cover image Living Dogs and Dead Lions

Living Dogs and Dead Lions

R. Lanny Hunter, Lanny Hunter, V. Hunter. Viking Books, $16.95 (260pp) ISBN 978-0-670-80901-1

This interesting collaborative first effort attempts to plumb some of the lingering questions of Vietnam and its effect on those who fought and those who stayed behind. An unusual and often forceful novel, it is far from perfect, yet there is much to recommend. Chief among the books's virtues are its characters, rendered with depth and insight, especially the protagonists, Joshua Scott, a troubled veteran, and Claudia Bishop, widow of Scott's closest wartime buddy. Twelve years after the war, Scott travels to Kansas to meet Claudia Bishop and her teenaged son for the first time. After Claudia's initial resistance is overcome, they gradually form a bond that they hope will finally set the past to rest. A melodramatic subplot involving a jealous farmworker brings the book to a chilling, but jarring climax; the abrupt ending leaves the reader wanting a bit more. (April)