The Sweet Smell of Psychosis: A Novella (Self, Will)

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The Sweet Smell of Psychosis (very loosely based on Alexander Mackendrick's searing '50s movie Sweet Smell of Success) is the kind of mordant fable that Will Self could toss off in his sleep. But although it doesn't stretch Self's considerable talents, it is still a wonderfully poisonous entertainment.

Richard Hermes is a tiny cog in the London media machine, a hack whose only distinction is a tenuous position at the edge of the most powerful clique in town. At its heart is the loathsome Bell, a sort of malevolent anti-Oprah whose media omnipresence has given him enormous power.

...one of Bell's most sycophantic acolytes had established--through certain arcane statistical computations--that there must, logically, be at least two hundred thousand people in Britain who did nothing else but listen to Bell's voice, watch Bell's face, or read his words, for every waking hour of their lives.

Richard is drawn deeper into Bell's web in pursuit of the gorgeous Ursula Bentley, but he can't keep up with the clique's colossal appetite for controlled substances. He soon begins to slide into drug-addled madness, and Self once again demonstrates his uncanny ability to render altered states in perfectly crafted prose. In fact, much of the pleasure that The Sweet Smell of Psychosis has to offer comes not from the story of Richard's inevitable fall, but from Self's deft and playful way with words. Few writers in English are able to use such beautiful language to describe the most revolting things. Whether he's writing about an excruciating hangover or Bell's naked body ("each pap sporting a twistle of black, black hair",) Self's decadent language begs to be savored, even read out loud. Martin Rowson, the Hogarth to Self's Swift, provides some remarkable illustrations to accompany the text. Rowson's work (most recently showcased in his comic-book version of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman) is grim and shadowy, but filled with detail and twisted humor. Together, he and Self have created an elegant billet-aigre to London's dark underbelly, a cautionary tale that takes pleasure in its own unpleasantness. --Simon Leake

Book Description

A brief and brilliant satire of magazine hacks and fashionistas, The Sweet Smell of Psychosis shows Will Self - a writer acclaimed as "a masterly prose-maker" by London's Sunday Times - at the top of his form. It looks as if it's going to be quite a Christmas for Richard Hermes, powdered with cocaine and whining with the white noise of urban derangement. Not so much enfolded as trapped in the bosom of the most venal media clique in London, Richard is losing it on all fronts: he's losing his heart to Ursula Bentley, a nubile and vacuous magazine columnist; he's in danger of losing his job at the pretentious listings magazine Rendezvous; he's losing his mind courtesy of Colombia's chief illegal export; and, worst of all, he's losing his soul ... to Bell. Bell is a newspaper columnist, radio host, television personality - but more than that, he is the kingpin guiding the ship of media scandal through the lower depths. From his headquarters in the Sealink Club he pulls the strings that control the disseminators of drek and gatherers of glib. And he has had Ursula Bentley and just about everyone else, female and male. As Richard pursues the Jicki perfume wafting from Ursula, he is in fact being drawn into a much more sinister web. Murky, paranoid, and hilarious, The Sweet Smell of Psychosis is Will Self at his best.

Customer Reviews:

the beautiful ugly people.......2007-10-01

Self and Rowson make a pungent pair - both left wing, media London establishment jesters as writer and cartoonist respectively, they team up in this short novella to paint a verbal and visual zeitgeist crusher of a book. The story is a simple one, not a bit of it cannot be found in some other tale or parable somewhere: naive, northern boy leaves his miserable life in the north with his 'girlfriend tending towards parturition, and small flat that would have required partition' to try and make it in the cocaine blasted world of media London as journalist for Rendezvous - one of those listings magazines that claims to surf the very tip of the cultural wave with weekly listings for tedious avant-garde cultural events.

