I just finished Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. It is about a company of very grown up teenage Marines the northern part of South Vietnam in 1969 led by a brand new college grad lieutenant Waino Mellas. These Marines engage in some very horrific battles under some unnecessary deprivation. I say unnecessary because they were deprived of food and water by screwups by their officers behind the lines. These same officers were served great food by Filipino stewards complete with fine whiskey and wine while they discussed why Bravo company was not moving very quickly through the jungle.

I found myself getting very angry with senior officers who were putting Mellas’ platoon in danger and depriving them of food, water, ammunition, and medical supplies and who refused to evacuate their wounded and dead.

Marlantes himself is a much decorated Marine Lieutenant during the Vietnam War. This novel took him 30 years to write through multiple drafts and revisions. Here is an interview where he discusses the process of writing it.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I give it five stars out of five.

Marlantes worked hard on this book and the results show. His characters are very real. Yes, they are are heroes but they are scared crapless heroes who do what they are terrified of doing and face down their fears. The writing is wonderful, it is the kind of book where the print on the page disappears, the book disappears, and I’m not aware of reading but I’m tearing off 200 page chunks with no sense of the passage of time.

Get this book, read it.