The Boy who Picked the Bullets Up (i)

From novelist Charles Nelson and William Morrow & Co., Inc.

“Nobody has written about any war in quite the way Charles Nelson has done it. The war happens to be Vietnam; no matter. The nature of war is the same everywhere always. Kurt Strom, the central figure of this wonderful novel, happens to be gay. That matters. His insights are decidedly different, and they are witty, wonderful, heartbreaking and always true.”

Merle Miller wrote that blurb on the front flap of this 1981 novel. Merle, as in Merle Watson and Merle Haggard. Country. There are Merles all over the wall of dead on the Mall.

Another Merle is the longest-working activist for reconciliation between the United States and Viet Nam. Another is the Central Intelligence Agency officer I have noticed with regard for Vietnamese lives and works.

Miller. Common as dirt. After Harry Truman died Merle Miller dished the ex-president’s dirt on his generals, MacArthur and Eisenhower. That was 1 year after he came out to the world with his 1971 essay in the New York Times Magazine on homosexuality.

So ten years later he introduces Charles’ book. Funny thing, I remember reading through that article, age 11, trying to make it out. It didn’t map on what I knew of the life of an uncle who had a great time in at least 2 services, land and sea, in the last war for the world.

Then he carried on in the Village from 1945 well into this century. The wiki says that Charles never said that he was gay. Neither did my uncle. They just did their thing.

“This is a sensitive, funny, fast-moving, extremely well-written book.”

Richard Hooker wrote that blurb on the back flap for Morrow, who had made them both a lot of money with his novel MASH. In life Hiester Richard Hornberger, Jr., M.D. was a conservative Republican, surgeon, and family man in small-town Maine.

He was not anti-war but pro-candor, fascinated by how men and women actually carry on at war. Moreover he was a wit who could tell a good book and author when he saw one.

This was the first Viet Nam letter of 3 so far presenting The Boy Who Picked the Bullets Up by Charles Nelson. The second posted on November 18, 2022 and the third on February 19, 2023.

Viet Nam letters respects the property of others under paragraph 107 of United States Code Title 17. If we asked for permission it wouldn’t be criticism. We explain our fair use at length in the letter of September 12, 2022.

The colophon of these Viet Nam letters, directly above, shows the janitor speaking with poet David A. Willson on a Veterans Day.