One grunts perspective,
By Kenneth Howe – February 22, 2012

There was a TV show years ago ( Naked City ) with a tag line of “There are eight million stories in the Naked City… this has been one of them.”
The same can be said about the Vietnam war and the novel “CHERRIES” is one of them.

I have to date read over 24 books related to the Vietnam war, a few I have kept to read again, this is one of them.

It was written in a style that is easy to read ( in other words, written as a grunt lived it )You will not find great lines of pose & poetry but you will find real emotion ( and how it was dealt with). It was one grunts freshmen year at the University of South Vietnam. For any grunt to take that journey back in time is the most difficult journey of all,,,, why ? Because the outcome is already known. John has nailed it from the first page. There is a special “Bond/respect ” that all grunts have with each other. It peaks and is strongest with those you fought with,( a brotherhood ) it is stronger then mother/child, father/son, you will see that in this book. The life of a grunt in Nam was like playing ” Russian Roulette ” each of those 365 days. I am a combat wounded grunt of the University of Viet Nam and when asked why I have read so many books about Nam , my answer is – self help/healing, S&M-? and a quest to find out what happened outside my squad, platoon, & company I belonged to. I am sure the author of Cherries found healing in writing this book. John gave me an insight into one more of those eight million stories , thank you ! And if I am ever asked what book closely resembles my year in Nam , I will say “Cherries “

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