Nam-A-Rama

by Phillip Jennings

Everybody knows War is Hell. Only the Few and the Proud know what fun Hell can be.

Here it is, "How the cow ate the cabbage" in the CLASSIFIED words of the President hisself [sic]. TOP SECRET stuff. EYES ONLY. If you want to know the real story (and you know you do)-

Nam-A-Rama is Catch 22 meets "Apocalypse Now." It's the wildest, wackiest, saddest and truest war story ever told, because it's all made-up, which means it's all real-from the oatmeal dropped on the VC (the Marines won't eat it) to the naked movie star parachuting into Hanoi; from the jarhead who calls in air strikes from a Bangkok brothel to the "Sky-Kyke" who fills out the Marine Corps' diversity quota; from the businessmen demanding a long inventory-reducing war to the Pentagon brass hoping for a glorious medal-worthy one; from the locals who'll do anything for a Yankee dollar to the grunts nobody ever asked and never will.

It starts and ends, like all the best adventures, in the air. Almost-Captain Gearheardt and his buddy, Almost-Captain Armstrong, are ferrying bodies (live in, dead out) for the CIA's Air America, but they have never forgotten their TOP SECRET orders, given when Gearheardt was delivering pizzas to the Oval Office for the Chopper into Hanoi and buy Uncle Ho a beer. Then either shoot his ass or shake his hand (the instructions get vague at this point).

And so they do, Semper Fi, pausing only to get an aircraft carrier black-flagged for bubonic plague, have an affair with Mickey Mouse, cleverly decode the message sewn into a lusty spy's black panties, commandeer a Russian truck complete with a midget Chinese 'Uncle Sam,' avenge themselves on a Cuban torturer, and dutifully experience all the Honor and Glory of the next-to-the-next-to-last war that never (God forbid) made the Nightly News.

And they do it all for laughs. Because if they were to stop laughing, where would the heartache end?

Phillip Jennings' unpredictable novel of Vietnam is an American classic in the making, a not-so-longing look at the absurdity of a war in which the damned and the innocent share the same hootch, the same Commander-in-Chief, and sometimes even the same body-bag. You won't stop laughing, or thinking.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, War

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 6, 2003

About the author

Aspiring cynic.

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 1 out of 5]

This satire satirizes the wrong thing. Overall, it's quite lame, not subversive, which made it tepid enough for a commercial press to take it. Unlike Twain's "War Prayer" or "Dr. Strangelove," which debunk warmongering, this work--and you wouldn't expect this from the title--never gets to the heart of the problem. It celebrates, as the Afterwards states, the work of Marines in Vietnam. If Vietnam was the result of political manuevering, and an absurd war, then in what way were those who fought it so "heroic"? They weren't. They put themselves on the same level--wood and stone--that Thoreau speaks of "Civil Disobedience." They weren't "men," but mere "subjects." Indeed much of the work was funny, but the overall message is really disheartening, and more fuel for more wars, such as the present one which is fought for big monied interests.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phillip Jennings is about as subtle as a (wait for it...) hand grenade at times. And yes, he was clearly influenced by Joseph Heller, as many reviews of Nam-A-Rama have pointed out. But that's an easy, somewhat lazy comparison that doesn't do justice to this future-classic satire. It's more like an amalgamation of influences, as if Heller, Monty Python, Lyndon Johnson, Dr. Strangelove, Vonnegut, Jimmy Bond, Robert McNamara, Richard Simmons, William Westmoreland, one of Mickey Mouse's nightmares and On Golden Pond were put in a Cuisinart with a bottle of Scotch and a little bit of Hunter S. Thompson's blood, God Rest His Soul. (You don't have to be drunk to love this book, but you may have to be drunk to get it.) It is quite possibly the only book that will ever make you wish Morrissey had been a Marine commandant. Yeah, it's a little over the top at points. But wasn't the Vietnam War? This is a world where the president sends the CIA's pizza delivery boy (you will fall in love with him) on a secret mission that has something to do with Jane Fonda and ending a war the president just started. (I've read Dallek, I've read Caro, I've even read Beschloss. All fine historians. But Jennings has written the finest printed representation of Lyndon Baines Johnson I've ever read.) It's a world where therapy comes with blowjobs. One expects, at any moment, Slim Pickens, straddling an atomic bomb, to part the sky, hee-hawing at the top of his lungs, swatting his cowboy hat at his ass, only to land in the middle of Danang. This novel isn't discriminating in its targets, and everyone and everything from Big Business to the Great Society to southern racism is skewered at some point. But for every discomfort, there's a laugh, and through it all, as with all great satire, a truth that makes the absurdity almost plausible. If Gary winds up as Director of Central Intelligence in the sequel, then Gearheardt's version of the CIA will officially be at least as plausible as the CIA we have in reality. What's remarkable about this book is how prescient, whether intentional or not, it really is. Joseph Heller wrote Catch-22 ostensibly about WWII, a war he fought in, but later claimed it was really about Vietnam. Myself, try as I might, I've never been able to figure out what Vietnam was really about. All I know for sure is that from a literary point of view, whether history repeats itself or not, it certainly piles the hell up. And I'm not 100% sure I know what Nam-A-Rama is about. But it is hilarious, and probably truer than any of us would like to admit. Somewhere in all this, there's a Shirley Bassey song. Anyway, Nixon's not in yet, and we've got a war to fix.

