Rising Like the Tucson - Hardcover

Danziger, Jeff

3.33

6 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385418663 ISBN 13: 9780385418669

Publisher: Doubleday, 1991

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Amid the violence and confusion of the waning days of the Vietnam War, Lt. Kit and his men--abandoned by their own government and allies and surrounded by the enemy--hope for riches, ignorant of the possibility of defeat

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About the Author:

Jeff Danziger is a political cartoonist with the Los Angeles Times. He served in Vietnam in the First Cavalry Division from 1969-1971. He lives in New York City.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A comic eruption that tells the story of a group of left-behind US officers during the Vietnam War's final days: this first novel by a syndicated cartoonist is an able effort, distinguished by unexpected insight. Political cartoonist and Viet vet Danziger sketches a sweeping panorama of the doomed Phouc Vinh firebase, counterpointing the myth of the invincible US against its fallible, laughable, horrible reality. Hapless Lieutenant Kit is the mushy center of a rotting military society, promoted beyond his capabilities, useless in war and awkward in human relations. Representing the blindness of the official line is Kit's real-estate developer father, who swallows the fabricated ``Vietnamization'' policy and forces Kit to embark on a ludicrous scheme to build the first malls the country has ever seen. As more and more Americans depart, Phouc Vinh becomes a shell--protected by marvelous technology that doesn't work, inhabited by asylum-quality personalities. There's Lt. Stevenson, who takes over writing Lt. Kit's letters to his father; Lt. Toomer, who witnesses war crimes, turns paranoid, and commits an even worse crime; the pathetic Major Bedford, who finds a kind of self-worth by falling in love with the oblivious Lt. Kit; and Major Dow, who watches over Kit, and ultimately dies saving him in the bang-up battle that destroys Phouc Vinh. Full of the hysteria that breeds dark laughter, laced with insights that bite like strychnine, Danziger's debut novel proves once again that Vietnam--both as a genre and as a wound in the American psyche--shows no signs of going away. -- Copyright �1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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