Matterhorn (novel)

MATTERHORN: A Novel of the Vietnam War

Author	Karl Marlantes
Language	English
Genre	War novel
Publisher	El Leon Literary Arts / Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication date	revised edition (March 2010)
Publication place	USA
Media type	Hardcover
Pages	600
ISBN	ISBN 978-0-8021-1928-5
OCLC	unknown
Preceded by	First novel
Followed by	unknown

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War is a novel by American author and decorated Marine Karl Marlantes. It was first published by El Leon Literary Arts El León Literary Arts in 2009 (in small quantity) and re-issued (and slightly edited) as a major publication of Atlantic Monthly Press on March 23, 2010.

Marlantes is a graduate of Yale University and a Rhodes scholar. He was also a highly decorated Marine who served in Vietnam. He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten Air Medals. He spent 35 years working on the novel, which was rejected for publication numerous times.

Plot

The book is set in Vietnam in 1969 and draws from the experiences of Marlantes, who commanded a Marine rifle platoon. The novel presents an unflinching look at the hardships endured by the Marines who waged the war on behalf of America. It concerns the exploits of second lieutenant Waino Mellas, a recent college graduate, and his compatriots in Bravo Company, most of whom are teenagers. "Matterhorn" is the code name for a fire-support base located between Laos and the DMZ. At the beginning of the novel, the Marines build the base, but later they are ordered to abandon it. The latter portions of the novel detail the struggles of Bravo Company to retake the base, which fell into enemy hands after it was abandoned.

Reception

Matterhorn received high praise from many critics. Sebastian Junger in the New York Times called it

one of the most profound and devastating novels ever to come out of Vietnam—or any war.

Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down, said of the book:

(it is) so authentic, so moving and so intense, so relentlessly dramatic, that there were times I wasn’t sure I could stand to turn the page...There have been some very good novels about the Vietnam War, but Matterhorn is the first great one, and I doubt it will ever be surpassed.

“Matterhorn is a raw, brilliant account of war that may well serve as a final exorcism for one of the most painful passages in American history. . . . It’s not a book so much as a deployment, and you will not return unaltered. . . . One of the most profound and devastating novels ever to come out of Vietnam—or any war.” —Sebastian Junger, The New York Times Book Review (front-page review)

“A powerful first work that defines the tragic cost of the Vietnam War in human terms. Marlantes’ breakneck writing style is both passionate and haunting, thrusting the reader into alternating moments of chaos and courage reflecting the fragility of our Marines on the ground—and their leadership—in combat.” —W.E.B. Griffin

“There has never been a more realistic portrait of or eloquent tribute to the nobility of men under fire. . . . Marlantes’ story is so intense that there were times reading it when I thought I could not stand to turn the page. . . . Vladimir Nabokov once said that the greatest books are those you read not just with your heart or your mind, but with your spine. This is one for the spine.” —Mark Bowden, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Carefully constructed and beautifully realized . . . Filled with truth, wisdom, love, and a rich vein of dark gallows humor.” —Steve Kroft, Newsweek

“It’s been a long time since a novel has caused me to shed tears, but while reading Matterhorn, I had a hard time holding some back as I read passages of violence and bravery that brutally captured the fog of war, the harsh reality of combat, and the bonds of friendship forged in battle. It is one of the best war novels I have ever read. . . . Destined to become a literary touchstone for those seeking to understand a chaotic war waged during a turbulent time in American history.” —Vincent Bosquez, San Antonio Express-News

“Few war novels give you life and death in the field this vividly, with all of its furor and spraying blood and feces, its hunger and near madness. The troops of Bravo Company suffer the jungle of war, the enemy machine guns, grenades, and mortars, and somehow the novelist transfigures them into heroes. . . . Leeches suck their blood, tigers kill and eat them, the fog descends upon them, sometimes blinds them. Their wounds ooze, their feet begin to rot, their rations go. They’re reduced to licking their ponchos for moisture. . . . Matterhorn will take your heart and sometimes even your breath away.” —Alan Cheuse, NPR’s All Things Considered

“Stunning and visceral . . . I’ve read many of what are generally regarded as the best books—both fiction and nonfiction—about various wars . . . but Matterhorn just knocked the wind out of me and made me wonder how any combat soldiers come home sane. . . . After every few pages I had to put it down in order to try to recover my emotional equilibrium. . . . It’s an amazing accomplishment.” —Nancy Pearl

“Superb . . . A treasure . . . Deserves a place on the shelf of any reader with even a passing interest in the lore of Vietnam . . . If your pulse isn’t racing while Marlantes, himself a decorated marine, leads you through the death-defying pursuit of walking point, or heading up a column of marines on patrol, you simply can’t be paying attention. . . . It’s a bloody Vietnam epic, to be sure. But it’s also a full-blooded inspection of the human spirit.” —David Grant, Christian Science Monitor

“A magnificent work . . . This is certainly one of the most powerful and moving novels ever written about Vietnam, and its description of combat rivals anything I have read on the topic—by Erich Maria Remarque, Norman Mailer, James Jones, James Webb, John Keegan, Paul Fussell, anyone. I’ve mentioned before that my personal test for the quality of fiction is whether I find myself remembering a book—characters, scenes, choices—months or years after I’ve put the book down. I expect to remember this one.” —James Fallows, The Atlantic

“I’ve laughed at Catch-22 and wept at The Thin Red Line, but I’ve never encountered a war novel as stark, honest and wrenching as Matterhorn. Marlantes writes with a spare clarity, but he’s unafraid to plumb the emotions of the young men in Bravo Company; the icy bravado of Hemingway or Mailer has no place in these pages. The Marines of Matterhorn are both brave and frightened, both committed and resigned. Their common refrain, “There it is,” denotes acceptance of some new and unfortunate but unchangeable fact. By turns, this book horrified me, crushed me and beat me up, but I found it nearly impossible to stop reading. More than any living American novelist I’ve read, Marlantes made me feel what I already must have known: that war is worse than hell. There it is.” —Michael Schaub, NPR

“Visceral . . . Evocative . . . We feel the Marines’ exhaustion as they dig gun pits, carry dead and wounded comrades, and nearly die from hunger. . . . We hear the scream of the M-16s, the thunk of mortar shells, the hammering of AK-47s and the crack of bullets. We smell the stink of fear, blood and unwashed bodies. We even smell death as the body of one of the fallen rots over the week they carry it with them. . . . [Marlantes] pitches us into a harrowing narrative we won’t soon forget.” —Carol Memmott, USA Today

“A powerhouse: tense, brutal, honest.” —Time

“It reads like adventure and yet it makes even the toughest war stories seem a little pale by comparison. The author, a highly decorated Marine Corps officer and veteran of Vietnam, wrote the novel over 30 years, while also raising a family and working full-time as a business consultant. This feat of persistence pays off in a narrative born of perspective and memories that survive over time, a narrative of frustration, terror and the war-is-hell theme that lies at the heart of every war story since The Iliad. . . . In what might be literature’s most sustained depiction of the drudgery of jungle warfare—rivaling Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead—the men of Bravo endure leeches, diarrhea, jungle rot, malnutrition, dehydration, immersion foot and stupidity run amok. . . . Ironically, the best parts of Matterhorn aren’t the battle scenes . . . Rather it is Marlantes’s treatment of pre-combat tension and rear-echelon politics. It’s these in-between spaces that create the real terror of Matterhorn.” —David Masiel, The Washington Post

“Impossible to put down . . . A generous, terrifying, thrilling, and miserable story of men who deserved better, but gave their all anyway.” —The Onion

“Marlantes has given us a story with experience of the immediate and wisdom of the decades. As a result we have a novel which will lay its claim as the book to read about the American war in Vietnam. . . . Marlantes gives us a Vietnam War novel with it all. Battle scenes with horrifying deaths, racism and politics showing themselves as forces of war, and soldiers simply trying to live to the next day. But we also see soldiers committed to their country and to each other, where honor is still important and where friendship means you never leave a fellow soldier behind. It is, in a sense, a patriotic novel which avoids sentimentality by showing the realities of war. Those who have not fought in Marlantes’ war cannot understand all he experienced, but this novel brings us close.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Engrossing . . . Even though the book is dedicated to the author’s children, it’s also a tribute to the training and bravery of those who fought with him in Vietnam. . . . . . . Deserves a place on the shelf of enduring volumes about the Vietnam War.” —Ellen Emry Heltzel, Seattle Times

“Stunning . . . It would be easy to hyperbolize Matterhorn with any number of glow-words from the reviewer’s convenient arsenal of adjectives. But the high praise always remains the same: ‘Just go buy and read the classic-to-be for yourself.’” —Leatherneck

“Vivid . . . Elegant . . . [Matterhorn] is the best combat novel that’s been written in quite some time, and it will be years before we see its like again. . . . It tolls in the reader’s mind and leaves a long, haunting echo.” —Emily Carter, Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Vietnam is the setting for this extraordinary, inspiring, and compelling first book by Karl Marlantes, but the author is concerned with larger themes. Matterhorn could have been written about combat anywhere, anytime. It is a rich, fine, powerful story told with excruciating precision about men driven to extremes of fear and courage.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Brilliant . . . A living, breathing book . . . Matterhorn is a marvel.” —Daphne Durham, Louisville Courier-Journal

“Lush, compelling, and tragic . . . Marlantes tells an unflinching story of the brutality of combat. . . . Matterhorn is a work about ineffable loss in the wake of questionable policy, and one in which the politics at headquarters is paid for in infantrymen’s lives.” —Robin Vidimos, The Denver Post

“Perhaps the best, [and] at least the most honest book that has been written about Vietnam.” —Evan Thomas, The Huffington Post

“The most visceral of all Vietnam novels . . . Can’t be put down . . . Marlantes brilliantly captures the confusion, fear, anger, and deafening noise of battle.” —John Foyston, The Oregonian

