A Slice of Vietnam - Carl Melcher

According to the book's cover, author Paul Clayton draws from his own experiences as an Army soldier in Vietnam for this self-published book.

The book tells a part of the story of Carl Melcher, drafted for service in Vietnam. CMGV does not, however, talk about the great political forces around or explore the conflict in detail, but tells of the personal experiences of one soldier as he learns the ropes, tries to figure out the Army jargon and daydreams about the weekends at the dance club back home in Philadelphia.

The book starts out a bit slow, the establishing of the situation and characters being a little dry at that point. After the initial hump, however, the story's interest doesn't stem from the explosions, deaths and heartbreaks the soldiers, and particularly Melcher, experience, but rather from the interaction of these soldiers.

Melcher finds himself in a bunker with African-Americans, Southern boys and Latinos at a time when interaction between the various groups wasn't as common as it is today. But when shrapnel flies and enemy soldiers on suicide missions invade the camp, one has to learn to get along and depend and trust on one another.

And even in war, there's love, as Melcher finds out when he falls head over heels for a Vietnamese girl. And there's heartbreak: he gets transferred on a minute's notice and has to run through the town risking severe punishment as he's being hunted down by his officers and the military police.

Heartbreak also comes in the form of the deaths of many soldiers Melcher makes friends with or the separation by transfers to different locations.

The characters descriptions are held to a minimum. Other than Melcher, there isn't much background explored on the different soldiers he interacts with. At 196 pages, that's not surprising; it's also not too big a problem since the book explores the here and now of the situation these men are thrown into and the outside forces pretty much keep them in military mode most of the time.

In their bunker, the men play cards, fight over the care packages sent to them and occasionally ponder what they'll do if they get out or what they should do to get out. While it's not openly said, it's probably just as well not to learn too much about the other soldiers' lives since their risk of losing them is always present.

Some of the characters were amusing to me, such as BeeOBee, the soldier who knows everything and elaborates on it whether you want to hear it or not. That's a carbon copy of my ex-husband who'd constantly stop a film to explain the correct way to set up a three-point-ambush or would list all the rules of the Geneva convention or explain the workings of a submarine whenever given a chance.

There are officers or squad leaders whose decisions endanger their troops' lives. There are decisions that leave one wondering if perhaps lives could have been saved if the officer hadn't insisted on dragging along an artifact he finds in the woods, delaying a return to base into the night.

Melcher himself is very sympathetic: he does his duty because he doesn't want to lie or cheat to get out of it. He's honest and friendly, without the character being overly perfect. He's just everyday-guy stuck into a war, trying to find his way through unscathed.

All those little situations and talks between Melcher and the other soldiers are what keeps up the interest in this book. My main problems with CMGV are:

- the somewhat slow start which may make some people put the book down before giving it a real chance.

- the book ends with a few major questions unanswered, leaving the reader hanging about "whatever happened to ...?"

Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam is well-written, particularly for a self-published book. I've seen a number of self-published books that virtually scream for an editor and, even worse, a lot of books published through major publishing houses oftentimes now sport so many typos and spelling errors that the reader wants to scream at the editor.

Paul Clayton's book only had one noticeable mistake where a question mark was used instead of a period and a few instances where elipses jumped onto the next line.

Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam is currently available through www.booklocker.com

Update: Good news! Mr. Clayton made it through the publishing jungle as well and his book will be published by St. Martin's Press around July 2004, when it'll be available in book stores everywhere.