WHICH ONES ARE THE ENEMY?

Riche, ""just plain Riche like in son-of-a bitch"", tells his story in lowest class English which is here a versatile and vital idiom. From a meaningless DSC after a gutting experience in Korea (the title allusion), Riche goes on to a permanent career of fixing, spends too much time in ""lousy outfits and lousy jails"", and while figuring all the odds- still does not come out ahead. Now in Trieste he sets up in business (drugs stolen from the Army hospital) and housekeeping, with Angela, a native product. Angela too is a chronic loser and she has a ragged past. From the pleasures of the bed, their relationship becomes stronger; they fall in love; and now that Riche has something to lose- he is for the first time really vulnerable and the disastrous consequences are both foreseeable and unforgettable... Mr. Garrett, a savage and powerful writer, handles what may seem like unpromising material- from a popular point of view- admirably and implacably, so that the reader once committed to follow their story will also be moved by it.