Carry Me Home

In this immensely detailed and nearly humorless final installment of his trilogy about America's war in Southeast Asia (The 13th Valley; For the Sake of All Living Things), Del Vecchio focuses on veterans who returned home in the late '60s only to find themselves viewed largely as lepers. Back from his second tour in Vietnam, Marine Sgt. Tony Pisano, 20, bears a leg wound, is assigned to burial detail, marries student nurse Linda, tries out college and faces widespread hatred. Tony's story, central to the novel, melds with that of his doomed buddies, who are now rootless ``expatriates'' in their own country. More grounded is the also returned Capt. Robert Wapinski, whose Pennsylvania farm becomes a haven for many vets fighting public castigation, post-traumatic stress disorder and the effects of Agent Orange. Del Vecchio shows these vets' fury at the V.A. (which combats recognition of their various addictions, insanities, damaged genes, etc.) at the whinings of the``Me'' generation, and at the media, which the vets accuse of misrepresentation, and for which they hold a mock trial at Wapinski's farm. In one telling moment, Tony, recovering from one of many breakdowns, is told by his indignant wife, ``Your daughters' daughters will live with your psychosis long after you and I are gone.'' At every turn, Del Vecchio sacrifices pace for infinite detail, but the overall purpose of his powerful proletarian art demands such detail to underscore his characters' pain and, for a few, uplifting recovery. (Jan.)