johnny got his gun

Johnny is just about to pull the trigger and blow his brains out, but the memory of one of Marcel Marceau’s acts gives him hope. Johnny then explains how he got to the point of suicide, and in so telling he realizes his soul was taken from him by a succubus nearly 10 years before. That’s why he’d been filled with such despair and emptiness only suicide seemed an adequate answer. That’s why all the drugs, alcohol, women, and long nights at the Indian casino just didn’t cut it. In an effort to save himself, Johnny finds the entry to Hades and descends into the underworld in search of his soul.

This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered--not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives...This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome...but so is war.

Winner of the National Book Award

"Mr. Trumbo sets this story down almost without pause or punctuation and with a fury amounting to eloquence."--The New York Times

"It is hard to imaging a more persuasive argument for staying out of war than this smooth, savage, brilliant tale."--Chicago Daily News