THE PLAY SOLDIER by Chet Green
Booklocker.com, Inc.
Genre: Fiction
Rating: Very Good
ISBN: 159113644X, $17.95, 328 pp.
"Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier." - Samuel Johnson - is the intro on the back cover...to which I say, as a woman, we are all warriors at heart...being tested daily, and quoting further:
"A counterfeit Vietnam War hero seeks refuge and fulfillment in the French Foreign Legion - until it rejects him. Unable to go home and still intent on proving himself, he follows the legendary force to the Horn of Africa, but now he poses as a seasoned war photographer, too. After adventures in Ethiopia, he reaches Djibouti where people, like events, become more fantastic, particularly an American deserter who takes him to his baptism of fire, and his penance."
The Play Soldier is a complex adventure novel about a wannabe war hero, Warz, who dresses for the part, like an actor, to create the image he wants to portray and convey in the play of life–a problem of our times–but don’t we all to some degree...dress to play a part? Could this be one of the negative side effects of too many action video games and war movies?...and everyday life does not provide sufficient challenges to test a man’s true merit.
Chet Green has drawn from his personal experiences as a U.S. Navy journalist in the Vietnam War and freelance photographer/writer in the Horn of Africa and Sudan to create a novel about the reality of life in such exotic places. He is a consummate writer with an expertise in description and phonetically vernacular dialogue, adding color and quality to his writing style. Daniel Eliseuson, President of the International Combat Camera Association and life member of the USMC War Correspondents Association, has likened Green’s writing to Robert Ruark’s Something of Value, and I agree–Ruark being one of my favorite writers about Africa.
It’s always a true pleasure to read a well-written, -edited, researched novel with a social-issue message, and with confidence, I can highly recommend The Play Soldier to anyone interested in contemporary social issues.
Reviewed by Kaye Trout - October 28, 2006
Genre: Fiction
Rating: Very Good
ISBN: 159113644X, $17.95, 328 pp.
"Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier." - Samuel Johnson - is the intro on the back cover...to which I say, as a woman, we are all warriors at heart...being tested daily, and quoting further:
"A counterfeit Vietnam War hero seeks refuge and fulfillment in the French Foreign Legion - until it rejects him. Unable to go home and still intent on proving himself, he follows the legendary force to the Horn of Africa, but now he poses as a seasoned war photographer, too. After adventures in Ethiopia, he reaches Djibouti where people, like events, become more fantastic, particularly an American deserter who takes him to his baptism of fire, and his penance."
The Play Soldier is a complex adventure novel about a wannabe war hero, Warz, who dresses for the part, like an actor, to create the image he wants to portray and convey in the play of life–a problem of our times–but don’t we all to some degree...dress to play a part? Could this be one of the negative side effects of too many action video games and war movies?...and everyday life does not provide sufficient challenges to test a man’s true merit.
Chet Green has drawn from his personal experiences as a U.S. Navy journalist in the Vietnam War and freelance photographer/writer in the Horn of Africa and Sudan to create a novel about the reality of life in such exotic places. He is a consummate writer with an expertise in description and phonetically vernacular dialogue, adding color and quality to his writing style. Daniel Eliseuson, President of the International Combat Camera Association and life member of the USMC War Correspondents Association, has likened Green’s writing to Robert Ruark’s Something of Value, and I agree–Ruark being one of my favorite writers about Africa.
It’s always a true pleasure to read a well-written, -edited, researched novel with a social-issue message, and with confidence, I can highly recommend The Play Soldier to anyone interested in contemporary social issues.
Reviewed by Kaye Trout - October 28, 2006
posted by Kaye | 4:59 AM
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