trooper or in support. The author does carry some baggage with him as do many of those that served. Just understand it is from his point of view.

Richard Galli revised and definitely improved his earlier book, REMF's. This novel is cleaner and a funny/poignant look at the Viet Nam war through the eyes of the guys who dug wells and planted crops instead of blowing things up. The author definitely brings home a taste of what made Viet Nam such a life changing event for so many soldiers. This should be a must-read for anyone running for national office.

The book Robin Williams would have written if he could have--and the one Kurt Vonnegut would have if he'd served there. This is the novel that every Vietnam vet will want to read--and then give to his kids and grandkids so they will know what he went through.

Many of the other reviewers have already said all that needs to be said about this wonderful, funny, painful, delightful, thoughtful, and intelligent book. If there is only one book about the war in Vietnam that you have the time or energy to read, this is it! War isn't wonderful, or honorable, or great, or uplifting - War is something happens when stupid diplomats fail the do the job they're paid to do. And Galli's book shows just how absurd and idiotic war really is.

Not a novel so much as a series of vignettes; this is a very funny bring-tears-to-your eyes book. Makes you wonder about the transitions from the dedicated stop-the-nazis generation of WWII captured in Catch 22 to the laid-back generation that fought in Vietnam captured here, to the Nazis now fighting in Iraq where all signs of humor and compassion appear to be completely lost.