Fields of Fire by James Webb

So the book for this week is Sen. Jim Webb's "classic novel of the Vietnam War"--that's how it's blurbed on the cover of the Naval Institute Press edition, i.e., this book is actually published by the Navy. I'm about two-thirds of the way through. This is Webb's first novel, published in 1978. But I've read enough to say that Webb is a very gifted writer. What I'm most impressed with is how Webb is able to describe and explain a whole cast of characters, either through actions or through backstory character sketches interspersed in the narrative. Throughout the novel the point-of-view shifts from the Webb alter ego, Lt. Hodges (from Kentucky, which is like SW Virginia), to "Snake," a hard-ass black NCO, to Marine lifers like the platoon's sergeants, Austin and Gilliland, to grunts like Cannonball (another black character) and "Senator," a Harvard dropout volunteer. (I think it's richly ironic that there's a character in Webb's first book nicknamed "Senator.") Each of his characters really comes alive, and they are drawn sympathetically, even the ones with flaws (i.e., all of them). Webb is really skilled in that aspect of novel-writing, that is, the ability to see things from multiple perspectives and to tell a story from those perspectives.

Highly recommended. But I wanted to quote from one of Webb's characters, Sgt. Gilliland, on the war. Remember, Webb wrote this in 1978. Here goes:

"It ain't what happens here [in Vietnam] that's important. It's what's happening back there. Shit, Lieutenant, you'd hardly know there was a war on. It's in the papers, and college kids run around screaming about it instead of doing panty raids or whatever they were running around doing before, but that's it. Airplane driers still drive their airplanes. Businessmen still run their businesses. College kids still go to college. It's like nothing reaaly happened, except to other people. It isn't touching anybody except us. It makes me sick, Lieutenant."

Gilliland moodily lit another cigarette. "We been abandoned, Lieutenant. We been kicked off the edge of the goddamn cliff. They don't know how to fight it, and they don't know how to stop fighting it. And back home it's too complicated, so they forget about it and do their rooting at football games. Well, fuck 'em. They ain't worth dying for."

It's always dangerous to read a character's speech as representing the author's views. But to the extent that this was a common perspective of Vietnam grunts, well, then Webb's decision to run for the Senate, as an anti-war Democrat, makes a whole lot of sense.

Update: OK, I've finished the book. Didn't see a lot of that coming. Webb builds an interesting plot in the last half of the book, and ends the book with a great ironic twist. Highly recommended.

Btw, the last chapter is about anti-war protesters. Webb was an angry Vietnam vet in the 1970s.