So, after finally wrapping up the Great Gatsby, I decided to choose a book I knew would interest me, Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers. The story follows a soldier named Richie Perry who is sent to Vietnam after enlisting for the military. The reason he enlists is to escape an uncertain future with his alcoholic mother who can’t afford to send him to college and to help support his younger brother, Kenny. On the military plane on route to the main U.S. headquarters in Vietnam Perry meets Harold Gates, also known as “Peewee” for his relatively small size. Although Peewee seems a little too energetic and quirky for Perry’s taste, the two realise they are stationed together and create a close friendship.
Obviously this book is going to have as much action as it has emotion since it is about Vietnam and being told through a soldier’s eyes. The beginning sets up very well, showing that not all people who enlist in the military do it for sadistic purposes (which was what many protesters thought when the troops came home and treated them as such). In fact, many soldiers did it to do what Perry did, try and support their families who they either saw as declining or in desperate need of help from the start. Perry’s main purpose isn’t to fight and draw blood, it’s to use his military pay and benefits to help his brother Kennedy to make sure he gets a good education and a well paying job as the result of such that Perry feels he must provide to make up for his mother’s lack of ability to do. Through Peewee, however, we see this other side of ecstasy and potential sadism. Peewee says in the beginning that his main reason for coming is to be a patriot and fight the country’s enemies, which might explain why Perry doesn’t completely agree with Peewee’s motives. The books already off to a great pathological start and I hope this is not completely buried by any over the top action sequences or recurring/shoddy dialogue to try and draw it out.
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