Long Range Patrol: A Novel of Vietnam

From Publishers Weekly Strangely enough for a novel set in wartime Vietnam, this work is virtually free of conflict. Foley, who served in Vietnam himself, has created a series of episodes with no coherent theme or plot. Lt. Jim Hollister leads a platoon of men on dangerous missions. His team is suspected of having destroyed a South Vietnamese village, but after he is questioned once the matter is dropped. A buddy of Hollister's dies, and when he accompanies the body home, the lieutenant hears veiled references to the antiwar movement ("peace pussies") but never connects with anyone involved in it. While his fellow soldiers are carousing and visiting prostitutes, Hollister lies on his bunk writing letters to his fiancee, but the romance, with a publishing novicep. 15 , is unconvincing. The point of view of a Vietcong soldier (who destroyed the town Hollister had been accused of savaging) is introduced in the first chapter, but he dies soon after, having no extended impact. Authentic military lingo is so prevalent that the novel includes an abbreviated glossary, but overuse of acronyms distances the reader from the action, so that even the Long Range Patrol's death-defying missions fail to intrigue. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews Sprawling tale of the Army's Ranger operations in the early days of the Vietnam War, by a screenwriter and Vietnam veteran. Foley fills his novel with both the history and lore of the LRRPs, or Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols, which typically were composed of volunteers from regular Army units who were given more privileges in rear areas, but also were at higher risk. In groups of five or ten, they stayed in enemy territory for weeks at a time, undercover and silent. Their casualty rate was high, and the prolonged stress preyed on their mental health, but they were indisputably brave men, and much admired. Foley begins with a typical mission: Lieutenant Jim Hollister's platoon converges on a foggy morning to spring an ambush, in preparation for the full- scale assault by regulars. Foley does a credible job with the VC platoon leader's point of view, too, whose men level a village and plant evidence to make it seem like an American atrocity. This sets up the central dilemma of the novel, which throughout is well- handled and moderately suspenseful. But there is so much talk of ordnance and tactics that the story sometimes recedes from view. And Foley's characterizations are uneven: a first sergeant, with his brutality and insensitivity toward the Vietnamese, is still touching or even endearing, like a character out of James Jones. Other efforts seem incomplete or one-dimensional. Hollister himself, though we follow him throughout, remains remote. We do believe that he knows what he's talking about, however, when the novel ends and he has become a Ranger instructor. The combat scenes are so authentic that recruits could study them, but it's a clunky story. For the converted. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. From the Inside Flap re few novels about Vietnam, or any other war for that matter, that you can hand to someone and say, this is the way it was, this is what we were. Dennis Foley has written such a book."CHRIS BUNCH AND ALLAN COLEAuthors of A RECKONING FOR KINGSIn 1965, Lieutenant Jim Hollister become one of the first platoon leaders helping to develop the support skills that would make LRRPs a legend of the war. Hollister quickly became an expert at judging the abilities and weaknesses of his men--men who became closer than brothers, men who fought for one another in a brutal, merciless jungle war where one small mistake could mean sudden death for everyone.... From the Paperback edition. Read more