cover image Soldier in Paradise

Soldier in Paradise

John Mort. Southern Methodist University Press, $19.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-0-87074-440-2

With a refreshing lack of bombast or melodrama, first novelist Mort offers an insightful, affecting look at the complex personal consequences of war--specifically Vietnam--on the lives of its veterans. James Patrick ""Irish"" Donnelly, a reluctantly enlisted infantryman, narrates his story in direct, candid chapters alternating between his experiences in Vietnam and his life in the U.S. before and afterward. Stateside chapters chronicle Donnelly's troubled relationship with his father, the breakup of his marriage, his migration from Missouri to Florida and his falling in with a group of variously dysfunctional fellow veterans who raise money by selling their artwork. Overseas chapters capture not only combat memories but the daily grind and the psychic wear and tear of the job. Mort's portraits of Irish's fellow soldiers are lovingly drawn. There's Lieutenant Sherry, a Harvard man; Ransom, a serious black sergeant who once saved Irish's life; C.C. Ryder, ""who got high every morning and did his best to stay that way."" Most potently, there's Norman Sims, an unsophisticated private from Oklahoma who becomes Irish's special project as Sims stumbles haplessly from medal-winning heroism to emotional frailty, till finally he's beyond help. The vets whom Irish bonds with in the U.S. are a motley group, each man scarred in his own way. Most striking is Otto Sanchez, a double amputee. Irish soon realizes what his presence means to the group: ""It's a nasty thing to say, but I think having Sanchez among us was comforting, because he made it clear how much worse things could be."" Mort's unsentimental narrative draws the reader deep into Irish's story with a consistent air of authenticity and frankness, eschewing the emotional manipulativeness and ax-grinding of flashier Hollywood versions. (Nov.)