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Cologne
No. 10 For Men
a Vietnam novel
by Richard Morris
"I
love the way Wilfred recycles the bodies.
That's fabulous stuff with a direct line to Heller's Catch-22
and perfectly captures the insanity of the Vietnam War."
–Richard Peabody, editor of Gargoyle Magazine
Kirkus:
A soldier in
Vietnam invents a uniquely absurd solution to the horrors of
war.
A relatively naïve Wilfred Carmenghetti comes to the Far East to
outmaneuver the draft and save the Western world, but when he
lands at the First Battalion to join an air-mobile platoon in
the 13th Cavalry, the young Army lieutenant is greeted with a
profane censure of communism and the offer of a $30 prostitute.
Once he gets over his initial dismay, Wilfred accepts his place
in this peculiar milieu by bonding with a black rabble-rouser
named Joshua Henry and falling madly in love with a dilettante
Vietnamese girl.
Morris, once a rifle platoon leader who tread
in the same rice paddies as his fictional character, writes
convincingly of battle, bloodshed and the disarming brevity of
sudden, violent death. He also infuses his war story with the
black humor prevalent in many modern American war stories like
Catch-22 or M.A.S.H. as Wilfred struggles to outmaneuver the
incompetently bureaucratic Lt. Col. Clary, his lapdog Capt.
Simms and an engaging, philosophical Vietnamese spy. The book,
played out in discrete segments following groups of characters
on missions that usually relate more to their own motivations
than the company line, also carries echoes of Tim O’Brien’s
similarly toned The Things They Carried.
Eventually Wilfred,
traumatized by his experiences and absorbed in a debate with
himself over the nature of humanity, arrives at a fanciful
conclusion that involves recycling the bodies of dead Vietcong
to satisfy his superior’s appetite for grossly elevated body
counts. “What we need to create is the functional equivalent of
war: Everything except the killing,” he says. To wit, the
illusion of war.
A funny and
serviceable satire about the gross rationalizations that propel
war and peace.
" –Kirkus Discoveries Review
Available
at
Amazon.com,
Barnesandnoble.com,
and other
on-line
booksellers
(search on Cologne No. 10 For Men),
or call 1-800-288-4677.
Paperback $14.95
–
Hardback
$24.95
Hits on this site since
August 14, 2008: |
