Heinemann, Larry

New York. 1977. Farrar Straus Giroux. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Slightly Worn Dustjacket With A Little Water-Staining on the Interior Near the Bottom Spine . 0374125236. 335 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Paul Bacon. keywords: Literature America Vietnam War. FROM THE PUBLISHER - This is the war Walter Cronkite never told us about. Philip Dosier's narrative begins in 1967 on a hillside ground to dust, overlooking the Michelin Rubber Plantation near Tayninh City. It is a tale of grueling, backbreaking work, sensitive camaraderie and loss, as seen from the tops of armored personnel carriers, from olive-drab base camps and muddy ambushes. It teems with noisy machinery, easy obscenities, and abundant marijuana. nosier meets the winners, the losers, and every notch in between the John Waynes, the sly gallows' humorists, the suicidal ‘I-don't-cares,' the dumb guys that never seem to last (all of them armed to the teeth) , and the camp followers on Hondas. He is caught up in the battlefield racism, against the Vietnamese and between black and white Gl's, and the spirit of atrocity the murder, rape, and pillage variety, as well as a less lethal, everyday kind that is no less appalling. There is sex here, too: behind the bushes, sweet and sentimental, bought and paid for, cynical and uncaring. After nine months Dosier stuffs his pockets with poker winnings and pay vouchers for a memorable R & R in Tokyo. He returns to the Tet offensive: the big battles that make the papers, the two-minute skirmishes, and the morning-afters. Finally Dosier gets his coming-home, and ends the story two years later with an unshakable sense of bitterness, and a whispered peacemaking on the icy banks of the Wabash River. This remarkable first novel has all the authenticity and bite of direct experience, but Heinemann's critical eye and perceptive sensibilities are unmistakably those of the novelist. A combination of these qualities, Close Quarters is perhaps the most forthright, powerful, and imaginative literary account yet to emerge from the war in Southeast Asia. inventory #16402 ISBN: 0374125236.