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| Category: Fiction:Adventure |
(requires Adobe Reader)
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| About the Book | |
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"Got the name? Play the game," jokes Frank Warz, who poses as a decorated ex-Marine. A draft evader with dreams of martial glory, he's also a college graduate with nightmarish jobs in recession-racked 1975 Detroit. But he goes for broke when his bad luck turns awful: Warz runs for classic cover and fulfillment with the Foreign Legion, until the legendary force refuses him. Unable to go home, anxious for a fitting career, Warz decides to become a conflict photographer. Assuming the persona of a seasoned "shooter" now, he follows the Legion to the last European colony in Africa. But as he crosses Ethiopia, events begin challenging his bigotries. When he finally reaches Djibouti, an adventure with an African-American swashbuckler backfires into a brutal, racially charged incident, and Warz' longed-for baptism of fire becomes a penance he will perform the rest of his life.
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| Reviews | |
Well done, riveting...a wonderful evocation of Ruark's "Something of Value" and the movie "The Deer Hunter." It's about time, a novel about the wannabe war hero. Green lays this problem on the line. The Play Soldier should be a Book of the Month Club pick and on the New York Times Top Ten. Very enjoyable read. Great book!...Chet Green is a consummate writer with an expertise in description and phonetically vernacular dialogue....A well-writen, -edited and -researched novel with a social-issue message. "Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier." - Samuel Johnson - is the intro on the back cover...to which I say, as a woman, we are all warriors at heart...being tested daily, and quoting further: "A counterfeit Vietnam War hero seeks refuge and fulfillment in the French Foreign Legion - until it rejects him. Unable to go home and still intent on proving himself, he follows the legendary force to the Horn of Africa, but now he poses as a seasoned war photographer, too. After adventures in Ethiopia, he reaches Djibouti where people, like events, become more fantastic, particularly an American deserter who takes him to his baptism of fire, and his penance." The Play Soldier is a complex adventure novel about a wannabe war hero, Warz, who dresses for the part, like an actor, to create the image he wants to portray and convey in the play of lifeña problem of our timesñbut don't we all to some degree...dress to play a part? Could this be one of the negative side affects of too many action video games and war movies?...and everyday life does not provide sufficient challenges to test a man's true merit. Chet Green has drawn from his personal experiences as a U.S. Navy journalist in the Vietnam War and freelance photographer/writer in Africa and Sudan to create a novel about the reality of life in such exotic places. He is a consummate writer with an expertise in description and phonetically vernacular dialogue, adding color and quality to his writing style. Daniel Eliseuson, President of the International Combat Camera Association and life member of the USMC War Correspondents Association, has likened Green's writing to Robert Ruark's Something of Value, and I agreeñRuark being one of my favorite writers about Africa. It's always a true pleasure to read a well-written, -edited, researched novel with a social-issue message, and with confidence, I can highly recommend The Play Soldier to anyone interested in contemporary social issues.
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| About the Author | |
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Chet Green was a military journalist in SE Asia during the Vietnam War and freelanced as a writer/photographer in the African Horn. His media background includes TV news anchoring, which led to a part in a Clint Eastwood movie. |
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