Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010: Matterhorn is a marvel--a living, breathing book with Lieutenant Waino Mellas and the men of Bravo Company at its raw and battered heart. Karl Marlantes doesn't introduce you to Vietnam in his brilliant war epic--he unceremoniously drops you into the jungle, disoriented and dripping with leeches, with only the newbie lieutenant as your guide. Mellas is a bundle of anxiety and ambition, a college kid who never imagined being part of a "war that none of his friends thought was worth fighting," who realized too late that "because of his desire to look good coming home from a war, he might never come home at all." A highly decorated Vietnam veteran himself, Marlantes brings the horrors and heroism of war to life with the finesse of a seasoned writer, exposing not just the things they carry, but the fears they bury, the friends they lose, and the men they follow. Matterhorn is as much about the development of Mellas from boy to man, from the kind of man you fight beside to the man you fight for, as it is about the war itself. Through his untrained eyes, readers gain a new perspective on the ravages of war, the politics and bureaucracy of the military, and the peculiar beauty of brotherhood. --Daphne Durham
Amazon Exclusive: Mark Bowden Reviews Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War
 Mark Bowden is the bestselling author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, as well as The Best Game Ever, Bringing the Heat, Killing Pablo, and Guests of the Ayatollah. He reported at The Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty years and now writes for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and other magazines. He lives in Oxford, Pennsylvania.
Matterhorn is a great novel. There have been some very good novels about the Vietnam War, but this is the first great one, and I doubt it will ever be surpassed. Karl Marlantes overlooks no part of the experience, large or small, from a terrified soldier pondering the nature of good and evil, to the feel and smell of wet earth against scorched skin as a man tries to press himself into the ground to escape withering fire. Here is story-telling so authentic, so moving and so intense, so relentlessly dramatic, that there were times I wasn’t sure I could stand to turn the page. As with the best fiction, I was sad to reach the end. The wrenching combat in Matterhorn is ultimately pointless; the marines know they are fighting a losing battle in the long run. Bravo Company carves out a fortress on the top of the hill so named, one of countless low, jungle-coated mountains near the border of Laos, only to be ordered to abandon it when they are done. After the enemy claims the hill’s deep bunkers and carefully constructed fields of fire, the company is ordered to take it back, to assault their own fortifications. They do so with devastating consequences, only to be ordered in the end to abandon Matterhorn once again. Against this backdrop of murderous futility, Marlantes’ memorable collection of marines is pushed to its limits and beyond. As the deaths and casualties mount, the men display bravery and cowardice, ferocity and timidity, conviction and doubt, hatred and love, intelligence and stupidity. Often these opposites are contained in the same person, especially in the book’s compelling main character, Second Lt. Waino Mellas. As Mellas and his men struggle to overcome impossible barriers of landscape, they struggle to overcome similarly impossible barriers between each other, barriers of race and class and rank. Survival forces them to cling to each other and trust each other and ultimately love each other. There has never been a more realistic portrait or eloquent tribute to the nobility of men under fire, and never a more damning portrait of a war that ground them cruelly underfoot for no good reason. Marlantes brilliantly captures the way combat morphs into clean abstraction as fateful decisions move up the chain of command, further and further away from the actual killing and dying. But he is too good a novelist to paint easy villains. His commanders make brave decisions and stupid ones. High and low there is the same mix of cowardice and bravery, ambition and selflessness, ineptitude and competence. There are passages in this book that are as good as anything I have ever read. This one comes late in the story, when the main character, Mellas, has endured much, has killed and also confronted the immediate likelihood of his own death, and has digested the absurdity of his mission: "He asked for nothing now, nor did he wonder if he had been good or bad. Such concepts were all part of the joke he’d just discovered. He cursed God directly for the savage joke that had been played on him. And in that cursing Mellas for the first time really talked with his God. Then he cried, tears and snot mixing together as they streamed down his face, but his cries were the rage and hurt of a newborn child, at last, however roughly, being taken from the womb." Vladimir Nabokov once said that the greatest books are those you read not just with your heart or your mind, but with your spine. This is one for the spine. --Mark Bowden |
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 Matterhorn - A grunts view. |
| Review Date: March 25, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Rodger Clemons, NORMAN, OK, US |
I am not qualified, so I will not attempt a literary review of the book "Matterhorn". What I am qualified to comment on is the authenticity of this novel. I was in Vietnam at the same time the author was, our experience differed mainly in the name of our units. Marlantes was in Charlie 1/4, I was in Alpha 1/4. It's all so accurate, so real, and brought back a flood of memories from my time in the jungle. If a person wants to know what it was like to be a grunt in a Marine Corps rifle Co in I Corps in the Republic of Vietnam in the late 60's, then read "Matterhorn". I cannot express how impressed I was by this novel. Mr. Marlantes NAILED it. He wrote my story, and the story of the men I humped those jungle trails with, the men I fought, cried, and died with. Thank you Sir.
Semper Fi |
A story within a story, within a story,..
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| Review Date: May 29, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Lorry Kaye, MA, LMHC, Duvall, WA |
A Story Within a Story, Within a Story.....
A review of
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
Although it's true that Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War isn't your ordinary war novel, it will give the reader an historically accurate and alarming vivid experience of the conflict that took place over 40 years ago in South East Asia. Just like other books of this type, the person who reads this 622 page book will be taken through the lives of teen boy's as they struggle with the reality of becoming a Marine, their painfully rapid acceleration into adulthood and too often their seemingly meaningless demise. As in other stories about war it has all of the usual components like the deep comradery between solders, the sorrow of loss, the intense fear of battle and the excitement of combat. Readers of this genre will not be disappointed. However, author Karl Marlantes has gone above, beyond and far deeper with Matterhorn than the ordinary war novel.
In this book about the Vietnam War, is another book about humanity and humility, and yet another about the complexities of racism. What also immerges within these pages is another story laced with subtle religious symbolism and the effects of a sacrosanct ideology. Even a rendition of a well-known allegorical tales is exquisitely presented as still another story in this winning novel.
The individually unique characters in this book grapple with meaning; the meaning of leadership, the meaning of reason, the meaning of war, the meaning of death and the meaning of life. Human dilemmas such as honor vs. cowardice, morality vs. malice, feminine vs. masculine and belief vs. doubt are painstaking studied and flushed out through the rich personalities portrayed within. It's also important to note Marlantes has captured, as only a combat veteran could, the quick wit and primordial humor present between soldiers during wartime.
The author brings you along as Second Lieutenant Waino Mellas, the man character, goes through profound physical, psychological and developmental transformations.
We meet Mellas with a detailed description of his appearance. He's donned in a new flak jacket, embarrassingly shiny new boots and the "...dark green t-shirt and boxer shorts his mother had dyed for him just three weeks ago..." We also join in with his thoughts.
"Forty new names and faces in his platoon alone, close to 200 in the company, and they all look the same, black or white. It overwhelmed him. They all wore the same filthy tattered camouflage, with no rank or insignia, no way of distinguishing them, from the skipper right on down. All of them were too thin, too young and too exhausted."
Another carefully crafted character is Hawke, an older Marine at 22 with a large red moustache who is filled with the kind of wisdom born out of experience.
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"Hawke had been in-country long enough to be accustomed to being scared and waiting--that came with every operation--but he was not used to being worried, and that worried him".
The relationship between these two men at first tenuous, grows with a need for survival and the kind of respect only shared by those who have endured what many only experience in their worst nightmares.
Some of the other personalities that Marlantes has expertly woven into this human drama are: Lieutenant Colonel Simpson a despicable alcoholic who the reader can't help but pity, Vancouver who has chosen to live life on his own terms, Cassidy the hard and bitter gunny, Doc Fredrickson and senor squid Sheller both who use the minimal medical supplies, their dedication and their compassion to help gravely wounded soldiers, Hippy "... a creature of unknown order, a spirit carried by crippled feat..." and the self assured Lieutenant Karen Elsked, an integral part of the parable within this story of war. These are only a few of the cast of characters superbly developed in Matterhorn.
The fine and clear word smithing in this novel brings the reader into the jungles of the Quang-Tri Province of Vietnam. You can smell the freshly cut bamboo, feel the sting of ant bites, shiver as the leeches slide under your utility shirt, and see the "...fine faint plume...darker grayish silver cloud hardly distinguishable from the overcast backdrop.." of Agent Orange. As night or rain falls you experience the wet, the cold
Reading Marlantes's vivid words have you feeling the pain of jungle rot, emersion foot, starving hunger, debilitating thirst and the pummeling of mortars.
"Another explosion hit only 15 feet from their hole, followed by four more. They winced with the pain as the concussion slapped against their eardrums. Mellas felt the air rush from his lungs. He felt he was in a heavy black bag being beaten with unseen clubs. Shrapnel hissed overhead and dirt rained down their heads, down their backs, in between their gritted teeth, and caked around their eyes, Smoke replaced oxygen. They couldn't talk. They endured".
Because of the authors' dedication to detail and authenticity words like hooch, squid, fragging and gungy or acronyms like FAC, C-4, or 175's could leave those without a military background lost. Marlantes skillfully handles this problem with creating an easy to use "Glossary of Weapons, Technical Terms, Slangs and Jargon". He also includes a "Chain of Command" flow chart complete with radio call signs.
