Carry Me Home

New York: Bantam Books, 1995. Advance Reading Copy. Trade paperback. Good. xii, 717, [5] pages. Author's Note. Advance Reading Copy Bantam Books Hardcover sticker on front cover. Rare surviving "Not for Sale" review copy. This bound copy consists of uncorrected page proofs. Material for quotation should be checked against the regular edition. Sticker on back cover provides a Bantam Books Publicity point of contact. Bobby Wapinski, Tony Pisano, and Ty Blackwell, who had fought side by side in Vietnam, return home to a country torn by painful transitions that refuses to welcome or honor them. John M. Del Vecchio graduated from Lafeyette College in 1969. He was drafted and sent to Vietnam in 1970, where he served as combat correspondent in the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile). In 1971 he was awarded a Bronze Star for Heroism in Ground Combat. He is author of The 13th Valley, Darkness Falls, Carry Me Home, For the Sake of All Living Things, and other works. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: In this immensely detailed final installment of his trilogy about America's war in Southeast Asia, Del Vecchio focuses on veterans who returned home in the late '60s only to find themselves viewed largely as lepers. Back from his second tour in Vietnam, Marine Sgt. Tony Pisano, 20, bears a leg wound, is assigned to burial detail, marries student nurse Linda, tries out college and faces widespread hatred. Tony's story, central to the novel, melds with that of his doomed buddies, who are now rootless ``expatriates'' in their own country. More grounded is the also returned Capt. Robert Wapinski, whose Pennsylvania farm becomes a haven for many vets fighting public castigation, post-traumatic stress disorder and the effects of Agent Orange. Del Vecchio shows these vets' fury at the V.A. (which combats recognition of their various addictions, insanities, damaged genes, etc.) at the whinings of the``Me'' generation, and at the media, which the vets accuse of misrepresentation, and for which they hold a mock trial at Wapinski's farm. In one telling moment, Tony, recovering from one of many breakdowns, is told by his indignant wife, ``Your daughters' daughters will live with your psychosis long after you and I are gone.'' The overall purpose of his powerful art demands such detail to underscore his characters' pain and, for a few, uplifting recovery.