Richard, our hero, finds himself drowning in a sea of drugs and superficiality. His nemesis, Bell, is a modern media baron - a promiscuous womaniser and hairsuite sex god. Mixing excessive substance abuse with paranoid affection for Ursula Bentley - a sort of twenties decadent siren reconstructed afloat on the pillow of narcotics in 90s central London, Richard finds his crush on the flighty Ursula growing with his cocaine fuelled paranoia about seeing Bell's face everywhere he goes. Richard has the nub of goodness within him, bless him. His wish is to make a genuine connection with Ursula, lift her and her tedious sex column out of this ephemeral dirge of media London to a married life of meaning and permanence. Ursula merely ruffles his hair and calls him 'sweet'. The twin poles, and scents of Ursula's perfume 'Jicki' and Richard's psychosis - entwine and grow as the novella roars to a swift and surreal denoument.

So the story is basically a bog standard modern parable of values being important than drugs, beautiful people and glamour blah blah. But the style - Self's amphetiminic and thesauras powered prose and Rowson's Hogarthian grotesque cartoons is to be savoured.

"chewing the cocaine cud of nothing...".......2006-08-06

The Sweet Smell of Psychosis is classic Will Self. He has such a delightful and distinctive writing style. Sardonic, monstrously grotesque, twisted. And not without moments of cruelty. The story itself is almost irrelevant. I find myself reading and rereading certain passages, charmed by the sounds of the language yet nauseated by the sentiment. I end up looking up a lot of words, which slows me down. For any given word I didn't recognize, I wasn't sure if it is was a unique Self-neologism, British druggy underworld colloquialisms, esoteric vocabulary, or a reference that's over my head (I read the book on mostly on the run, circling words and phrases to later run through the good ol' Wikipedia, God I love that thing).

The Sweet Smell of Psychosis is a nice short novella, baroque and ornate as any of self's writing but linear in its narrative. It has short little sections punctuated by illustrations, just like the old chapter books I used to read in grade school. I like that. Like a rat pressing the lever in an old skinner box, I find myself reading faster, turning pages hoping for the intermittent reward of a illustration. Martin Rowson's illustrations certainly liven things up, (although I was a little self-conscious reading it in the heat-wave, rush hour train, packed in shoulder to shoulder, with vague paranoid ideation of people reading over my shoulder) much in the same way that Ralph Steadman's demented illustrations complemented the writings of Hunter S. Thompson.

The story sets itself within the post-post-modern world of media observing media, with our protagonist, Richard, being a self-loathing hack writer associating in the world of "media-associated subsidiary professionals." "They were transmitters of trivia, broadcasters of banality, and disseminators of dreck. They wrote articles about articles, made television programmes about television programmes..." (sic, as pertains to that unpleasantly odd British spelling) "They traifficked in the glibbest, slightest, most ephemeral cultural reflexivity, enacting a dialogue between society and its conscience that had all the resonance of a foil individual pie dish smitten with a paperclip." Richard is sinking deeper and deeper into the dopaminergic driven psychosis of cocaine abuse, and finds himself unable to separate himself from the gravitational field of Bell, a charismatic but treacherous talk show host, and Bell's sycophantic clique. Within that clique is Ursula, who Richard falls in love and the story is centered around Richard's attempts to connect with her and disconnect the both of them from Bell's vicious druggy world.

So, on some level, it is a quite charming boy-meets-girl love story. But with Self's unique style. For example, when a hung-over, burnt-out Richard gets a laugh from Ursula, "By God! He'd said something right! A thousand thousand pink flamingos lifted off from the volcanic lake of Richard's stomach." Two brief paragraphs later, when Ursula mentions her recent outing with Bell's gang, "The flamingos were machine-gunned by Nazi vivisectionists." Throughout the book, the decompensating unconscious of drug psychosis intermingles and fantastical subjectivity overtakes the real. I don't want to give away the brilliant ending, which surprised me both with its absurd humor and its intensity.

Thumbs up, buy this book. Tell a friend. Thank me later.

scathing.......2001-07-15

This joyfully venomous novella, whose title invokes the excellent Burt Lancaster/Tony Curtis film Sweet Smell of Success (1957), is ostensibly intended to satirize the sorts of tabloid hack journalists who had enjoyed themselves so thoroughly at the expense of Martin Amis, Will Self's literary godfather, several years ago. But, perhaps just because I'm not British, there did not seem to be anything presslike about the characters; instead it seemed just a vicious, but worthwhile, savaging of the sort of amoral, ambisexual, drug-addled, sensation-chasers who are all too common in every walk of life and line of work these days.

