ONE TO COUNT CADENCE

by James Crumley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 1969

Reduced to its simplest, this is the confessional of Sgt. Slag Krummel, echoing and expiating the experiences which he shared with one Joe Morning whom he loved and attempted to salvage and ultimately shot. It takes place for the most part at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, on a hill during the ""no-war war"" in Vietnam, and back home in a hospital. Krummel, as Morning would say, is a ""mystic reactionary frustrated hero"", Morning's a wrong-and-hard-headed romantic, a ""revolutionary, a destroyer, a reacher for all or nothing for anyone."" Both are lashed by guilt and the civilized knowledge of the innate violence they contain or cannot contain. There are remarkable set scenes: in the bars and barrios; in the barracks where they stage a mutiny against the impossible Lt. Dottlinger after breaking up a case of cokes: and of the Good Friday mock burial of Joe Morning where they intone the old Army Prayer -- ""Fuck 'em all but nine/ Six for pallbearers, Two for roadguards/ And one to count cadence."" And then there's Krummel still counting cadence after his bit in the war and never managing to get the memory of Morning off his back or out of mind. . . Warriors, redeemers, innocents, idealists, clowns and cowboys that ride at midnight -- a gutting, eloquent first novel with an insistence you won't, you just can't evade.

Pub Date: Sept. 17, 1969

ISBN: 0394735595

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1969

Categories: FICTION