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)

Love It

I truly enjoyed this story because it brought to life of soldiers in battle. Thanks

Great action but sad (on many levels)

The story opens in 1968/69 in NW Vietnam near the Laotian border and primarily follows the story of a Marine lieutenant in bravo company from his first days in the bush until he becomes a seasoned jungle fighter and leader of men. While the story is primarily about this lieutenant, the perspective shifts around to various enlisted men, officers, and executive officers. Bravo company faces especially hard conditions and many die and the rest try to survive. The action begins almost immediately and the book is a true page turner until the last few chapters where it bogs down and loses excitement and momentum. The end left me feeling unsatisfied.

While some books focus on the story and don’t have much of a message, this book is the opposite - it is almost all message - sometimes at the expense of the story. The message, as I could make it out, is something along the lines of that

we are living in a world of opposites – us/them. It is everywhere you look and you can’t escape it. You must choose sides but the thing is - your side is largely decided for you already by luck and circumstance. Its how you respond to this that matters – in the end your good is someone else’s bad and vice versa. By the way, its not just the Vietnamese I am talking about here. There is conflict everywhere in almost everything we do that involves someone else.

I found this book to be a bit of a downer. It drew the curtain back exposing the futility of our fleeting lives and made me sad. I did learn a lot about the Vietnam war and something about the human condition.

On another note, Bronson Pinchot is one of the best narrators I have ever heard. I love the books he reads. He did a wonderful job with the performance here - a performance that required a ton of different dialects and emotions .

FABULOUS!

FABULOUS. I cannot express enough how great this book is. It's an EXPERIENCE. Listened 3 times now, and each listen I discover something new.
It's not political, so much as it just plays out in a way that you can make your own decisions, and your own conclusions.
As far as books in the war, it's up there with BAND OF BROTHERS, FORGOTTEN SOLDIER, and TEARS IN THE DARKNESS.

Wow! This will exceed your wildest expectations.

Everything about this book is best in class. I’ve read and listened to well over a hundred books covering WW2, Vietnam, and the war on terror. This is without a doubt in the top ten. I’m underselling how good this is. You won’t regret this listen.

The details of war on the individual soldiers that do the actual fighting

An excellent window into the collective impact of a front line soldier’s personal journeys! An effective sharing of the incredible ugliness!

Excellent

This audiobook was full, immersive, emotional, and offered me a great interpretation of the war. Very well done by both author and narrator!

This Hits You

What did you love best about Matterhorn?

Lots of depth of characters. This book is riveting. It is so painful and gut wrenching. Almost too much!

What other book might you compare Matterhorn to and why?

A Game of Thrones. In Vietnam. With less mental chess but way more gut wrenching tragedy.

If you could take any character from Matterhorn out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Jackson, because he's honest.

Wow.

AMAZING narrator and great story telling. It was my first time listening to a book this long, and I gotta admit, I was intimidated and wondered if I would ever make it through as I was buying it. But man, as I was listening it felt as if it flew by. I didn't want the book to end!

There were funny moments, sad moments, and angry moments. I felt for those young Marines as if I was one of them in the bush. To make it better, I felt as if there was more than one narrator at times because he was so great at changing his voice up but in a way that wasn't distracting or annoying. When taking on a book this long, it is really a pleasure.

Definitely put the Vietnam war and some of those social issues such as the civil rights in a whole other perspective for me. I'm glad I listened to this and would definitely recommend it to those of you who also plan on joining the Marines, want to gain insight, or simply love an entertaining story.

Held my breath

I loved this book. I walk in the mountains while I listen to audio books and I have to admit that there were times I felt I was in this book. The narrator was great but unobtrusive.

I don't listen to many war stories, but when I do

It's Matterhorn.

Tired of always hearing, reading and seeing the american hippy anti war stuff,
I wanted to know more about the Vietnam war, it's not something that was ever talked about
in school. The people I knew that had served in that war would never talk about it.

When I was a teen I was at my grandparents house and a huey military chopper was flying over head my Grandfather pointed up at it and said "I was a gunner on one of those helicopters, during vietnam" A few years latter when gun laws changed he pulled out his M4
Garand to clean it and found a somewhere to sell it, as it was no longer legal for him to have it. He was always a quiet man, said very little.

A few years back I met another Vietnam vet, I found out that they started out using the M4 Garand at the start of the war and switched to the M 16 that we know and use today. The M 16 that was originally issued someone in the military decided to have the bolts painted black
to save costs the specs called for the bolts to be chromed. Some of the Marines kept thier
M4's along with the newly issued M16. This person that I met along with some of his platoon
kept their M4's and carried the M16 the bolts on this M16 were good for jamming and being difficult to fix. This person I spoke to lost most of his platoon due to this, the only people that were able to fight back had the M4's with them.

I have to say that Matterhorn has helped me understand my Grandfathers silence, and why some of these vet's are the way they are.