NC

[Larry Bassett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just now finished reading Nam-A-Rama and, like Martha*, have a lot to say. But I think I will leave it to damning with faint praise.

The last page of the book after the Epilogue has a quote from John Stuart Mill that begins "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse." Well, welcome to my world of decayed moral feelings.

I am a pacifist and not known for my sense of humor. This book has some humor, some would say it has a lot of humor. I am not sure that it is right to make satiric humor out of something as ugly as a war. When I was laughing inside my head (OK, once out loud) I wondered at whose expense I was laughing. I don't think it is right to laugh at the real people who fight our wars. (Most agree that the economic and educational "exemptions" to the draft made many of those who died in Vietnam a part of a limited segment of our country. White people of means with a formal education do not go to war or to the death chamber.)

Assigning the stars and the recommendations for this book are hard things for me. I really wouldn't recommend this book to anyone because I really don't see what it adds to anyone's life. And it will not be a book that I will treasure or even keep on my bookshelf. I should go read Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse 5 again just to make my own comparisons.

I was glad enough to have read the book to give it 2 stars but didn't find it stirring or humorous enough to give it three stars. I finished it because that is what I try to do with all books: finish them to give the experience of the entire book. I have been doing a lot of war related books recently so, from what I read in advance about the book I thought Nam-A-Rama had a balancing potential. But I do think that the title alone should warn most people off.

*from the PBS show Martha Speaks

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Jennings’ Goodbye Mexico first (even though it is the sequel to this one). Despite wishing that I had read the books in the proper order, I found them both enjoyable as standalone stories. I guess Nam-a-Rama (which, btw, is a great title and fun to chant over and over) is somewhat of an homage to Catch-22. I don’t know anything about that. I tried to read Catch-22 years ago and lost interest in the story. Nam-a-Rama, though, kept my attention all of the way through. As I have come to expect from Jennings, he doses this Viet Nam War story with loads of absurdity – from naked-parachuting-movie stars, to Chinese midgets dressed like Uncle Sam, to a hard-partying Ho Chi Mihn. And while I loved the absurd aspect of the tale, I also found the combat scenes to be extremely well written. They say to write what you know. And for Philip Jennings – a Vietnam vet helicopter pilot – such advice proves its worth. Nam-a-Rama has a nice balance of twisted humor, absurdity, and action. Start with this one and follow up with Goodbye Mexico.

[Carole Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a DNF many moons ago. I legit only got to page 25 before I solemnly put it down and walked away. I wanted to like this. I love funny and I love military novels. So what could go wrong with blending the two? So, now that I am older and wiser, I decided to give this book another chance.

Annnnnnnnnnnnd......

No. The only difference is that I finished the book...after lots of skimming.

So...this story is about some dudes during the Vietnam War and their "adventures". Gear and Arm are two guys who have been dragged to war in crazy ways. They are given a top secret mission for the president.

SPEAKING OF WHICH. I wanted to punch the man in the face. OH MY GOD. I may not have liked the president during this time period, but in real life he was not that weasel-y, annoying, or dumb. I get what the author was trying to do. Sure. But it was not funny at all, it was more annoying.

Anyways....but yes, these fellas are on an adventure to accomplish this secret mission. The craziest things happened. Yes, I laughed a few times, but the rest was over-the-top and made me roll my eyes. I love slap-stick funny, but this was annoying.

The only silver-lining of this book was 3/4th to the end. It was good. There was some meaning there among the craziness.

The rest of the book was meh. An "eh that was kinda funny" at best. Bummer. Maybe if I had served in the war during this time, I would have liked it better? I'm not sure, but...not for me. I'm so sad!!!! I wanted to like this book. Out of five, I shall give this....2. The ending gave it a star.

[Ben Thurley · Rating 2 out of 5]

War, they say, is hell. But so too is writing a blackly comic novel about war in the shadow of Catch-22. Nam-A-Rama isn't subtle, it isn't sly, and it isn't as funny as it thinks it is. Can't hold a candle (or a phosphorus grenade) to Joseph Heller.

[peg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author has let out all the stops and takes the reader on a hilarious satirical romp through Viet Nam during a time when nobody was laughing.The story is laugh-out-loud funny and contains stuff the CIA never told us but,as in all good satire,sobering truths are nestled between the lines.Great read. Now it's on to Mexico!

That CIA pizza delivery boy takes the cake!

