Dues: A Novel of War and After

David Thorne, the wry and irreverent narrator of Cooper's Dues, drops out of college despite the near-certain threat of being drafted for service in Vietnam. He takes a job in a factory, waiting for the inevitable, and within months he's in the ``Armpit of the Mekong,'' where he must protect himself against huge bugs and rodents, the Vietcong and fellow Americans. He is befriended by Stanley and Harmon, and the trio smoke dope by night to shut out the horrors of the day-slogging through the swamps looking for VC, finding the day's suicide, or matching and bagging body parts. David soon realizes that killing is just a part of the job and that he's good at it, even better than most: ``Maybe he wasn't going to die here. Maybe he was here to kill...No wonder it had taken so long to discover the one skill he had an aptitude for.'' Yet with this particular prowess comes respect, suspicion and the ultimate irony, when a menacing soldier named Stephens is found dead: ``The way Stanley was staring he got the impression Stanley thought he had killed Stephens too. That was great. Everyone thought he was a murderer now.'' Cooper's writing is nearly flawless in its immediacy and attention to detail, and Dues will often leave readers stunned and shaken. Thorne is a compelling, candid narrator, and no matter how angry or directionless, readers will refuse to abandon him. (Oct.)