Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War

Karl Marlantes depicts the hellish existence of combat as well as any author of his generation. But to characterize Matterhorn as just another realistic war novel with unusually vivid combat scenes is to sell it far too short. Reminiscent of James Webb's Fields of Fire and Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War, Matterhorn elucidates much broader themes associated with the Viet Nam War. Most important of those and arguably what makes Matterhorn such a brilliant work is the degree to which it illuminates the practically impossible task junior leaders faced leading soldiers through all the mud and muck of this conflict.Not surprisingly, the frustration of fighting a phantom enemy is on full display in Matterhorn. Whether the enemy is the elusive Viet Cong, the careerist commanders long on ambition and short on compassion, or the racial polarization and illicit drug use, Marlantes' Marines are under constant attack. Indeed, the company and platoon commanders are very nearly defeated before they even leave their patrol base. The author also shines a very harsh light on the difficult hand these young Americans were dealt in a war with seemingly no end... and in how the battles were fought - often with precious little prospect for victory.One can guess from following 2nd Lieutenant Waino Mellas's baptism by fire that Marlantes' own experience as a company grade officer in the Marine Corps during the Viet Nam era was an uneasy one. And those officers and noncommissioned officers with whom he served, if not eccentric, were probably quite unique. The author develops his characters exceedingly well which contributes much to his storyteller's art.Undoubtedly, Marlantes' most impressive creation is the idealistic Mellas.The reader easily appreciates Mellas's inner struggles to overcome his doubts, anxieties, and fears as a newly minted Marine officer thrown into the breach. His constant questioning is suggestive of a thinking, highly intelligent young man trying to reconcile his doubts about the war with his sense of duty. We readers are witness to Mellas's inner torment and ultimately come to recognize what young Marine officers - the Marlantes, Webbs, and Caputos - faced in their efforts to make sense of the nonsensical... or to find sanity in the insane.Most poignant in Matterhorn is the tragedy that stalks the Marines through virtually every day of their 12-month tour. Lieutenants such as Mellas, Hawke, and Fitch, though barely adults, deal with this life-and-death reality as best they can. They are entrusted with the awesome responsibility for young Marines' lives and have to constantly balance the risk of losing men with mission accomplishment. While fully embracing that warrior spirit that makes them USMC officers, they agonize over decisions they know will consign their charges to a premature death. We can certainly imagine that these noble Americans might live the rest of their lives with the consequences of those decisions, that they would be forever changed by their experience. But it takes a book like Matterhorn to really put into perspective just how life-altering that experience truly was... and perhaps how difficult and painful those men's subsequent journeys have been.Matterhorn clearly raises the bar for the war novel genre. Marlantes combines his considerable skills as a writer with his real-world experience as a combat leader to deliver a highly readable book. His vivid imagery makes the combat scenes come to life and leaves an indelible imprint on the reader's imagination. Those scenes are as stunningly real as they are pathetically sad. After getting through the final climactic battle with the North Vietnamese, I found myself emotionally spent. This book, both instructive and entertaining, offers readers an unusually honest view of the Viet Nam War from the perspective of those guileless and unfailingly loyal junior officers who, as in all wars, shoulder the heaviest load.A fabulous first novel. We should all hope that we have not seen the end of Karl Marlantes!Bravo!

Reading over the Amazon reviews of Karl Marlantes' brilliant Vietnam novel, Matterhorn, it's hard not to grasp the scope of divided sentiment that still exists regarding the Vietnam War. Granted, most of the reviews are positive, but the few negative reviews are extremely negative, questioning Marlantes' commitment to the Marine Corps, America, mom and apple pie. It's not too unlike the campaign to discredit John Kerry during the 2004 election, due to his anti-war stance as a veteran in the 1970's. What many of the book's critics fail to grasp is that Matterhorn is a novel, not a memoir, and that literature can be used to make a statement reflects the world as the author sees it, not absolute truth.Matterhorn follows Lieutenant Waino Wellas and the men of Bravo Company as they hold and fortify, then abandon, then retake a strategically located hill near the Laotian border. The novel traces the military decisions from their genesis at battalion headquarters, through the junior officers leading the company all the way down to the grunts in the field as those decisions are executed. Showing each layer as he does, Marlantes reveals the game of telephone that is warfare in Vietnam, with the orders distorting through the filter of incompetence, personal initiative, heroism, terror and bad weather.Matterhorn is also a kind of bildungsroman for Mellas, introducing him as a green officer with political ambitions and watching him change into a cynical veteran who has lost his faith in both the Marine corps leadership and humanity, even the meaning of life itself. His journey, as well as the journey of various supporting characters, is as riveting and compelling as anything I've ever read. There is a sincerity and integrity to these characters as Marlantes has molded them, taking what could have been flat cliches and turning them into characters who pop off the page and live inside your head.This is going to seem a bit strange, but Matterhorn is the best war novel I've read since Joe Haldeman's science fiction classic, The Forever War. He makes the action exciting, but never gives the pathos of death the short shift. As we get to know these characters and how they live, we also see them in their last moments as they face death. Though there's an impressive cast of characters and it's sometimes hard to keep track of them all, one really feels the loss as each man falls in combat.Much time is spent focused on military politics, as well as the racial and class divisions of the Vietnam era. And although some of the racial monologues can seem forced, Marlantes handles the issue of racism in the Marine corps with deft precision, providing a balanced look at the black soldiers caught up in the struggle for civil rights, the white non-commissioned officers who have seen their corps transformed since they were enlisted men in the Second World War and Korea, and the soldiers caught in the middle. Mellas himself wrestles with race, just as the country did, never quite finding the right answer to the issue.In the end, though, it's the futility of war that drives the central message of Matterhorn. Human lives are discarded casually by ambitious officers looking to pad body counts, and positions that were fought for on one day are abandoned the next, only to be fought for again. The question Marlantes asks is: "Was this war worth the loss of so many lives?" And the answer -- that it wasn't -- is at the heart of what still divides the country on Vietnam. It's a hard thing to accept that so many people died for nothing, so it's easier to attack those who say it than to accept the truth. The same question is being asked of Iraq and Afghanistan, and sadly, I think the answer might still be the same. Wars based on political ideology, rather than a clear and concrete territorial objective, can never be successful.