Richard Hermes is an entirely minor features writer who has become caught up in the vortex of young journalists who revolve around Bell, a constant media presence known for bedding any man or woman he sets his eye on, sort of Larry King crossed with a satyr. Richard recognizes the emptiness of the lives the group leads, and still has a sufficient remnant of decency to be repelled by the acts of needless cruelty that they thrive on, however, he's fallen in lust with Ursula Bently, an icy blonde beauty, who hangs with this crowd, but whom he compares to "a diamond found in a gutter behind a Chinese takeaway."

Richard pays court to the intermittently receptive Ursula, and descends deeper and deeper into a paranoid cocaine-induced haze, in which everyone around him seems to resemble Bell. He harbors the improbable hope that Ursula is redeemable and that the two of them can break out of Bell's gravitational pull to live happily ever after. But in the end, even as he plans to get away from the City and Bell, to return home for the Christmas holiday, Richard finally gets his chance to bed down Ursula, though the experience proves less than heavenly.

If the book is intended to say something specific about the press, it escaped me entirely. No one actually seems to perform any kind of work in the book, it's all clubbing, drugging, drinking, and scrumping. But taken simply as a cautionary tale, a warning that by being with these people you become one of them and sink into the abyss, it worked well enough.

GRADE : B

Not his best effort........2001-06-28

I can't put my finger on why I didn't like this book. I like his other books (Great Apes and Grey Matter are great). You can't help, but feel dirty after reading a book like this, yet there was little humor or even interesting perspective to lighten the blow. I found this to be creepy and not in a good way. Maybe I was just in a bad mood...

The twisting reels of faces.......2000-06-28

IT was amazing to read a book that through it's title gives you the clue that this book will be wierd, but to still be taken aback at how twisted the reels of faces can become when reading such a well written book.

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Sweet Smell of Psychosis Poster

Manufacturer: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 0747534071

Amazon.com

As young Tammo dreams of joining the Long Patrol--the legendary army of fighting hares that serves the Lady Cregga Rose Eyes, Ruler of Salamandastron--the brutal reality of a battle with Damug Warfang's mighty battalion of savage Rapscallions fast approaches.

Brian Jacques has proved time and time again his ability to transport readers into a world of fantasy and adventure that many writers of adult books would love to emulate. The Long Patrol certainly proves the point yet again, but distinguishes itself by being perhaps the very best of all the Redwall books so far. Relying less and less on the old, familiar Redwall characters and more and more on the ingenuity and passion of younger blood, The Long Patrol will certainly win Jacques a fresh following while continuing to delight his existing army of fans. --Susan Harrison

Book Description

The murderous Rapscallion army is on the move. Dealt a humiliating defeat by Lady Cregga Rose Eyes, the Badger Lady of Salamandastron, who still pursues them, the Rapscallions are heading inland to take an even greater prize: the peaceful Abbey of Redwall. The elite fighting unit of hares, the Long Patrol, is called out to draw them off. At the forefront is the young hare Tammo, the lead sword in one of the most ferocious battles Redwall has ever faced—ready to fight to the death!

“[Jacques is] a masterful storyteller. . . . As in the other Redwall books, the combination of an absorbing plot, robust characterization, and detailed description make the novel a page-turner.”
—The Horn Book

Customer Reviews:

Another 5 star review for this awesome book!.......2007-09-30

Most of this book isn't very good. Well, I guess it's pretty good, the adventure is pretty action packed and it's fun to read about the travels of the rapscallion army. The coolest parts happen in the end, when the redwallers raise an army and engage the rapscallions in the biggest battle in redwall history! Things aren't looking up for them though, so they'd better hope the long patrol gets there soon! This is the book with the best battle, so if you like action and redwall, read this book!

