Dying Place

In this novel set during the Vietnam War, Sam Walden is a member of the Special Operations Group, which conducts top-secret raids in Laos and Cambodia. Most people don't know the Group exists and Walden's parents refuse to believe his stories. Excluded at home, a foreigner in Indochina, Walden seeks meaning on the small scale of achieving victory on his missions, all the while realizing the futility of the master plan. But he is bound and ultimately betrayed by paternal responsibility for his Montagnard tribesmen soldiers, his love for the Vietnamese girl Hoa and his conflicting emotions about the land he is helping to destroy. Despite occasionally stilted writing and some trite characterizations, this is a powerful and moving novel.(March)