Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes

Vietnam strikes again.  Forever entrenched in the subject, I can say with some authority that this is the best narrative of the Vietnam war that I have read.  This is partly due to the author's experience as a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, but mostly due to his incredible literary prowess.  In Matterhorn, the reader is submerged into the horror, the beauty, the futility, and most of all, the poignant camaraderie that was represented by the American involvement in Vietnam.  This novel details the Bravo Company's quest to occupy Matterhorn, a low, thickly forested hill on the border of Vietnam and Laos, the bumbling commandments to abandon the hard-won turf, and the subsequent re-conquering of Matterhorn at substantial human cost. 

Though Marlantes was an officer and a graduate of Yale and Oxford in real life, he does not abandon his mythical infantry in this novel and brings their voices to the forefront.  Of considerable acclaim are "Vancouver," a Canadian who enlists for the good of the cause and becomes a revered Rambo figure, and "China" a black power bastion whose fight for what's right back home becomes perilously entangled in the murky schemes of the Vietnam war.

Ultimately, Marlantes' prose captures the love and dedication that the young Marines had for each other, the backwards logic of their superiors, and the futility of the whole mess as it is represented by the Matterhorn hill.  Marlantes couldn't have written more authentic feeling text if he had plucked it from the young heads of his company.  Gritty, violent, and one-hundred percent worth it.


Post Script- Marlantes is a NW native; he grew up in Seaside, Oregon and currently resides in Woodinville, WA with his family.  He recently published a new book which is garnering similar acclaim, "What It Is Like to Go To War."