Well, at least it's short.......2007-08-22

If I was to put all of the Redwall books and sort them from creativity to overdone concept, the pile of creativity would be a pathetically small pile. Yes, I am an adult, who has outgrown Redwall, and even the hardcore Redwall fans are starting to outgrow Redwall. You can only handle so much of the same hack-n-slash plot of good and evil until it gets extremely repetitive. 'The Long Patrol' stands as probably one of the worst Redwall books I've endured, as is up there with the book 'Triss'.

Thank fate it's a small book for a Redwall novel, but even thinness cannot guarantee that it will be over faster. In Camp Tussock, where hares gather and 'train' or rest--that part was never clear--but what is clear is that all of the hares there go to Salamandastron to become soldiers of the Long Patrol. The map that is always included in every Redwall book, does a nice job of laying out the lay of the land, but please don't rely on it for the whole Redwall universe in general. It's not a Lord of the Rings map. It's not even a 'Warriors' map. It' a sloppy map whose geography is always changing from one book to the other. But about the book's plot.

The plot is pretty much simple. A rowdy hare named Tammo wants to join the Long Patrol, but his father does not think he has the material or even the experience. But Tammo's mother sends him off to his quest anyway, but not alone. His guide is a wisecrack, aloof squirrel named Russa Nodrey. Like in many Redwall journeys, their quest is not complete with danger along the way in which they overcome without batting an eye, until they actually get in trouble, and who else helps them but the Long Patrol. The badger lord, a Lady Rose Eyes Cregga, is gearing her hares to war against the Rapscallions, a so-called vicious horde led by a Greatrat, the cruel Damug Warfang.

You already know the outcome to this story before you even read it, and Tammo's struggles to grow up are alright, but when he actually goes to fight, he manages to kill quite a lot of Rapscallions...and he hasn't really trained. He's an inexperienced whelp who spends most of his time in the Long Patrol eating, eating, and eating. Like the rest of the hares. This is about 'The Long Patrol' right? Why did this fail in so many ways? Why wasn't there a more depth story about how the Long Patrol was actually formed, how the hares train, what makes a certain hare good enough to join? Because if a whelp like Tammo could be accepted in the ranks of the Patrol, then what's the point of Camp Tussock? So many plotholes that could've been filled if this story didn't take such a dramatic path. But since 'Loamhedge' wasn't really about Loamhedge--just a quest to the ruins, and 'The Legend of Luke' wasn't really about how Luke became a legend--more of Martin traveling to a wreck and we are filled with maybe 90 pages of Luke slaying a pirate. So 'The Long Patrol' wasn't really about The Long Patrol. Just about another ho-hum adventure of inexperienced fighters slaying a horde of badbeasts, but at least this story had more casualties than all of the Redwall books combined. That's what probably made it somewhat believable, but I still find it so hard to wrap around the idea that the horde of Rapscallions who you can clearly see had experience killing and fighting and actually learning how to wield a sword, could be slain so easily by a bunch of goodbeasts who think violence is bad, yet they all seem to possess the spirits of long-dead warriors and kill without so much as a single mark.

Irony, but of course, it's Redwall. And that's why this book deserves three stars. An average read for children, but obviously bland for adults who've read something far better elsewhere.

Yet another great story from Jacques!.......2006-10-28

The Long Patrol was a typical Redwall book, displaying good vs. evil. This book centered on the famous Long Patrol and I really liked how the hares were portrayed and emphasized in this book. The only problem I had with The Long Patrol is that it wasn't as captivating as some of the other Redwall books. It seemed a little anti-climactic to me, but it was still a very good book. The best thing is that you don't have to be a little kid to enjoy this book (or any other Redwall book)!!

One of his best........2006-10-07

First off i want to say I am a hard critic of the Redwall series because I believe they are becoming very repetitive. This book however is a breath of fresh air, differnt from all the rest. This is easily his best in my book, along with Martin the Warrior and The Bellmaker.

The Long Patrol.......2006-06-01

A young hare named Tammo longs to be in the Long Patrol, a fierce fighting force that protects all of Salmandastron. However, he joins a small army of various animals that, led by Lady Cregga Rose Eyes, battles the legendary Rapscallion, in the name of defending Redwall Abbey. The ending is known, but a few twists and turns make this book worth every page.
This novel is a true representation of Brian Jacques' talent and imagination. Each animal has human characteristics, and readers will enjoy reading Badger-speak aloud. You will grow attached to Tammo and his friends as their goodhearted nature wins against selfishness, cruelty, and anger. People 12 and up will enjoy this book.

