For anyone under the age of about 50, the Vietnam War occupies an indistinct place in the closet of memory. Considered by those living then to be the first "televised" war, its grainy images were replaced by detailed, 24-hour coverage of more recent conflicts. The infantryman's life, however, has not changed much in the 39 years since the war ended. In his extraordinary novel, Karl Marlantes depicts with brutal sincerity the fear, courage and perseverance that are the lot of the warrior. Set during the monsoon of 1969, Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War covers three months in the life of Bravo Company. , a Marine infantry company operating in the highlands of Vietnam just south of the DMZ (demilitarized zone). Fresh from an Ivy League education, where he graduated second in his class, 2nd Lieutenant Waino Mellas commands one of the company's three platoons. After being ordered to abandon the hilltop fortress known as the Matterhorn, which Mellas and his troops occupy at the novel's opening, they are sent on a trek into the jungle. Plagued by leeches and jungle rot as they make their way through grass and bamboo, the men watch one of their number be consumed by a tiger and another die of cerebral malaria, while they go eight days without food and lick the dew from their ponchos. liners when their water reserves are exhausted. But soon enough, they received the order to retake the Matterhorn, since inhabited by the opposition. It is there, on the outskirts of their own outpost, that the horror and irrationality of war finally play out. Marlantes writes as the company prepares its attack, that "after three hours of debate, they finally realized that there was no perfect plan, that someone was going to get killed... in the middle of 'a paper....... War novels serve as a relic of the past; we can either learn from it and move on, or we can make the same mistakes again. The main takeaway from a novel like Matterhorn is how fighting in war can improve a soldier. We are aware that struggle brings perseverance and determination. Karl Marlantes' novel constitutes a valuable complement to this literary corpus. This is one of the best war novels I have ever read and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the Marine experience in Vietnam. Matterhorn is a visceral and haunting novel about what it means to be a young man at war. It is an unforgettable novel that transforms the tragedy of Vietnam into an influential and universal story of courage, camaraderie and tenacity: a story not only of the Vietnam War but of all wars, and a confirmation of the immense power literature..