Dog Soldiers

Rating:
Summary: Dog Soldiers
Review: I felt that this book was an in-depth look on the crime and corruption in America in the 1970's during the Vietnam War. This book was about a drug deal gone very wrong because the main character, John Converse, was very inexperienced and wanted to deal drugs for the thrill of it. He gets a friend, Ray Hicks, who is in love with Converse's wife, to transport the three kilos of heroine from Vietnam to the US where Converse's wife, Marge, is supposed to take care of it. Unfortunately, the woman Converse was having an affair with and who he got the heroine from, Charmian, tipped off a CIA agent, Antheil. That led to Ray Hicks and Marge running away to New Mexico where Ray Hicks' insanity starts appearing as he gets very possessive over the heroine. All the characters and continuous switching of points of views from Converse to Ray and Marge made this book a little hard to understand at times. The explicit sex scene seemed a little unnecessary as did some of the "getting high" scenes in the book but overall, I think the author, Robert Stone, did a good job of representing the underground workings of the U.S. during the Vietnam war in the 1970's. He did an extremely good job with the dialogue when the characters were high. I could really get involved in what was going on because I felt as if everything was really happening. Dieter, a friend of Ray Hicks, said a quote in the book that I really liked. I think it really sums up what these people in the book were feeling. "There's such a thing as personal necessity. Maybe it's beyond moral areas." These people were doing anything and everything to get money from the heroine and it shows how evil people could really be.

Rating:
Summary: The Darker Side of the 70s
Review: I first picked up this novel about fifteen years ago, after I'd seen the film adaptation of it-the strangely titled "Who'll Stop the Rain" with Nick Nolte and Michael Moriarty. I had never read any of Stone's work before, and I was absolutely blown away by this, his second novel and winner of the National Book Award. The story of drug smugglers in the waning days of Vietnam, the novel owes much to American Naturalism (Stone has been compared to Conrad, but I think Jack London and Stephen Crane are closer), but filtered through the post-war sensibility of Ken Kesey or even Hunter S. Thomson. Fast-paced and utterly plausible, the narrative ranges from the shadowy cafes of war-time Hanoi to the lawless valleys of the American southwest. Throughout, Stone describes the varying landscapes of moral corruption with equal vividness and intelligence. For my money, "Dog Soldiers" is the best novel of the 70s, and yet it still seems completely contemporary today. I re-read it every few years and always discover something new.

Rating:
Summary: A great American novel
Review: I first read "Dog Soldiers" when I was a teenager and was deeply impressed by it. But judging from the reviews here this is a book that you will either love or hate with no in between. So be it. Stone is probably out of reach of most mainstream readers. The only bad thing I have to say about Stone is that he sold the film rights of "Dog Soldiers" to the wrong people. It was made into a very terrible movie called "Who'll Stop the Rain" starring the highly overrated Nick Nolte.

Rating:
Summary: A great American novel
Review: I first read "Dog Soldiers" when I was a teenager and was deeply impressed by it. But judging from the reviews here this is a book that you will either love or hate with no in between. So be it. Stone is probably out of reach of most mainstream readers. The only bad thing I have to say about Stone is that he sold the film rights of "Dog Soldiers" to the wrong people. It was made into a very terrible movie called "Who'll Stop the Rain" starring the highly overrated Nick Nolte.

Rating:
Summary: Unable to Understand
Review: I found this book very hard to understand. There are a lot of characters most of which are in one scene and didn't have much significence to the story. Throughout the book I only understood about five sections. The author used words about drugs that I couldn't understand, I didn't know what a "fever" was or "getting off." Many of these words I have never heard before. Each scene of the book was short and insignificant. The author bounced from scene to scene making it difficult to use information from one, very short, scene to the next. In the end of the book you realize there are only three important people and all the rest were fill in's to add to your confusion. I had to read this book for a school project and found it boring and frustrating. It is hard to have to read a book you don't understand.

Rating:
Summary: Good, hard-bolied thriller; not to be taken seriously!
Review: I got a BIG kick out of this book which, I suppose, is indeed intended to be social commentary of some kind. Whether you buy into that angle or not it's an engrossing thriller about a lost generation, a group of people drifting completely without any moral anchor and the inevitable results. Although vaguely anti- establishment in tone the story is really deeply anti- counterculture! Definitely nihilistic, which is not for everyone!

Rating:
Summary: Riveting and Real
Review: I had never heard of Robert Stone when I picked up an old paperback printing of this novel at a flea market. Reading it blew me away. If you're an ex-soldier (or marine) who had more than passing contact with the drug/criminal underworld of the 70's (hhmmm - guess I'm in that category) I predict that you will recognize every character and it will blow you away, too. Without belaboring all the points made in previous reviews, I agree with those made by MacInnes, Rampageous Cuss, and Sam Mills. Yes, this novel is a "trip in time for those who experienced it", but it is also enlightening and thought provoking on multiple levels.

Rating:
Summary: This won the national book award?
Review: I may be completely missing the point of this novel, but I found it to be completely devoid of any coherent observations of any culture or "counter-culture" or, for that matter, anything beyond the method the protagonists used to get high on each different page. I might have been able to give this book a higher rating, despite its lack of commentary, social or otherwise, were it not for the fact that plot dragged along slowly, causing me to wonder if it would ever end... Perhaps this novel would have been better off at the novella length, perhaps not. I have the utmost repsect for Robert Stone and have, in fact, thoroughly enjoyed A Hall of Mirrors and Children of Light, but I seem truly to have missed the point of Dog Soldier

Rating:
Summary: It had it's ups and downs
Review: I read the book Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone. The book is about two men named John Converse and Ray Hicks who are dealing drugs, sleeping wiht women and sneaking around from the cops. I thought that the book was pretty interesting. It had it's ups and downs. Some parts of the book lost my attention and I got very confused at times. I had to read a few parts a couple of times. I did understand a few of the parts. My favorite part was when Ray Hicks and Marge Converse (John Converses wife) were hiding out, and the cops found them, and tehre was a fight. Ray and Marge had to run adn get out of there. This book had some good parts and some bad but overall it was a pretty good book.

Rating:
Summary: It had it's ups and downs
Review: I read the book Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone. The book is about two men named John Converse and Ray Hicks who are dealing drugs, sleeping with women and sneaking around from the cops. I thought that the book was pretty interesting. It had it's ups and downs. Some parts of the book lost my attention and I got very confused at times. I had to read a few parts a couple of times. Some parts were unclear and made no sense. I did understand a few of the parts. My favorite part was when Ray Hicks and Marge Converse (John Converses wife) were hiding out, and the cops found them, and there was a fight. Ray and Marge had to run and get out of there. I usually don't read these types of books but, this book had some good parts and some bad but overall it was a pretty good book.