Mellas is in Vietnam, he is a lieutenant, and recently obtained a position within Bravo Company, in the 24th Regiment of the Fifth Marine Division. It’s 1969 and he now knows how war works. Every day he therefore tries to get by, between missions experienced as normal routine, but which in reality continually conceal immense dangers. For example, even passing through a quiet pond can bring repugnant and very painful consequences such as leeches. Those who are lucky, once they get out of the water, find their bodies covered in it: they then have to tear them off, like bloody red bags, to prevent them from sucking too much blood. The moment they attach, however, they are almost invisible, and therefore those who are unlucky can find one inside the urethral canal; when the animal swells, it therefore makes it impossible to urinate, and extracting it causes immense pain. But this is just one of the possible examples, and not even the most serious. Then there are mines, everywhere, which risk ending your life in the seemingly most peaceful moment. And then, of course, there are the enemies, the Vietcong, hidden everywhere, ready to make any sacrifice to kill you. Mellas and his men are therefore immersed in this situation, and their only objective is to survive at least until that very distant but highly desired day when they will finally be able to return home…
Marlantes is a Vietnam veteran and has experienced the horrors of war firsthand. When he returned from the conflict, he therefore decided to tell in a book everything he saw during his war experience. However, unlike his equally famous colleagues, he preferred not to narrate his experiences in the first person, but rather chose to shape an invented novel around these topics. The character of Mellas is therefore invented, as are his fellow soldiers (although Marlantes, in the end, explains how many of the names and characters are more or less based on real figures), but the gist of the story is not invented, not the world that outlines, not the reality that sculpts. The terrifying condition of soldiers on any front is therefore told in an extremely crude way, not only in moments of clash with the enemy, but also in apparently quieter ones. We therefore have the sensation (desired and sought by the author) that the wait for the battles is in some ways worse than the battles themselves. This novel is therefore a staple of American war literature and, although in my opinion it does not reach the stylistic heights of books like Put me in a bag and send me home by Tim O’Brien, still remains a high-level text.
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