Matterhorn

A Novel of the Vietnam War

By: Karl Marlantes

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 21 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

An incredible publishing story—written over the course of thirty years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, a New York Times bestseller for sixteen weeks, a National Indie Next, and a USA Today bestseller—Matterhorn has been hailed as a "brilliant account of war" (New York Times Book Review).

Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones' The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever.

Matterhorn is a visceral and spellbinding novel about what it is like to be a young man at war. It is an unforgettable story that transforms the tragedy of Vietnam into a powerful and universal story of courage, camaraderie, and sacrifice—a parable not only of the war in Vietnam but of all war, and a testament to the redemptive power of literature.

A bonus PDF is included, with maps, a Chain of Command hierarchy, a glossary, and other interesting facts and information.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2010 Karl Marlantes (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“ Matterhorn is one of the most powerful and moving novels about combat, the Vietnam War, and war in general that I have ever read.” (Dan Rather)

“Brings a long, torturous war back to life with realistic characters and authentic, thrilling combat sequences.” ( Publishers Weekly)

“Unforgettable.… A beautifully crafted novel of unrivaled authenticity and power, filled with jungle heroism, crackerjack inventiveness, mud, blood, brotherhood, hatred, healing, terror, bureaucracy, politics, unfathomable waste, and unfathomable love." (Christina Robb, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist)

A good novel from a dark time in history

This was a captivating story from a troubled time in American history. the author did a good job making you feel the misery of war. it showed the troubled times of ratial problems. It also showed the way that the United States military tried to fight a war with very little leadership. it gave me an idea of what changed the friend's I had that came back from Vietnam as different people. I enjoyed the narrator a lot. His reading brought humour to the book.

RAW

An awakening of the desperation, power, hopelessness and hope of the Vietnam War. I understand why our soldiers were broken when they returned!

Amazing storytelling of Vietnam experience

The narrator was superb in his rendering of each characters perspective. Loved the focus on each person’s outlook in the moment, struggling with “office politics,” and bonding in a dynamic environment. Appreciate how the story was apolitical while also conveying the social strife happening in the States affected grunts in the field of battle.

Awesome narrator, awesome story

The book is very well written but Bronson brings it like no other narrator I’ve listened to.

Draft number 17

I was tied to my audible in ways that were way to familiar. Great listen but be ware of potential bad memories

Favorite

New favorite fiction book. Outstanding detail and a look into the life of a Marine Infantry Officer.

Excellent!

I drug my feet about listening to this one. Nam isn't exactly something fun to remember. However, once I started listening, I couldn't stop. The writing is excellent and narration is spot on.
After so much has been written about Nam, it's hard to believe one more book could add so much to understanding. History and military buffs will enjoy this book

A realistic war story

Matterhorn portrays a very realistic view of the war and is a bit different from other Vietnam books. The futility of war is clear in this story, like all wars there is the appearance of the waste of life and equipment fighting to gain a hill etc only to be yanked out and sent elsewhere. I would have preferred less foul language but it was probably what the grunt sounded like at the time. I enjoyed the self discussion the grunts had with themselves about life and death. There are poor officer in any military outfit and Mariantes did an excellent job of presenting a few of the various types but there are a lot of excellent dedicated officers as well and I wished Mariantes had included more of them. The daily struggle of the grunt dealing with filth, leaches, jungle rot was written in a graphic way. The problem with race, Mariantes described during the Vietnam is an area I hope we have improved on over the years. Over all it is a book all politics should read before sending young men to war.

Exhilarating, eyeopening, heartbreaking

Mr. Marlantes managed to drop the reader/listener into the story almost immediately, bringing the Vietnam War back to life in an instant. He manages to draw characters so convincingly that everyone seems like they could be the hero/villain of the story all by themselves, and there are many of them. I think what I like most about the book is that it's not just one man's story, but the story of an entire company, and it feels like it.

Matterhorn will rope you in with well-placed humor, stories of social conflict and graphic descriptions of war, and just when you think you completely fell in love with the book and the story told, he will break your heart. And again, and again.

Mr. Pinchot does an excellent job as a reader, making it seem like he speaks from the jungle himself, convincingly conveying the nuances of the story. His intonation is so well done that one can recognize the dozen or so individual characters through his inflection alone, without stereo-typically over-doing it.

One of my favorite purchases of all time. I couldn't put my earphones down, going as far as picking up extra chores around the house so that I could listen to it just a little bit longer (I guess my wife endorses the book, as well). It's a must-buy.

A great work of Historical fiction

Though, I was never a grunt in the jungles of Vietnam, I think Marlantes does an excellent job of capturing the mindset of the young Marines who fought the war. The author is a great story teller and you quickly become emotionally invested in the lives and interpersonal relationship of these young men fighting a man's war and the duty, honor, and sacrifices that the fight entailed. The author has a tendency at times to become slightly preachy about the absurdities of a war fought by politicians in Washington, but you still believe that the thoughts are those of the protagonist and his compatriots. All in all a great book and it made me go searching for other Marlantes writings.

Audio: I thing the narrator did a stellar job. This sort of story doesn't tend to lend itself to audio, but the narrator did an excellent job.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in history or war, or the Vietnam war in particular.