Marlantes's story telling capabilities evoke emotions not often accessed while reading a novel. Any reader of Matterhorn is advised to allow the story to completely envelope you in order for a true depth of understanding to take place.
Lastly, at the risk of revealing the allegorical tale mentioned earlier, it must be said that Marlantes does an exquisite job of showing the meaning of this tale. One must have compassion and live the honorable life instead of falling prey to evil. So "There it is".
Lorry Kaye, MA, LMHC
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Not just another war novel; an American narrative classic
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| Review Date: February 14, 2010 |
| Reviewer: 35-year Technology Consumer, Mid Atlantic, USA |
Whatever you think you know about war, about men under arms and about the war in Vietnam will be challenged by this book. It's quite simply a masterpiece.
The letter from the publisher included with the review copy of this book says that Vietnam War and USMC veteran Karl Marlantes wrote this over the thirty years after his service ended. It was worth every minute of the wait.
Marlantes presents us with a classic of American literature. That it falls into the genre of war literature is secondary to the stunning narrative, the vivid characters, and the gravity of every action depicted over more than 500 riveting pages.
"Matterhorn" is centered on the experience of a Waino Mellas, a USMC second lieutenant and infantry officer, during the first three months of his thirteen-month rotation Vietnam. Among the conflicts Mellas is forced to comprehend at a rapid pace (and which Marlantes illustrates with precision, simplicity and unerring accuracy):
-replacements and veterans
-conscripts and careerists
-officers and enlisted
-blacks and whites
-infantry and aviation
-the differing realities of command elements in the rear and maneuver forces in contact with an elusive and determined enemy.
Some of these were unique or amplified in Vietnam, others are enduring issues in any military setting. Marlantes captures them with museum-quality clarity.
Marlantes threads these conflicts and navigates Mellas through three combat patrols as he seeks to understand his own competence as a leader of young men whose lives and limbs -like his own- are subject to the variable qualities of enemy ordnance, the decisions of leaders and their commitment to each other.
The dialog is crisp and realistic, the characters are vivid and complex (even those who could easily be reduced to stereotype or caricature in a lesser work). The heat and chill of jungle warfare...the hunger, thirst and pain of the infantryman...the dark humor grown by those who face the threat of sudden death or maiming...the bureaucratic absurdities that every war inflicts on its participants...each is superbly presented.
Marlantes presents this story in the third person, and I had my own ideas about where he would take Mellas at the end of the book. I was wrong about this and about where the narrative would end. To say anything more would deprive other readers of their own opportunity to journey to Vietnam with Waino Mellas. But make the journey with him; you'll be better for doing so.
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More than War
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| Review Date: April 16, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Daphnie Gardelle, Los Angeles |
| War novels are not my normal "go-to", however, reading Matterhorn based on a recommendation of a friend, was a captivating experience I can truly say I am a better person for having. It grabbed me from the first scene and didn't let me go. Due not just to the horrifically honest account of Vietnam (a chilling time we have yet to learn so much about and from), but much because of the fascinating, deeply human, characters and relationships the author created. Every place of my heart was touched by the trials of these comrades. I can't recommended this book enough. It is about so much more than just war. Both your mind and heart will be blown open. I promise. |
Move over, Tim O'Brien...
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| Review Date: April 19, 2010 |
| Reviewer: John P. Jones III, Albuquerque, NM, USA |
...well, not too far. The "gestation period" might have taken awhile, like 40 years, no doubt to get it just right, and Karl Marlantes did. The quintessential Vietnam War novel has finally been born.
"There it is." The classic Vietnam expression uttered when the essential truth has been stated. All too appropriate for this novel, that never mentions Saigon. The machinations of the politicos are conveyed only as a distant abstraction. The action is shorn of all reporters whose vision was all too often refracted by, er, ah, "editorial concerns." The novel covers a two month period, in the early spring of 1969, during the monsoon season. The fighting occurs just south of an imaginary line once drawn in Geneva, to denote a temporary boundary of two years duration, until "free elections" were held to reunite the two sections of the country. Those often touted elections were never held, since the "wrong guy" would have won. And so two countries were created, at least in the West. Some of the fiercest fighting occurred in this area, around a classic misnomer, the "Demilitarized Zone," in the heart of the Annamite Cordillera where even the Vietnamese would not live: too high, too cold, too infertile and too much of the very bad malaria, the kind that felled Parker. And now the "is" was, save for the few who still carry the memories of those impossibly remote jungle valleys with them. Marlantes faithfully retained those memories, transforming them into a compelling story, for the many who were not there.