Brian Jacques Set 5 (Pearls of Lutra, The Long Patrol) (Redwall Series, 9-10)

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Brian Jacques Set 5 (Pearls of Lutra, The Long Patrol) (Redwall Series, 9-10)
Brian Jacques
Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: B000LO3WAK

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Great book!
An Important Perspective
Disappointing
This book is the best on Vietnam War
Riveting, Truthful, Heroic, Right from the Heart.

I Served
Don C. Hall , and Annette R. Hall
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1552124894
Release Date: 2006-07-06

Book Description

Unceremoniously dumped in the orphanage by their drunken, war-traumatized father, Don and his brother Mike learn the harsh realities of life. We can feel the fear of the tormented child and smell the antiseptic dormitory. Not all is bad there, for it is during this time that the young Donald sees his true love, Annette, for the first time. Her brunette hair, twinkling eyes and heart-melting smile are what help sustain the warrior's sanity and focus during some of his darkest moments, which are yet to come.

Don was a 'malcontent renegade' in the eyes of the nuns, because he fought for his dignity and that of his brother. Recalcitrant, yet gregarious, Don is dismissed from the orphanage with his brother, and returned to the father who had abandoned them. No hope for the future leads the seventeen-year-old boy, old beyond his years, to a recruiter's office and the Army.

In August 1967, after a tour in Alaska and six months in Germany, the young paratrooper volunteers for duty in the Republic of Vietnam and is initially assigned to the 173d Airborne Brigade. Then, he hears a call for volunteers and joins a new long range patrol unit being formed, with the motto "I Serve," and the charter of taking the war to the enemy. Expertly weaving heart-thumping moments as enemy soldiers walk past within mere feet of patrols, the cacophony of battle and copper-taste of adrenaline during contacts, and the stark contrasts of the war, Don Hall takes us on his tour with the Lurps. We feel the anguish of losing teammates, and share the love for comrades. We see the oblivious eyes of the enemy walking toward an ambush, and the handmade wooden cross prepared by a soldier for a dead enemy tossed from a helicopter. We hear the cries of the wounded and the soft strains of songs on the radio. We feel the hurt and anger of the young boy, and the power and control of the soldier as he serves.

I Served takes us on a journey we cannot stop once the first page is turned. In the end, it is the simple understatement of service and quiet professionalism which makes this story different. We should all pause to reflect that we have much for which to be thankful, provided by the sacrifices of those who served.
-book description written by Command Sergeant Major Jeff Mellinger

Customer Reviews:

Great book! .......2006-06-06

I felt really touched by the life story of Don Hall. It is one of those veteran memoirs that are also a great story about love, healing, faith, redemption, compassion, courage and friendship. This book has all those things that can make your heart break or warm up. It is a story of a young boy who endures many emotional and physical hardships in a lonely and cold hearted orphanage, long before he was on his way to Vietnam to face the NVA and VC.

Knowing Don and Annette as I do, made this story even better because I can tell that what was in the book was really all about love. That romance is still alive and well today. The book explores their relationship but it also explores the world that a young Don found himself in during the Vietnam War.

What Don faced in Nam and how he handles himself makes for a real action packed adventure sure to satisfy those readers who enjoy war genre books however, there is much more spiritual and emotional depth to the story line as you follow the unfolding of the man Don was to become.

I highly recommend this book to all readers. I believe that women may find this a book that they can take to their hearts. This is not a combat book but a book about one man's personal journey through his life in search of meaning and love.

An Important Perspective.......2006-02-22

Don and Annette Hall's "I Served" is plainspoken when compared to more literary works such as Michael Herr's "Dispatches" or Neil Sheehan's "Bright and Shining Lies". But it is an engaging first person account that accurately reflects the world view of some extraordinarily brave soldiers who were routinely in contact with the enemy.

