Nam-A-Rama

While I do not read much fiction anymore, I do enjoy certain types of stories. This is a comic romp that is based in Vietnam (or Viet Nam, if you prefer) during the Johnson years, but it takes enough liberties with reality that the clear parody of Johnson is only referred to as President or Larry Bob. Nixon is called by name, but McNamara is referred to by his characteristic slicked back hair. The story is told by Jack Armstrong (the character is well aware of the ironic use of his name) and tells the tale of his adventures with his friend Gearheardt (did that name start is Gearhead?). Gearheardt is a CIA pilot who was, at one time the CIA pizza delivery guy to the Whitehouse. He ends up, on a secret mission that will take place is some unspecified future with cloudy goals in Hanoi. Jack is a Marine helicopter pilot who befriends Gearheardt and they head off on their adventure together. One thing that you have to pay attention to is that the story is told by Armstrong and you have to wonder how he would know some of the things about Gearheardt. And you will also note that Gearheardt's reality gets awfully foggy at times. While waiting for the signal that it is time to head north, they are involved in actual combat and rescue operations In Country that are told with breath taking clarity. The author, Philip Jennings, was much like Jack Armstrong in being a Marine helicopter pilot and doing work for Air America. I don't know if he actually knew guys like Gearheardt, but I am sure he did, because there were crazed heroes (hard to tell which at times) like him in higher quantity than one might suspect. Read any book on SOG or special forces operations in Vietnam and you will find the pages full of them. This book has some tremendously funny scenes. One I can talk about without ruining the plot for you is a scene where a skipper is trying to synchronize watches for his team, but can't remember what his watch is synchronized with because he has a second watch synchronized with the artillery that is set to a slightly different time. It turns out that none of the other team members even bothered to bring their watch to the briefing. Jennings writes wonderfully well. He writes adventure with sharpness and with great humor. In talking about night flying operations on a carrier Armstrong notes, "Baxter used to say the only good thing about night flying off the boat was that it gave him a chance to s**t his pants and not get teased about it." Note, that the language of the book is, well, frank. No asterisks to be found anywhere. And several, well, many scenes, involve bars with the kinds of inhabitants that one might expect that soldiers would seek out including women who don't bother with clothes for obvious reasons. I loved this sentence, it captured the horror of the situation with the kind of detachment war demands, "A nice friendly kid who would later make the fatal mistake of flying a burning helicopter upside down with bullets in

The dominant cultural tendency is to place satire squarely in the nihilistic genre. Since there is no meaning or purpose the only thing left for us to do is laugh. I doubt that's what Jennings had in mind in writing Nam-A-Rama. I have no idea if Jennings is "religious," in the conventional sense or otherwise. But he has written a religious novel par excellence. If there is one thing more deadening than the war itself, it is all the drivel that has been written about it that claims to have found the true meaning of the war, usually hidden in some heretofore secret document, or in the mindset of the primary decision-makers, or the fact that McCarthy had purged all of the experts on Communism from the Defense and State Departments (McNamara's personal excuse). Jennings is not saying there is no hidden meaning. Only that it is not to be found on the psychiatrist's couch or in submitting to the conventional ideological pandering that takes place in academe and in most of the other textual post mortems on Vietnam. In particular, he has absolutely no use for the leftist crap that masquerades as moral high mindedness. No. Jennings' satire discloses that it does not require an evil conspiracy to cause a monumental screw-up. It only requires human nature, something which you and I share. And what is that nature, and the political reality that it spawns? We are actors in a play that we did not write in which the script is a phenomenology that is in a continuing state of approximation. And what kind of God would create a world of screw-ups that requires salvation? Only God knows, but Jennings has approximated the paradoxical answer: we are in no position to demand an answer. And therein lies the beginning of redemption.

The story is set in motion by a president who greatly resembles Lyndon Johnson. We probably know too much about LBJ for wild satirical riffs: For all his faults, he didn't launch the Vietnam War at a pizza party. Still, the novel's early scenes set the tone. "Nam-a-Rama" soon takes flight, its plot veering wildly, darkly and amusingly as we follow the exploits of the narrator, Almost Capt. Jack Armstrong, and his mad buddy, Almost Capt. Gearheardt. At one point, Armstrong is assigned as air officer to a Marine infantry company in Vietnam, calling in bombs and shells to keep the grunts from being overrun. For a chapter or two, we're persuaded that ground combat -- with its death, fear, heroism, profanity and stink -- is a weird joke played upon humans by the immortals. God, in Mr. Jennings's telling, wears a cashmere sweater and loud pants and is in a hurry to get on with his golf game. Portraying the absurdity and grotesque oddity of war, Mr. Jennings rivals his hero, Joseph Heller, to whose World War II novel "Nam-a-Rama" clearly pays tribute. (Like Heller, Mr. Jennings mines his personal experience -- he was a U.S. Marine and Air America helicopter pilot in Southeast Asia.) The story eventually moves from battle to back channels: At the behest of President Larry Bob, the two almost-captains go to Hanoi to strike a deal with Ho Chi Minh, or perhaps to kill him. They might even accomplish their mission -- whatever it is -- were it not for Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, who has been studying "Catch-22" in the belief that it represents America's strategic guide for the Vietnam War. "Nam-a-Rama" culminates -- as real life often does -- in a confusion of motives, misdeeds and unintended consequences. But all to wonderful comedic effect. Then, at the last, Mr. Jennings limns his japes with a tribute to the men who fought in Vietnam, especially to the Marines, in words so beautiful that they brought tears to my eyes. Rarely does a novelist storm the emotional ramparts so decisively. Buy it. Read it. Keep it in your library. It's the Great Vietnam War Novel. -- Dan Ford

Having grown up during the '60's, I had a rather distorted view of the Vietnam War - and this book screws it up even more! I couldn't put it down. At times laugh out loud funny; and in other places poignant scenes that bring unwanted tears gushing up - and all the while threading a clever storyline and interweaving dramatic battle scenes - this book breaks all the rules and gives enjoyable storytelling a whole new meaning. I'm not sure I can make it any plainer - you've missed out on the next Catch-22 of the Vietnam War if you don't read this book.

I thought Nam-A-Rama was hilarious - though quite tragic. I thoroughly enjoyed following the story of the hapless lead and his pal on a series of misadventures, taking them through Vietnam and introducing them to a variety of crazy characters that either help them - or don't - along the way. Consequently, Nam-A-Rama is an interesting look at the motivations for war and the effect that it has on those involved. I would recommend this book to anyone - any generation, men or women...I think its a great read, very entertaining and will certainly lend some perspective to many current events.