Shopping Cart Soldiers [Paperback]

John Mulligan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 1999

Shopping Cart Soldiers is a modern day Odyssean tale of the atrocities of war and its even more appalling aftermath. Set against the brutal realities of the conflict in Vietnam, John Mulligan tells the story of Finn MacDonald, an eighteen-year-old boy who is drafted soon after he emigrates with his family from Scotland. Upon returning from Vietnam, Finn is plagued by the terrible memories of all he has seen and is pushed into a haze of self-destructive behavior that tests his will to survive. Shopping Cart Soldiers chronicles Finn's painful and remarkable journey -- and his triumphant path to spiritual renewal and recovery.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The homeless Vietnam veteran, bedraggled, lovelorn and alcoholic, has become a staple of recent fiction. What's different here is the unrelenting focus, born of the author's personal experience, and the mythic underpinnings. Finn MacDonald emigrates from Scotland to the United States with his family in the 1960s, only to find himself almost immediately drafted. After participating in an atrocity of war, he becomes a multisubstance addict and, ultimately, homeless in San Francisco. What follows is his attempt to right himself, to banish the hideous nightmare-visions and seizures, and to reunite himself with his soul (the book's part-time first-person narrator). Powerful, graphic, but at the same time poetic, this first novel will surely not appeal to everyone, but it will be important to those to whom it does appeal.?Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Finn Quinn is a shattered man. Shortly after emigrating from Scotland, he is drafted for service in Vietnam, and while there, he experiences something so horrific that his soul fragments and leaves his body. After returning from the war, post-traumatic stress (PTS) drives him to alcoholism, and he ends up divorced and on the street, haunted by the unseen pieces of his spirit. Finally, alcohol poisoning puts him into the hospital in a coma, where his light and dark sides struggle for dominance and the ghost of Robert Louis Stevenson acts as a hallucinogenic referee. This first novel is full of rich imagery, drawing on the myths of both Vietnam and the Scottish Celts. Fundamental to both this work and to Philip Red Eagle's Red Earth (also reviewed in this issue) is the premise that post-traumatic stress is more an ailment of the spirit than of the mind or body. Although the novel is successful, it could have benefited from more aggressive editing. Eric Robbins --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1st Scribner Pbk. Fiction ed edition (January 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684856050
• ISBN-13: 978-0684856056
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,333,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Mind bending, December 4, 2011

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Torrey Nommesen (California, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Shopping Cart Soldiers (Paperback)

Really gets into your head and doesn't leave for a long time. Gets into the physiological pain of PTSD in a real and tangible way. Written from someone who went through it.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars REVIEW QUOTES, September 26, 2001

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Curbstone Press, Jantje Tielken, Editorial As... - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shopping Cart Soldiers (Paperback)

"...a poetic, mystical and, ultimately, healing autobiographical novel..." --The San Francisco Chronicle

"An important book, inspired by war but dedicated to each veteran's personal search for spiritual peace." --The Los Angeles Times

"The novel does exactly what it should-which is make the hair stand up on the back of your neck in horror one minute and fill you with hope the next." --The Hartford Advocate

"One of the three novels that best embody the war." --The Washington Post