"Gripping . . . Unforgettable . . . Cracking its cover is like the click, click, click of the first upward climb of a roller coaster. After that, there's no looking back. It's a brilliant, stomach-lurching ride. . . . Earns a place beside the war classics." —Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Haunting . . . What makes this novel so irresistible is Marlantes’s skill at peeling away the many layers of truth in combat. . . . Matterhorn will not only take its place on the top shelf of war fiction, it’s going to knock a few books off. It’s that good.” —Michael Lee, BookPage

“[A] tale of heroism and sacrifice." —Chris Tucker, The Dallas Morning News

“Gripping . . . Marlantes is a born storyteller, and the story he tells is one that’s hard to forget . . . Move over, Norman Mailer. Make room, James Jones. You’ve got company.” —James E. Casto, The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, WV)

“Never have we seen the particular horrors and challenges of Vietnam so richly explored, and never have we felt the tactile experience of the war depicted with such mesmerizing force. We see the big picture, but as with all great novels, it’s the tiny details—the mud, the leeches, the adrenaline-drenched dread of combat, and the tender joy of comradeship—that linger with the reader long after the story is over.” —Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers and Hellhound on His Trail

“Unforgettable . . . A beautifully crafted novel of unrivaled authenticity and power, filled with jungle heroism, crackerjack inventiveness, mud, blood, brotherhood, hatred, healing, terror, bureaucracy, politics, unfathomable waste, and unfathomable love.” —Christina Robb, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of This Changes Everything

“Matterhorn is that rare modern novel destined to become a classic. Karl Marlantes has written a riveting and harrowing portrait of young men at war.” —Vince Flynn, author of Pursuit of Honor

“Matterhorn is one of the most powerful and moving novels about combat, the Vietnam War, and war in general that I have ever read.” —Dan Rather

“A friend of mine who was a marine officer in the very area where Karl Marlantes’ Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War takes place said that it’s the most tone-perfect story about the war he’s ever read. The subtitle might suggest a book that will languish on a coffee table or bookshelf, but it shouldn’t languish anyplace; it should be picked up and read cover to cover. Its scenes and characters are so real that you feel as if you’re watching actual combat footage. I wouldn’t be surprised if Matterhorn becomes for the Vietnam War what All Quiet on the Western Front was to World War I.” —James Patterson, Time magazine’s “The Must-reads of Summer ‘10”

“As warfare shapeshifts its way into a new century, the publication of Matterhorn is perfectly timed. Karl Marlantes tells a riveting, richly detailed personal tale of soldiers in Vietnam, and in doing so, he brilliantly illuminates the defining war of the last half of the twentieth century. Matterhorn reminds us, profoundly, of our flawed humanity, capable of individual grace and collective horror.” —Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

“These are the words I wrote down while reading Matterhorn: authentic, funny, heartbreaking, infuriating, devastating. This great book crawled under my skin on the first page, and I suspect it will remain there for a very long time.” —David Finkel, author of The Good Soldiers

“Matterhorn is a masterful and thrilling drama about an event of national importance that we have barely understood. Marlantes conjures grace out of suffering, honor from despair, sense out of nonsense. The men and women of this story have long deserved a homecoming, and we needed to hear their true story. Marlantes has delivered a heartbreaking achievement. He has written a timeless work of literary fiction.” —Doug Stanton, author of Horse Soldiers

“Matterhorn combines the grit and dark humor of Catch 22 with the eloquence of All Quiet on the Western Front. The truth of this book honors the soldiers of Vietnam as well as all wars. Karl Marlantes has written a classic.” —Sessalee Hensley, Barnes & Noble

Matterhorn was Amazon's "Book of the Month" for March 2010, and debuted on the New York Times bestseller list in April 2010. It won the 2011 William E. Colby Award, was ranked #7 Fiction in Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year (2010), and was one of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year (2010). It was an ALA Notable Book (2010), won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award (2011) and won the Indies Choice Book Award (Adult Debut, 2011).

It's probable that the fictional Bravo Company 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division of the novel was presumably Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 4 Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. The engagement at ‘Matterhorn’ was probably the attack on “LZ Mack” {Hill 484}, and Hill 400 on March 1 through March 6 of 1969. With Lima Company 3rd Battalion 4th Marines in reserve {and its Battalion commander, Lt. Col Donald taking charge}. Two platoons from Charlie Company fought several times to reach and secure the summit taking 15 or more casualties with at least 7 killed in action; including a Canadian Marine CPL George Victor Jmaeff, acting as Platoon Sergeant who was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. The author, First Lieutenant Karl Marlantes, who was the Executive Officer of Charlie Company, was also awarded the Navy Cross. Hills 484 and 400 had been occupied at a cost of 20 killed in action, and many wounded, by companies of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Infantry in September–October 1966 and then abandoned.

External links

• Matterhorn's Official Website on www.groveatlantic.com
• Interview with Karl Marlantes on Matterhorn