Scariest Place in the World: A Marine Returns to North Korea » (First Edition)

James Brady commanded a rifle platoon during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star for valor. His weekly columns for Parade magazine and Forbes.com are considered must-reads by millions. He lives in Manhattan and in East Hampton, New York.

Praise for James Brady:

The Coldest War:

"His story reads like a novel, but it is war reporting at its best—a graphic depiction, in all its horrors, of the war we've almost forgotten."

—Walter Cronkite

"Mr. Brady has written a superb personal memoir of the way it was. What distinguishes Mr. Brady's book is its clarity and modesty; there is no heroic flag-waving here."

—The New York Times

"A marvelous memoir. A sensitive and superbly written narrative that eventually explodes off the pages like a grenade in the gut...taut, tight, and telling."

—Dan Rather

The Marine:

"In The Marine, James Brady again gives us a novel in which history is a leading character, sharing the stage in this case with a man as surely born to be a gallant warrior as any knight in Sixth century Camelot."

—Kurt Vonnegut

The Marines of Autumn:

“Mr. Brady knows war, the smell and the feel of it.”

—The New York Times

“Brady has stormed publishing high ground to become, arguably, our foremost novelist currently writing on the subject of Marines at war.”

—Publishers Weekly

“The Marines of Autumn is a masterpiece that recalls the era with awesome authenticity. The novel’s outcome is one of thunderous dramatic beauty and power.”

—The Associated Press

Publishers Weekly

This powerful narrative by the author of The Marines of Autum is an endearing piece of warrior's nostalgia, written with his accustomed skill by a seasoned writer. Returning to Korea, Brady revisits some of the places where he fought as a Marine platoon commander. In the opening, Brady finds his old battlefield of Hill 749 within sight of North Korean emplacements, although well-defended by a South Korean army vastly improved from what he remembers from 50-plus years ago. The rest of the narrative shifts back and forth, beginning with the author's nerve-wracking stroke to his going to Korea to write the Parade article on which this book is based. As Brady rides through Seoul with skyscrapers on every side, he remembers seeing it in 1951, when there wasn't a building taller than two stories left standing. Fellow Marines, from "the Skipper" (the company commander, the late Rhode Island governor and senator John Chaffee) on down, appear in their old age, and in their youth when they faced the Chinese with everything from artillery to bayonets. Brady, who expresses grave reservations about the Iraq War, sometimes moves from topic to topic fast enough to lose readers, but this book marks a highly admirable addition to his distinguished body of work. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.