A KIND OF REDEMPTION

Eleven stories—uneven, but some with an original perspective- -that concern the Vietnam War and its aftermath for a college- educated vet who becomes a professor. Timothy Grote and other protagonists as well have been ``snatched from the war at the last minute'' to work in personnel and to train as translators. In the title story, Sharpe compares this process to his father's WW II experience, when his father was driven the length of the Bataan Peninsula. A credible working-class patriotism is contrasted here to the confusion of the younger generation. Meanwhile, ``Freedom Bird'' manages to convey the surreal ambiguity faced by Simmons in Vietnam when he learns his father has been killed in a traffic accident, a death that buys the soldier a one-way ticket home. The story isn't much more than a sketch, but it works its limited terrain well. By contrast, ``The Colonial'' is a well-plotted piece about a translator with a ``knack for language'' who is forced to shoot a Vietnamese garbage- collector and gets a Bronze Star, but then must be transferred for his own protection. Of the several Vietnam-related stories concerning Grote, a former Peace Corps volunteer in the West Indies, ``Welcome to the Hothouse'' charts his arrival in Vietnam; ``Pringle's Moratorium'' deals with his training back in the States; and ``Grote Apart'' documents his post-traumatic stress, his drinking, the deterioration of his marriage, and his state of mind: ``The things that did happen when he was in Vietnam are far less interesting than the things that might have happened.'' A few sharpshooters here and several solid hits—all deserving inclusion in Vietnam collections.