THE BETTER PART OF VALOR

by Basil ?eatter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 2, 1964

is not the virtue of Lt. Commander Wynn Savage, who heads a PT boat squadron in the Pacific during the war, nor that of the reporter, Mark Hammond, who goes along for the ride and brings him frame. After their first meeting in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the lives of the two men intertwine fatefully. Mark follows the course of Savage's war, a brutal one man show that sends other men to their deaths, and, in his final attempt to close with the enemy by taking a solo PT boat into the Rabaul harbor without orders, almost accomplishes his own. But Hammond is there to see the splendid Savage fall apart, to witness the accusation that explains his devious ways, to save him with himself, the only two to survive the sinking and a two-hundred mile jungle trek and the Japanese and return home. Hammond is also there to save Savage's reputation in return for receiving the wife Savage does not want. A second string war book, this does not stint on its obligatory scenes but rather stumbles into them...the sex is determinedly specific. But the toll of war is here recorded for those who would recall it in a now established genre, anti-hero and all.

Pub Date: Oct. 2, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: oubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: FICTION