Since the release of his debut novel last year, Karl Marlantes has been having what he calls "a bit of an identity crisis": "I'm sure a lot of writers understand," he tells Show Daily. "People ask you, what are you doing? ‘Well, I'm working on a novel.' You do that for 25 years and you begin to build up a sort of litany about it. Then all of a sudden everything changes overnight."
Marlantes had been working on his bestselling Vietnam War novel, Matterhorn, for more than 30 years before it was published by Grove/Atlantic last May in a joint venture with nonprofit publisher El León (the Grove paperback edition went on sale this month). Matterhorn was met with immediate, overwhelming acclaim; in addition to a starred PW review, it was called "brilliant" by the New York Times and a "classic-to-be" by the Leatherneck, the magazine of the Marines.
Marlantes first sent out his manuscript in 1977, just a handful of years after he returned from Vietnam a decorated Marine (his medals include the Navy Cross and the Bronze Star). No one would touch it: in the '70s and early '80s, "nobody wanted to even hear about Vietnam." In the mid-'80s, he was told there's no market: "Hollywood's already done it." In the '90s, he was asked more than once if he could set it during the Gulf War. "Finally, its time came around," says Marlantes. "We're in an uncannily similar war in Afghanistan, and I think that reverberates."
Even when things began happening for the novel, the route was circuitous. In 2008, a friend finally got Matterhorn into the hands of someone who recognized its potential: Thomas Farber, head of the nonprofit Berkley publishing house, El León Literary Arts. Farber raised enough money for a 1,200-copy run, but Marlantes still couldn't get anyone to read it. Marlantes's wife suggested he submit to contests; that's when it caught the eye of Jill Lamar, overseer of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers. When Lamar requested more copies for B&N to sell across the country, Marlantes and Farber knew they would need a partner to produce the book in volume. Grove publishing head Morgan Entrekin "jumped on it" and in January 2010 advance reader copies began circulating the bookstore community. It wasn't long before independent booksellers took to the Internet, praising the book on Twitter and in e-mails to Grove. "All of a sudden," says Marlantes, "everything went right."
Though he didn't appreciate it at the time, Marlantes is now grateful for the Matterhorn's extended gestation period: "It just kept getting better and better." The wait also netted Marlantes his second book, which Grove will publish in September; What It Is Like to Go to War is a nonfiction treatise that springs directly from Marlantes's decades of reflection. He is also at work on a second novel, about Finnish immigrants in the Pacific Northwest (he's only been working on that one for 20 years).
Today, Marlantes is autographing Matterhorn and galleys for What It Is Like to Go to War at Grove's booth (4621), 2:30–3 p.m., following the ABA's Celebration of Bookselling Author Awards luncheon, where he is getting the Indies Choice Award for an adult debut title.
