Philip Caputo (1941–2026)

Update: 26 April 2019: Having reread this, I think it appropriate to upgrade it a bit. Why? The imagery over the past nine or ten months has remained strong. The novel has a presence that outweighs the tortured tough guy talk. Still, the Vietnam portion is far better than the Lebanese one. Caputo has created a startlingly unsympathetic character in Nick Delcorso.
================

Original Review:

Despite the impact and immediacy of his Vietnam memoir, A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo is at best a show more mediocre novelist. Delcorso's Gallerly exemplifies all his weaknesses. It's filled with trite tough guy talk and clunky, awkward attempts at hardboiled similes that make Mickey Spillane sound like Shakespeare. Nor does the form of the novel redeem the story. The first part, set in 1975, describes the fall of Saigon and the final days of the Vietnam War. Part two, then, after mirroring the first part's focus on Delcorso's trouble-filled marriage, then alights in Beirut for the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War in 1976. The separation is ragged and unsatisfying. The reader needs to reset once again, after being virtually cut off from any resolution of events in Saigon.

The portions of the novel devoted to Delcorso's relationship with his wife, Maggie, are particularly hard to take. They are shallow and cliched. More than anything else, they disrupt the flow of the story. Not to mention, it is often in these passages that Delcorso fantasizes about his dead-end career as a boxer. Throughout the book, all I could think of is Marlon Brando and On the Waterfront. So it was no surprise when Caputo pulled out a reference to the film and its most famous lines, "I couldda been a contender." It's one thing to see this imagery continually plastered over the face of Delcorso from the very beginning of the story. But it's hamfisted when the author feels so insecure that he needs to spell it out to the reader specifically.

I suppose that is the weakness of this novel. Its insistence on "truth," in the end, becomes a preachy sort of literalism that leaves little room for the reader's imagination, something that is much needed, because Caputo does an especially poor job of establishing a sense of fictional space. Whether in Saigon, New York City, or Beirut, there is no atmosphere but the one mainly wrapping itself around Delcorso's inner mindscape.

One thing Caputo does do well is capture the tone and feeling of the decade in which the book was written, the 1980s, and not when it was set, in the 1970s. Caputo himself had helped usher in the subgenre of Vietnam War literature. And you can feel the spirit of the times flow through the pages. The simultaneous need for redemption and the utter distrust of the folly that sent Americans to the Southeast Asia to fight an unwinnable war--at least as Caputo sees it. The novel is a masterpiece of revealed cynicism that is even cynical about its own cynicism.

Finally, it is worth comparing Delcorso's Gallery with Christopher Koch's Highways to a War. Both novels have as their main protagonist a war photographer caught up in Saigon in the closing days of the war. And both use multiple perspectives from other war photographers and correspondents to tell part of the story. They also plop their heroes down into another civil war immediately after the fall of Saigon. And, finally, both main protagonists suffer similar fates at books' ends. The difference is that Koch's work is an underrated and largely unknown literary masterpiece of this genre. His sweep and scope is epic. And his sense of setting and atmosphere is so sensual and overwhelming that readers feel they are in Southeast Asia or Tasmania. It is a vast journey of physical, psychological, and moral travails. It's everything that Caputo tried but failed to do in Delcorso's Gallery, although it should be noted that Delcorso's Gallery was first published in 1983, some twelve years before Highways to a War. So, if there is any direct influence or connection, it would be Delcorso's Gallery on Hgihways to a War, not the other way around. show less

I think I have read this back in the eighties; but I am not sure. But reading it [again] was no hardship. This is certainly one of the masterpieces to emerge from the Vietnam War. The core of the book takes place in the early days of the war, when the US troops move from advisors to combatants. It tells simply and clearly of the horror and fascination of war through the eyes of a naive junior officer. The writing style is very clear and uncluttered and, although I often shuddered, I enjoyed show more the read. The story is in the core of the book, but I urge everyone to read the prologue and the epilogue. These are brillantly set out thoughts on why the US were there in the first place [despite the French experience and the massive corruption] and then why it all went wrong. As I said a masterpiece! show less

Crossers pulls virtually every complicated issue plaguing the U.S.-Mexican border, populates it with richly-drawn, complicated characters, and adds a running history lesson that contextualizes how and why the culture of the border has wound up in the state that it is today. The denouement is stunning, and like any on the border, bloody, horrific and sad. I stayed up late getting there.

“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.”

So speaks Escalus, a character in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, a play that tackles the subjects of justice and mercy, yet also addressees the abuse of power by those tasked with protecting the public. So, it should be no surprise that Philip Caputo’s first novel in eight years borrows more than just its title from the bard.

Set in the fictional north Mexico town of San Patricio trapped in a war between narco-traffickers and the show more Mexican army and federal police, Some Rise by Sin has a diverse cast of characters. American priest Timothy Reardon is torn by a classic dilemma, to abide by his promise to the church and maintain the sanctity of the confessional or tell what he knows and possibly end a reign of bloodshed that has beset his parish. Expatriate Lisette Moreno’s goal of making a difference by serving as the only doctor in San Patricio and the surrounding indigenous mountain villages is challenged by a stormy relationship with her artist lover Pamela Childress. Capitán Alberto Valencia is an elite paratrooper with an Ahab-like obsession as malignant as the criminals he pursues and an unsettling dislike of the church. Working with Valencia is the mysterious Professor, who has worked with everyone from the DEA to the cartels, often at the same times.

Some reviewers have found this story too violent. It is a violent story but, sadly, it is pretty mild compared to what actually happens in areas caught between warring cartels and where the police, in most cases, have had to choose between plata o plomo (silver or lead). Even so, Caputo has done a marvelous job of describing life in Mexico, a beautiful, sorrowful, blood-spotted country’ where no one is neutral.

Bottom line: It has been a long time since I have read one of Philip Caputo’s books but I quickly remembered why I enjoyed them so much. He has a marvelous ability to suck you in and make you believe that you are in San Patricio and the sense of danger is closing in. I highly recommend this book.

*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star – The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire. show less