Karl Marlantes deserves a medal for perseverance, said Bob Minzesheimer in USA Today. The 65-year-old Vietnam veteran was a young man when he started writing the novel that he hoped would convey to civilians the true experience of a Marine combat tour. This spring, that book is finally available nationwide, and it’s being hailed as one of the most devastating war novels in decades. Marlantes, a retired energy consultant, rewrote the story many times throughout the three decades in which publishers were turning up their noses at his manuscript. At times, he says, “I couldn’t get anyone to even read it to reject it.” Matterhorn finally gained a major publisher’s notice when a nonprofit publisher printed 1,200 copies, three years ago.
Marlantes seems like a man “whose life was radically altered by war,” said Sebastian Junger in The New York Times, “and who now wants to pass along the favor.” As its company of Marine infantrymen slog through one mission after another, the novel unfolds like an actual deployment—with violence and death, yes, but also “unbearable levels of repetition, boredom, and meaninglessness.” Writing such a book, Marlantes says, required a tremendous amount of patience. “Over the years, the book got better,” he says. “I learned from reading the greats—Tolstoy and Flannery O’Connor and others—and asking, ‘How did they do that?’ You’ve got to stay at the table. If you walk away, nothing will ever happen.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Will growth slow, or is the economy about to fall off a cliff?'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Senate passes FAA bill with new consumer protectionsSpeed Read The legislation will require airlines to refund customers for flight delays
-
Trump pledged pro-oil policy to CEOs, asked for $1BSpeed Read The former president promised to reverse Biden's environmental regulations if elected
-
Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
-
Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
-
Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”