Reviewers who served with Don's unit have attested to the veracity of his story and I certainly concur. I was an Army photojournalist in 1967 and 1968 and to my knowledge was the only reporter/photographer to cover an F Company team on an ambush mission. I trained with Sgt. Carter's team for a week before we were inserted in an area of suspected enemy activity. The team was extremely well disciplined and were masters of stealth, moving silently from the LV through dry brush that would snap crackle and pop under the careless feet of most infantry units I accompanied. When the point man climbed a tree and spotted a base camp across a river, we hunkered down in a small clearing to observe enemy activity and determine the size of the force. That night an emeny patrol walked by no more than 10 feet from our concealed position. The next day, a team inserted nearby came under fire and we were extracted in advance of an artillery barrage and an infantry sweep.

Decades later my memories of F Co. 51st Infantry LRPS are very clear but reading Don's book gave me insight into the unit I would never have known otherwise. It's clear that he and Annette have gone to great lengths to reconstruct events where memory alone fails. Back in the day most of us were prohibited from keeping journals so Don's National Archive research is instructional for anyone who would look to write about their own experiences. For those who study the Vietnam experience, Don and Annette provide an important testimony for those who served in front of the front lines.

Disappointing.......2006-02-13

I was under the impression that this book was a true to life accounting of events leading up to the Tet Offensive of 1968. I bought the book based upon the recommendations here. I was disappointed to find that it was more of a heavily gilded diary, with little to no credibility where actual events are recounted.

Further, I did not enjoy the overall ego-centricity of the contents, and would've like to read about the accomplishments of the men in this LRP unit, rather than the personal jabs (sometimes scornful) and off-hand speculations of the first-person author.

I've judged the contents of this book as misleading, but perhaps others will enjoy it more as a story that plays fast and loose with the facts. I guess I was just expecting this book to be more of a hard-core Vietnam era combat account. [...]

This book is the best on Vietnam War.......2005-09-13

This book sets a new standard in memoir writing with supporting documentation backing up the facts in this book, 'I Served.' It was the motto of the unit, 'I SERVE' that the author, Don Hall takes the title from and he has done the men a great service in this award winning book.

Wait for the documentary 'Silent Victory' by, Don Hall and Annette Hall to come out! These two projects are the best to have been made showing the real faces of the Vietnam War from the men who were there and did the most dangerous job in the Army at the time ---- LURPING.

On a side note, it is unconscionable how so many trifling and jealous Random House/Ivy/Ballantine Book authors (a dozen or more at least) have tried to stop the filming of their documentary and how they have smeared the names of all the good veterans in this outstanding book. Read it, believe it, because it's not one of those, "believe me 'cause I was there, this is what I remembered three decades later and I have all these fake and made up military awards" types of books.

This book is based on actual radio communications and records from teams on the ground, other units, the gunships and controlled by the C&C ship of Lt. Colonel William C. Maus, Jr. (commanding) who was put in for the Medal of Honor for his actions during Tet 1968 with this unit.

These men (220 strong), pulled an inordinate back-to-back patrols never witnessed before in military history and unlike the other platoon-sized Lurps of the time period. These men are the silent warriors written about with clarity, in-sight, character, and bravery in a modest way that Don Hall touchs you with each person in the book. This unit, as a whole, was so valuable in obtaining intelligence on the enemy, destroying the enemy that, in fact, the U.S. Army War College studied this unit Foxtrot Company, 51st LRP (Airborne) Infantry to set up the current-day 75th Ranger Regiment of the U.S. Army Rangers and F Company, 51st LRS (Long Range Surveillance) at Fort Bragg, NC. A must read with valuable lessons to be learned for the military historians and those interested in the times because it is more than a war tale. It's about the characters.

