Matterhorn is set in Vietnam in 1969. Second Lt. Waino Mellas is placed in charge of a Marine platoon. Mellas sees the assignment as both an opportunity to prove something to people back home and as a steppingstone for his career. His men take Matterhorn, a hill near the DMZ and Laotian border. After fortifying their position, they're ordered the abandon the hill and take part in a brutal jungle battle, only to be reassigned to take Matterhorn again, now fortified with the enemy. Amid racial tensions, soldiers willing to murder other soldiers or officers, poor supplies and food, incompetent military leaders who plan battles that are strategic to their careers instead of the war, and a jungle and enemy conspiring to kill them, the men of the platoon, Mellas included, realize their survival lies with each other.
Karl Marlante's book had me feeling all the emotion, frustration, the utter miserableness of the climate, conditions and chaos. This is a true war book so the subject matter is realistic and not for the weak of heart. There is quite a bit of profanity, so be aware if you are sensitive to it. With that said, I highly recommend this work. The glossary in the back of the books helps tremendously with military words, slang and abbreviations.Author: Karl Marlantes
Published: March 23, 2010
Pages: 592 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction (War)
Source: Library
Recommendations: Read as part of a read-a-long at War Through The Generations
7 comments:
This is one that I will read...I have to mark it on my Goodreads list for sure.
Another example of people in charge acting like idiots. Those poor soldiers! Sounds like a miving read.
I know I should read this but I don't know if I could without getting too mad or too sad. My Dad was in Vietnam so I'm sure I'd take a lot of it personally!
Thanks for joining our read-a-long. It was a hard book to read at times, but so worht it. It was my favorite book of 2010.
I really enjoyed this book as well. The read-a-long helped me tackle my fear of large books in this case.
We've added your review to the book review link page on the War Through the Generations challenge page.
I've been avoiding this -- Not sure I want to relive those years when friends and relatives and neighbors were drafted, avoided the draft, went through draft lotteries, and so on.
What a powerful book this was! I was bawling at the end. I'm one who does not like a lot of profanity, but for some reason it did not bother me in this book. Maybe because it was so frequent, I got used to it!
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