Mort's compelling first novel embodies both the Vietnam combat experience and the sad aftermath for those who underwent it. The novel alternates between the "stateside" chapters after the war and the Vietnam chapters dramatizing the war, creating a tension back and forth in time as well as geography. Through a wry first person narrative readers come to know the bookish, reluctant soldier and his comrades in the jungle and the psychologically wounded man who slowly climbs back into a productive life.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
With a refreshing lack of bombast or melodrama, first novelist Mort offers an insightful, affecting look at the complex personal consequences of warAspecifically VietnamAon the lives of its veterans. James Patrick "Irish" Donnelly, a reluctantly enlisted infantryman, narrates his story in direct, candid chapters alternating between his experiences in Vietnam and his life in the U.S. before and afterward. Stateside chapters chronicle Donnelly's troubled relationship with his father, the breakup of his marriage, his migration from Missouri to Florida and his falling in with a group of variously dysfunctional fellow veterans who raise money by selling their artwork. Overseas chapters capture not only combat memories but the daily grind and the psychic wear and tear of the job. Mort's portraits of Irish's fellow soldiers are lovingly drawn. There's Lieutenant Sherry, a Harvard man; Ransom, a serious black sergeant who once saved Irish's life; C.C. Ryder, "who got high every morning and did his best to stay that way." Most potently, there's Norman Sims, an unsophisticated private from Oklahoma who becomes Irish's special project as Sims stumbles haplessly from medal-winning heroism to emotional frailty, till finally he's beyond help. The vets whom Irish bonds with in the U.S. are a motley group, each man scarred in his own way. Most striking is Otto Sanchez, a double amputee. Irish soon realizes what his presence means to the group: "It's a nasty thing to say, but I think having Sanchez among us was comforting, because he made it clear how much worse things could be." Mort's unsentimental narrative draws the reader deep into Irish's story with a consistent air of authenticity and frankness, eschewing the emotional manipulativeness and ax-grinding of flashier Hollywood versions. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In this fictional memoir, James Patrick Donnelly, a.k.a. "Irish," recalls his tour of duty in Vietnam and his subsequent difficulties back home. In 1969, battle-seasoned Irish is assigned to watch over Norman Sims, the proverbial new guy, who promptly shoots himself in the foot. Sims later redeems himself with reckless acts of bravery, falls in love with a Vietnamese boom boom girl, and eventually ends up in military prison like a modern-day Billy Budd. Donnelly's narrative moves from Vietnam to the United States in alternating chapters, contrasting his honorable military career with a succession of postwar humiliations. Sadly, many of the defining details of the warAthe drugs, the rock'n'roll musicAhave become tired clich?s, and it is increasingly difficult to portray the experience in fresh and meaningful ways. Books such as Thom Jones's The Pugilist at Rest (LJ 4/15/93) and Stewart O'Nan's The Names of the Dead (LJ 3/1/96) prove that it isn't impossible. This book is a solid and affecting addition to the Vietnam canon, but it never manages to transcend the constraints of the genre. Recommended for comprehensive collections of Vietnam literature.AEdward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch., Los Angeles
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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