The Names of the Dead

It's been awhile since I've read a Vietnam War novel and so Stewart O'Nan's The Names of the Dead felt disorienting and anachronistic at first. I was having flashbacks to the 80s when it seemed like every book was about the war, and this book, with a 1996 pub date was even a little late to the party. It had also been awhile since I'd read such a creepy book that was not billed as a thriller/mystery.

Larry Markham is minding his own business in 1982 upstate NY, failing his marriage, working a simple, dull job (Wonder Bread delivery driver! Nice 70s/80s touch), and facilitating a disabled veterans support group. The group doesn't feel too cliched, which is either a credit to O'Nan's writing or a result of my hiatus from such books. I liked that every story the members tell, is given shorthand to the reader: "It was a rat story" or "it was a tiger story," as if all war stories are the same, and these guys have heard it all, are almost making them up at this point.

One day there's a new guy, Creeley, in the group--briefly and angrily--and the next day the guy's stalking Larry with a vengeance that of course ties in to Larry's year (1968) in Vietnam. But this is no neat and tidy revenge story. The lack of true explanation for Creeley's methodical circling is a metaphor for the Vietnam War. We get Larry's stories that he never shares with group, his father, or his wife, but it barely makes us know him more. He's forever marked by his 11 months in Vietnam, but it doesn't explain him. We don't really know enough about Creeley, but we imagine the creeping fear of being hunted by him.

The intersection of Larry's year in Vietnam and glimpses of his current life doesn't work as a perfect metaphor, but I do like that as a new recruit, Larry just kind of goes along and is clearly just learning the ropes. Sure, people die, but the living are still a tight squad. Then almost suddenly, things change. About the time Larry gets back from his leave (and his mother's funeral) all hell is breaking loose. The war becomes like a mudslide for him as the deaths of his fellow soldiers come in rapid succesion until Larry is the last one standing.

At home, in 1982, Larry's just going along with his life and then the problems start to pile up. Is Creeley the root of it all? Or is that just how life goes? Sometimes problems pile up, even if your not being stalked by a psycho Vet you don't know or don't remember. (Larry's therapy group is particularly incensed by Creeley because they feel he gives them all a bad name. This is a nice touch, allowing O'Nan to write about the psycho vet without seeming cliched.)

O'Nan's writing was, as always, great. He seems simply to be capturing life in his books. This one just happens to have the drama/trauma of a messy war as its backdrop. I kind of wanted more closure at the end. Yeah, yeah, Larry goes to the newly constructed Wall in Washington, but I wanted Larry's life to be resolved. I guess that's not how the Vietnam War or a good writer works.

addendum: I'm continuing my race into the past by reading Edna O'Brien's House of Splendid Isolation, another early 90s book about troubles of the 70s/80s (Ireland, this time).