The Suckers, The Gung-ho and The Walking Dead

The Memorial: A Novel of Vietnam
By James Amos
Published 1989

Winter, Washington DC. Jake Adams has come to the Vietnam War Memorial looking for the names of fellow marines lost in Vietnam. His visit unlocks a torrent of memories from his first days in South Vietnam, his first taste of combat, spirtual crisis, friends loved and lost, pain, and one bloody week in the Ashau Valley as part of Operation Dewey Canyon. James Amos has written an excellent piece of writing, one that should be required reading in highschool. Amos plucks the reader from his/her comfortable home and throws them into the chaos and despair of Vietnam 1969. The Memorial is full of memorable characters that Amos makes the reader feel and cair for. Jake Adams, who's life is forever altered by the war, Bo Lawler a Son of the South still fighting the Civil War, Jim Clahan, black power advocate and Company Commander, Gunny the experianced veteran, Dragin who just wants to live to see tomorrow, and my personal favorite Alex Scott, deeply spirtual and commited to his cause. Well written and much more spirtual/philosophical then one would expect from this type of book, The Memorial is a must for any readers library.

**** out of **** Polemarch's Picks

Note: Some of the scenes in the novel are quite graphic and the Marines talk like Marines in Vietnam (expect to read the word gook alot). The easily offended may want to pass, to anyone else, find this book and read it.

For more information on Operation Dewey Canyon
http://www.mca-marines.org/Leatherneck/deweyarch.htm
Operation Dewey Canyon