FIRST BLOOD

by David Morrell ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 25, 1972

We forced him into it over there and now he's bringing it all back home."" Him is Rambo, a young kid who had been trained as a Green Beret to survive, no matter how; over there was Vietnam; and, having won a Congressional Medal of Honor and having had a crackup, he's now on the road. Actually he's run out of town and then picked up by Teasle, a Korean war veteran and chief of police in Madison, Kentucky -- Teasle carries a load of cowardice and personal bitterness underneath his American Legion shirt. Fighting his way out of the haircut Teasle attempts to give him, Rambo grabs the razor, guts a nearby policeman, and then takes to the hills when the posse starts -- dogs on the ground, a helicopter overhead. Rambo shoots them down -- the animals and the men -- and somehow all through the long nights and days your sympathies stay with him. As another man with a Green Beret (at the head of the National Guard which is also recruited to get him), says -- Rambo is one of ours -- these are the lessons we've taught him. A book like this also leaves us to search our own conscience -- it's a reflection of the violence we've all learned to tolerate only too well. Even if you want it to end, you won't stop reading it. Morrell's first novel is a brutal zinger and it's expected to be successful -- beginning with its Literary Guild alternate selection.

Pub Date: May 25, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Evans

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION