Ratings19
Average rating4.3
Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones’s The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever. Written by a highly decorated Marine veteran over the course of thirty years, Matterhorn is a spellbinding and unforgettable novel that brings to life an entire world—both its horrors and its thrills—and seems destined to become a classic of combat literature.
Reviews with the most likes.
DNF at 71% in Audiobook
I tried really hard to get into this book. There are so many glowing reviews, I kept pushing to find out what made this book special. At 71%, I still don't know what makes it special and I dread listening to any more.
Overall I can't see what makes this book any better than other Vietnam war novels. Is it the length? The character's descent into madness. Is the long, drawn out story meant to be a parallel to a long, drawn out war?
There were some good points to the book. It is immersive. The descriptions felt like I was there in the war. The horrors were accurately captured. You can tell the author did his research to make it authentic.
I'd like to know how it concludes, but I can't find it in me to devote another 6 hours to finishing this book. I already devoted nearly 14 hours to get this far. Aside from crossing it off my to-read list, there is nothing keeping me going.
Former USAF here - it's maddening how incompetent the US military is at times. Great book!