Rising Like the Tucson - Softcover

Danziger, Jeff

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0595091598 ISBN 13: 9780595091591

Publisher: iUniverse, 2000

Synopsis

“Jeff Danziger has written a tough, scary, funny novel that deftly limns the overwhelming lunacy of the war in Vietnam. Large in scope, rich in character and incident, Rising Like the Tucson gets things exactly right. This was Vietnam: a weird mix of blundering and bravery.” —Tim O’Brien

Echoing Catch-22, Rising Like the Tucson is a darkly hilarious tale of death and real estate in Vietnam. Lt. Kit is caught in the end of the conflict. Abandoned by his government, he and his fellow officers try to answer the great questions of war: is this a defeat or an investment opportunity?

About this title

About the Author

Jeff Danziger is a political cartoonist with the Los Angeles Times. He served in Vietnam in the First Cavalry Division from 1969-1971. He lives in New York City.

From Kirkus Reviews

A comic eruption that tells the story of a group of left-behind US officers during the Vietnam War's final days: this first novel by a syndicated cartoonist is an able effort, distinguished by unexpected insight. Political cartoonist and Viet vet Danziger sketches a sweeping panorama of the doomed Phouc Vinh firebase, counterpointing the myth of the invincible US against its fallible, laughable, horrible reality. Hapless Lieutenant Kit is the mushy center of a rotting military society, promoted beyond his capabilities, useless in war and awkward in human relations. Representing the blindness of the official line is Kit's real-estate developer father, who swallows the fabricated ``Vietnamization'' policy and forces Kit to embark on a ludicrous scheme to build the first malls the country has ever seen. As more and more Americans depart, Phouc Vinh becomes a shell--protected by marvelous technology that doesn't work, inhabited by asylum-quality personalities. There's Lt. Stevenson, who takes over writing Lt. Kit's letters to his father; Lt. Toomer, who witnesses war crimes, turns paranoid, and commits an even worse crime; the pathetic Major Bedford, who finds a kind of self-worth by falling in love with the oblivious Lt. Kit; and Major Dow, who watches over Kit, and ultimately dies saving him in the bang-up battle that destroys Phouc Vinh. Full of the hysteria that breeds dark laughter, laced with insights that bite like strychnine, Danziger's debut novel proves once again that Vietnam--both as a genre and as a wound in the American psyche--shows no signs of going away. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0595091598
• ISBN 13: 9780595091591
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 372