Marlantes' novel includes a few vital aides, for the few, as well as the many. There are a couple of appropriate maps, a "chain of command," with the names of the principal characters, and an excellent appendix which covers the specialized military terms, the lingo and slang unique to the war, as well as a succinct description of the weaponry used. Matterhorn was the designated American name of a 5,000 ft plus hill, in the extreme northwest corner of what was once South Vietnam. From there, on a clear, non-monsoon day, views into North Vietnam and Laos were possible. The story is, no doubt, thinly autobiographical, told through the eyes of a new `butter bar" lieutenant, Mellas. This is a novel about the Marines, and thus the war experience is much more intense than that which occurred even to most Army units in combat. Much more is, and has been demanded, of what is largely volunteers, with their famous esprit de corps, as it were, including that extra month, the 13th. Nothing underscored the intensity of the combat experience like the fact that when the novel is finished, Mellas still has 11 months left in Vietnam!
Marlantes writes well, in many ways it is a "page-turner"; but for approximately the first 200 pages there is virtually no combat. The author does pull the reader in, with the leeches. It is a dramatic beginning, since the monsoons negated the air power, and helicopter evacuation advantage of the Americans. There were the "docs" who felt overwhelmed by the task at hand, their limited resources and knowledge, yet managed despite the odds. The author develops a sufficient number of characters, of all the ranks, setting the stage for the later combat scenes. And when those scenes finally come, the relentless small unit combat, man to man, what was depicted was a small, but very real minority of the actual fighting in Vietnam, which all too often relied on massive firepower on the one side, and hit and run attacks on the other, in which one rarely saw "the enemy." The small unit infantry tactics, taught on the bases that churned out the officers, are made understandable for those who were never in the military.
So many aspects of the war that were unique to the Vietnam conflict were incorporated in this novel, and depicted with the utmost authenticity. A major sub-theme was the relationship between Black and White marines, as the former were influenced by the heady days of the Civil Rights movement. Another aspect was the "fragging" of the officers, and when it is an officer who is doing it, well, it underscores in bold the madness, and disconnection of the officer cast from the men, and what was being asked of them. There were a few, painfully real American infantry assaults on fortified hills, like "Hamburger Hill," in the A Shau valley, which occurred about four months after the events depicted in this novel. A hill taken at a very high cost in lives, only to be immediately given back to the North Vietnamese. Is it any wonder that more than a few grenades were rolled under some cots? There was the obsession with kill ratios, and although Marlantes does not attribute it, the 10:1 kill ratio thought necessary to win was derived from the British campaign in Malaya. The author has a brilliant passage when, just a maybe "probable" kill is escalated to 10 confirmed KIA's by the time it reaches Saigon. This novel is a real "outlier" for the Vietnam War; there are not "Susie Wongs." There are no Vietnamese women at all! But the author does have a brilliant scene with a "round eye," that portrayed the ache on the one side, and the impossible situation for the woman on the other with searing intensity. Even the "minor notes" of the novel were hit true: the accusation that Mellas might have been "slumming," that he had a choice of not joining the Marines, unlike the ones he was making fun of. Another: Every unit had a "numby," and they knew it, but they so desperately wanted the approbation of their "buddies," not to mention their father who had died in the Korean War, and so they took one too many chances. More than one tear in the eye.
Quibbles? In all these meticulously recalled or always lived memories, yes, there are those intervening 40 years. The 24th Marines were never at Belleau Woods (p 540)! And surely the Marines gave up their shiny metal officer bars around 1966, when the Army did, to be replaced by camouflaged black cloth. As for those sometimes sought medals for bravery, at least the Army was handing out Bronze Stars as though they were chloroquine primaquine anti-malaria pills.
I spent the same two months in Vietnam, the middle part of my "tour," in the same Annamite Cordillera, further south, in the Central Highlands. And I once fought, at night, to keep someone's temperature under that magic 104 degree level, awaiting the dawn, and medevac. The same war? No, radically different. I was in a tank unit, and although we might not have eaten well, we never missed a meal. During my orientation to the 4th Infantry Division, in September, 1968, the commanding general (who never got fragged!) said there will be no assaults on hills and fortified bunkers in his division. If stiff opposition were met, the units were to pull back, and let the artillery and the Air Force do its job. In the madness of war, all too sensible.
There were parts of The Naked and the Dead: 50th Anniversary Edition that were brilliant, but I've always had a problem with Norman Mailer, and his calculating choice as to which front in the Second World War would produce the better novel. Marlantes novel is much better, much more authentic and comprehensive. There is no sense of "calculation" in the author's motives; one senses that the story simply had to be finally told, and he did it so well. 5-stars, plus.
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