- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Harvest Books; Reprint edition (Nov 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0156028980
- ISBN-13: 978-0156028981
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.5 x 1.9 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,456,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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First Sentence
All marines serve a six-month tour at sea at least once in their hitch as marines, and Tommy Trang and me were stationed together as Force Recon marines with another eight hundred marines on the amphibious assault ship USS Inchon in the Persian Gulf. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
All marines serve a six-month tour at sea at least once in their hitch as marines, and Tommy Trang and me were stationed together as Force Recon marines with another eight hundred marines on the amphibious assault ship USS Inchon in the Persian Gulf. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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7 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
page turner and funny
4 Mar 2003
Format:Hardcover
what an insightfuland delightful and kind of funny/sad look at the idealism of America and our soldiers. At the same time an incredible peek into Arabic culture, its relationship with the west, its oppression of women and the adsudity of its newfound oil wealth. Any reader will not be able to put this book down after 10 pages. Part romance, part adventure, all remarkably written by a master "chaneller" of character.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Fear and Loathing meets Catch-22
29 Oct 2003
Format:Hardcover
The book promises a rollicking adventure of story after story; it delivers with the whipcrack of hilarity reserved for a Tarantino movie.
The prose is based on attitude, not on literary style, and the surfer style speech is not so different from A Clockwork Orange in that you KNOW you are in a different world. Don't fault the story premise for a style of writing you may not be used to, and in fact, find annoying at times: the same way Chaucer wrote - he couldn't help it!
Rarely do I read a book and laugh out loud, but this one was a pleasure in that it was light and funny and had sexy Arab babes, daring adventures, macho stupidity, confusing culture clashes like KFC meets Felafel Bell but it is funnier than Hell.
The characters reminded me of T.C. Boyle's book Water Music, another underrated adventure story, in that they don't move, they bounce from place to place, like Kerouac on Ecstasy.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
an almost magical travel story
7 Jan 2005
Format:Paperback
Wow, this book was great! The Los Angeles Times called it "a straight-ahead adventure tale in the vein of HUCKLEBERRY FINN" and they were so right. Trying to remember back to High School English and the terms for Mark Twain-style novels...pastoral, perhaps? Whatever it is, this book is a gem. I don't normally read novels about the Marine Corps, but this is SO much more than just the USMC in the 1st Gulf War (OOORAH!!). It's a lovely, slightly mythical narration of the adventures (or mis-adventures) of two unexpectedly AWOL marines. There's a Kuwaiti princess to rescue, a mythical pearl, camel racing, beduoins...it's a great travel yarn that has the war as an often distant backdrop. Made me think about patriotism, etc without ever really getting preachy. The narrative style is very innocent and genuine. Private Carmichael (formerly a stoner-surfer from CA) tells his story faithfully and openly. Very wonderful. I'm so glad I picked it up. I'd love to see this novel in an English class...lots of meaty things to sink ones teeth into. Also, I'm sure there's a lot of meanings behind the rock and roll lyrics that Carmichael thinks of throughout the story. Great fun!!
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