cover image Fire and Rain: Novel of Vietnam

Fire and Rain: Novel of Vietnam

Oswald Rivera. Four Walls Eight Windows, $17.95 (185pp) ISBN 978-0-941423-41-0

The U.S. Marine Corps' prison in Da Nang, Vietnam, was the scene of a massive riot and outbreak in 1969. Frustrated American inmates, many of them black and Hispanic, released their pent-up anger over inhumane prison conditions and guards' sadistic brutality by burning down more than one-third of the brig; its recapture took a high toll in soldiers' lives, with Americans fighting Americans. This true-life incident is the basis for a searing, authentic novel that adds a new dimension to our understanding of the Vietnam War. Through the eyes of Corporal Dawson, a Midwestern high-school dropout accused of stabbing to death his company commander, and through flashbacks, we witness the U.S. military's bungling in battle and experience the seething racial tensions dividing white, black and Latino inmates. Rivera, a New York police analyst of Puerto Rican descent, saw combat as a Marine in Vietnam. His quietly powerful story is as realistic in its gritty detail as a war diary. (Nov.)