Riveting, Truthful, Heroic, Right from the Heart........2003-05-09

...It is beyond the shadow of a doubt, the best book I have ever read.
I am retired, and reading non-fiction books about the Vietnam experience is what I like to do best. In the year I've been retired, I have read as of 5/8/03 between 75 and 80 books all relating to Vietnam and what these people went through.
Mr. and Mrs. Hall's book "I Served" is without a doubt the best I have ever read. In all honesty and truthfulness, I can't imagine a better book to read. It has more to offer than any book, and I loved every word of it. The writing has a way of making you feel like your standing right there watching it all take place. It is a very rare quality to be able to write like that. I honestly feel if Mr. Hall ever wanted to, he could be one heck of an auther, and probably could write a good number of book's and have before long, a following of faithful readers.
I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone over any other book I have ever read. I would like to say, Please check this book out. It's not an expensive book, it's worth is far greater than any amount you would pay for it. I can guarentee, you will love it the same way I and everbody else who read it does. This is a book you will be sorry you didn't read. And that's the truth. So help me God.
From his day's in an orphanage, to the end of his tour in Vietnam, Mr. Hall reveils so much about himself that other people wouldn't want anybody to know. It is so honest and forthright as to put it a league all it's own.
I will keep this book for as long as I live. And I will hope and pray that my two son's find the time time read it. I know it will have a positive effect on them both. And I'm sure it will have the same effect on you. You won't be sorry you bought and read this book, so please do for your sake.

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THE LONG PATROL 25 YEARS OF WRITING
Norman Mailer
Manufacturer: WORLD PUBLISHING
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWBCSI

4-book Set; the Long Patrol; Marlfox; Pearls Oflutra; the Legend of Luke By Brian Jacques

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4-book Set; the Long Patrol; Marlfox; Pearls Oflutra; the Legend of Luke By Brian Jacques
Brian Jacques
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000V2H37K

Product Description

4-book set by Brian Jacques.

Above All Else: In the Beginning November 1966: 1st Cavalry Division's Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol

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Above All Else: In the Beginning November 1966: 1st Cavalry Division's Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol
Ronald Lee Christopher
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 159286855X

Book Description

The basic mission of the Army during the Vietnam War was to find `em and fix `em and kill `em. By 1966, many units still had not formally established the recon unit that was necessary to fulfill the “find `em” part of the mission. The Cavalry could not be included in this group as it did not possess the Div level recon asset that was thought by some to be necessary. Under difficult conditions, an LRRP team had to be organized and its personnel trained to possess the skills necessary to survive in the enemy's backyard and return alive. This is the story of the creation of the 1st Cav Division LRRP, the training of its members, and the successful mounting of the first missions, which were required for the survival of this ground-breaking unit. This book is also a testament to men such as Ron Christopher, who had the perseverance, determination and the skills required to organize the LRRP, train its team members, and run those first missions that established the practicality of the 1st Cavalry Division LRRP.

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G Patrol
Michael Crichton-Stuart
Manufacturer: W. Kimber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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The go-betweens: The origins of the patrol officer service in the Northern Territory (Occasional papers / State Library of the Northern Territory)

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The go-betweens: The origins of the patrol officer service in the Northern Territory (Occasional papers / State Library of the Northern Territory)
J. P. M Long
Manufacturer: State Library of the Northern Territory
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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My soapbox review
INSIDE THE LRRPS/RANGERS IN THE NAM

Inside the LRRPs: Rangers in Vietnam
Michael Lee Col Lanning
Manufacturer: Presidio Press
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0804101663
Release Date: 1988-06-12

Book Description

Vietnam was a different kind of war, calling for a different kind of soldier. The LRRPs--Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols--were that new breed of fighting man. They operated in six-man teams deep within enemy territory, and were the eyes and ears of the units they served. This is their story--of perseverence under extreme hardship and uncommon bravery--and how they carried out the war's most hazardous missions.

Customer Reviews:

My soapbox review.......2001-11-24

This is an older book, but the info is timeless and very good compared on what is available today.

INSIDE THE LRRPS/RANGERS IN THE NAM.......2000-01-07

I have read this book, and allthough it is not the best that I have read, I still enjoyed it very much. I don't know if Michael had a personnal expierence with the LRRP/RANGERS, but he still did an excellent job of depicting the things that many of our young RANGER boys went through. Roadrunner6 out

Average customer rating:

The Long Patrol
Brian Jacques
Manufacturer: Red Fox
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHXWHM

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