Rating: 
Summary: The Infantryman's Experience In Viet Nam
Review: This book is getting some age on it. I am glad to see it is still available. The events in this book are based on a real operation carried out in I Corps (northern South Viet). Like Jeff Shaara, Del Vecchio takes history and turns it into a very readable novel. Speaking as an infantry veteran of the Viet Nam War, "The 13th Valley" is the best novel written thus far on the Viet Nam War and I've read most of them.
Rating:
Summary: You are on patrol in the Vietnamese jungle in 1970.
Review: This book is the "War & Peace" of the U.S infantry experience in Vietnam. The characterization is outstanding and the storytelling is mesmerizing. This novel pulls you into the world of the U.S. combat soldier during that unfortunate conflict and does not let go. Every emotion, dream, desire, conflict, and sensory perception is rendered in exquisite detail. This novel has as much to say about American perceptions of the world as it has to say about the combat experience. Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A superb example of the writers' craft.
Review: This book was given to me by a stranger in an airport many years ago. Over the years I have read it 5 or 6 times. This novel enjoys tremendous character development and an uncanny ability to put the reader right down in the boonies in 1970. I have read very few books that are the equal of this one; I have not read any that were better. If you can find this book, buy it.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Vietnam Novel.
Review: This book was recommended to me by a Marine Vietnam vet. It is the most powerful war novel since Saget's The Forgotten Soldier. You will never forget the characters and the ending.
Rating:
Summary: Naturalistic Vietnam War Novel
Review: This is a very detailed (although fictionalized) account of an operation by an infantry company of the 101st Airborne (or Airmobile, that is, helicopter-borne) Division in the Khe La Tou area of Vietnam in late summer of 1970. When I say detailed, I do mean meticulously detailed--with grid coordinates, maps, after-action reports, and operations orders all interspersed throughout the narrative to create verisimilitude and concreteness in the manner of the old French and American Naturalists. The novel is indeed, like Norman Mailer's novel "The Naked and the Dead", a war novel heavily influenced by turn-of-the century literary Naturalism, with a great emphasis on the utter indifferance and inhospitable character of the raw and primitive environment these soldiers find themselves in. I am reminded also of the recent film adaption of James Jones novel "The Thin Red Line", which employs a lot of animal imagery in the same way that certain Naturalistic novels do.There is the sense here that the men (both NVA and US troops) are very small and pitiful creatures crawling through a primordial jungle which was there long before man appeared on earth and will continue to reign long after he is nothing but a fossil. The image of the vast tree and the fist-sized spider that lives in one of its holes--which opens and closes the narrative--is probably the most potent symbol of nature's dumb, mindless brutality. It is truly a Darwinian universe. The descriptions of day-to-day existence in the jungle are some of the best delineations of the combat infantryman's particular misery in such an environment. Chelini, the Billy Budd new to the company as a replacement, has been a signalman prior to his transfer to the infantry and has little idea of the miserable conditions in which he'll have to live. It's either cold and wet, at night, making sleep virtually impossible; or it's like a vast sauna during the day, when temperatures soar to heights that threaten to bake the brain in the skull. Big crawly, greedy parasites seem to be hanging from every plant growth, always ready to drop down your shirt as you pass under, to get into the warm crevices of your body and start sucking blood. Contrary to the cliches you see in the movies, these soldiers are not a bunch of freaky drug addicts and sadistic psychos. For regular army joes, they seem very professional and have nothing but disdain for outlandish behavior like mutilating enemy dead (when Chelini takes an ear to try and impress his comrades they roundly chastise him for it). There are some racial tensions within the unit, but the white and black soldiers seem to be able to talk them over without fighting and everyone pulls together during crises like mortar attacks or firefights. The most fully drawn characters are 1LT Brooks, the leader of the platoon Del Vecchio focuses on, and Dan Egan, the platoon sergeant. The writer spends a lot of time in their heads and we get a good idea of what they are preoccupied with, what their values are, and how they feel about what they do as soldiers. The novel's greatest stregth, I believe, is its dialogue, which sounds so lifelike it might have been transcribed from a tape recording. There is nothing contrived about it. The novel's only weakness, perhaps, is 1LT Brooks insufferable philosophizing. Perhaps it is Del Vecchio's intention to make him seem pretentious (although, overall, he is very sympathetically drawn), I don't know. But the age-of-aquarius psychobabble (quoting liberally from Abraham Maslow and B.F. Skinner) he spouts sometimes is just a bit too much. Worst of all is the five-page "Inquiry" he writes (and which, unfortunately, is included in the narrative). I found it very hard to get through. But this is a relatively minor flaw and can be overlooked. "The Thirteenth Valley" is well worth your time if you are interested at all in the literature of the Vietnam War, or in the literature of the second half of the last century, period.
Rating:
Summary: Must Read
Review: This is an outstanding book which depicts in intrisic detail the mindset of soldiers dealing with the conflict in Vietnam from the emotional, ethical, and racial standpoints. It will make you laugh, cry and jump for joy. The authors detailing of the emotional mindset of a service member overseas, in combat, with a spouse or girlfriend waiting for him back home is right on and deeply moving. Three times I have read this book and there will surely be a fourth.
Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY THE BEST (novel about US soldiers in Vietnam)
Review: This is the best book I've read about war in Vietnam. It tells story of normal front line (if there ever was a front line in Vietnam) soldier. All characters are excellent and they really come alive in this book. Only negative thing I have to say that paperback edition I read had so small print that it was rather tiring to read.
Rating:
Summary: BY FAR THE GREATEST VIETNAM NOVEL I"VE EVER READ.
Review: To John Del Vecchio, Allthough I was only sixteen whan I read this book, I will never forget the way it made me feel about Vietnam. As I grew older I wanted to learn about my county's history - not just through a textbook though. In a tiny used bookstore in East coast Michigan, while on vacation, I snatched your book of the shelf with little anticipation. Now, in retrospect, it was the greatest novel I have ever had the honor to read. You are a true American for serving our great country during Vietnam. I have the utmost respect for you and the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne. I am proud to say that I wept at the end of this book. My hats off to you Cherry. Scott Heine
Rating:
Summary: A one-line blurb could never measure the power in this book.
Review: Upon having re-read Del Vecchio's The 13th Valley, I called on an old friend to return my now worn copies of For the Sake of All Living Things and Carry Me Home. A powerful trio. From the world to Nam to the platoon to the individual, Del Vecchio brings an intellectual, emotive, believable reality that won't let go of your eyes or your mind.
| 
