Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War

Without question, Matterhorn is the best book I have read all year. And I am debating whether it beats out last year’s favorite East of Eden. Focused on Second Lt. Mellas and Bravo Company’s actions on and around a small Vietnamese mountain named Matterhorn during the Vietnam War, Karl Marlantes unceremoniously drops the reader into the fray with Mellas as his eyes are opened to what war, politics, home, and the future are in the face of a war with no end in sight.

Matterhorn is a crushingly painful and painfully raw book to read. Good men die, bad men make wise decisions, and the ravages of war show no care as to who it takes or how. Beyond the tension of war itself, there are tensions between race, class, and rank. There were times in the book I became so angry at some of the enlisted men and officers for decisions they made. In one instance, a commanding officer volunteered Bravo to extend their mission, knowing full well they had no food and were low on ammo and would not get more of either in the foreseeable future.

I do not have detailed knowledge of the Vietnam War. It is difficult for me to discern if any of the scenarios Marlantes lays out is absurd or not, but they seem all a little too real from my point of view. The progression of the book is so seamless; I did not realize the subtle changes in perspective until well into it. As I read the book, much like Mellas, I began understanding how things worked and why, and feel the same swing from hope to hopelessness with Bravo Company. Marlantes knows when to gradually part the curtain to some awful truth, and when to rip the bandage off in the most painful fashion.

This is a book that I will continue thinking about far after I finish it. And it is one, too, that will remain on my bookshelf, ready to be reread, for many years to come.