Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam »

Paul Clayton was born in 1948, drafted in 1968, and sent to Vietnam in September of that year. He served with an infantry line company in the 4th Infantry Division in the Central Highlands of Pleiku Province. After the army, Clayton went to Temple University in Philadelphia where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature in 1976. He currently lives and works in California.

Originally published as an e-book, this was short-listed as a 2001 Frankfurt e-book Award Finalist along with works by Joyce Carol Oates and David McCullough. A realistic novel of combat in Vietnam by a man who was there.

The Washington Post - Marc Leepson

What sets this novel apart is Melcher's voice. Clayton portrays Carl Melcher as a mild-mannered naif -- a guy who, to his bafflement, is constantly buffeted by life's big currents. "Things just happen to me," Melcher says, "as if I have no say, and then I react." That is a far cry from most first-person war novel protagonists, who tend to be jaded iconoclasts who make things happen to other people.