[Mary Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Joseph Heller and Hunter S. Thompson had a literary lovechild raised on military rations and black humor, it would be Nam-A-Rama. Phillip Jennings doesn't just satirize the Vietnam War he detonates it. Gearheardt and Armstrong are two of the most gloriously unhinged protagonists in American war fiction, careening through a conflict so absurd the only sane response is laughter. But Jennings is too smart a writer to let you laugh without flinching. Underneath every outrageous set piece is a genuine reckoning with what war cost and who pays. This book deserves to be taught alongside the classics it echoes.

[Stella Bradford · Rating 4 out of 5]

That line from the book's own description is the key to everything. Jenning himself a Marine veteran understands something profound: that fiction, when written by someone who lived the truth, can cut closer to bone than any documentary. The naked movie star parachuting into Hanoi, the air strike called from a Bangkok brothel, the spy's message sewn into black panties these aren't just comedy. They're dispatches from a war machine so chaotic and self-serving that only surrealism can contain it. Nam-A-Rama is a hall of mirrors where every distorted reflection is somehow more accurate than the original.

[Janet Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read The Things They Carried. I've read Matterhorn. I've seen Apocalypse Now more times than I can count. And still, Nam-A-Rama found angles on the Vietnam War I had never considered mostly because it approaches the whole catastrophe from the direction of pure, weaponized absurdity. The detail about the Marines refusing to eat oatmeal so it gets dropped on the Viet Cong is funnier than anything I've read in years. But the final pages landed on me like a sandbag. Jennings earns every moment of heartbreak because he made you laugh so hard first. Extraordinary.

[Anthony Ong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nam-A-Rama is angry. Not in a fist-pounding, lecture-you way in the sharper, more dangerous way of a writer who uses comedy as a scalpel. The businessmen wanting a long, inventory-reducing war. The Pentagon brass angling for medal-worthy glory. The grunts nobody asked and nobody will. Jennings skewers every layer of the machine with equal precision, and the cumulative effect is something close to devastating. This is a book that trusts its reader to hold laughter and grief simultaneously and rewards that trust completely. A true American original hiding in plain sight.

[Rudol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not laughed this hard at a book since I first read Catch-22, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. Phillip Jennings has written something genuinely wild, genuinely funny, and genuinely important. If you think war satire is a genre that peaked decades ago, Nam-A-Rama will correct that assumption immediately.

[Eden Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nam-A-Rama is what happens when a brilliant writer decides to tell the truth about war by making everything up. Every ridiculous scene in this book lands harder than a dozen earnest war memoirs because Jennings understands something most writers don't that absurdity is the most honest response to the genuinely absurd.

[Sonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book snuck up on me completely. I started it expecting a few cheap laughs and ended up stopping every other chapter to sit with something true and painful that Jennings had just slipped past my defenses disguised as a joke. That's masterful writing.

[Etta Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gearheardt and Armstrong are two of the most memorable characters I've encountered in years. Reckless, hilarious, surprisingly tender they carry this novel on their backs through some of the most absurd and heartbreaking situations I've ever read. I miss them already.

[Cecile Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've ever loved Catch-22, MAS*H, or Apocalypse Now, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Jennings belongs in that conversation, full stop. Nam-A-Rama is wickedly funny, sharply intelligent, and unexpectedly moving. It earns its place on that shelf.

[Gareth Felicity · Rating 5 out of 5]

The scene with the oatmeal dropped on the Viet Cong alone is worth the price of admission. But Jennings keeps delivering chapter after chapter of brilliantly constructed absurdity that never loses sight of the human cost underneath. A genuinely extraordinary novel.

[Bitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this on a long flight and was that person the one laughing out loud and disturbing everyone around them. Zero regrets. Nam-A-Rama is the most purely entertaining novel I've read in years, and it has more real things to say about war than most books that take themselves completely seriously.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Jennings has done here is almost impossible to explain without underselling it. The comedy is real. The satire is sharp. The sadness is genuine. And somehow all three coexist in every chapter without any of them undermining the others. This is a rare and remarkable book.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a high school history teacher and I've been looking for a novel that captures the insanity and tragedy of Vietnam in a way that will actually reach young readers. This is it. Nam-A-Rama is accessible, electrifying, and deeper than it first appears. Remarkable.

[Greg Bascom · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the novel opens, Gerard Gearheardt and Jack Armstrong air in Laos flying for the CIA. They feel remorse. Once they were almost captains in the Marines flying helicopter missions in Viet Nam, but they were demoted to Air America because they failed to execute secret orders from the President of the United States, Larry Bob Jones, which would have ended the war. They decide to return to Hanoi and confront Wiffenpoof, the British a la Cuban spy who sabotaged their mission. The novel then plunges into the lampooning back story of their misadventures in Viet Nam.

Understand that Gearheardt, as an orphan, was inducted into the CIA at an early age and happened to be delivering Pizza to the Oval Office when President Larry Bob was planning the Viet Nam war. (At the time Gearheardt was also a first lieutenant in the Marines and a helicopter pilot.) Having planned the war, thinking ahead, Larry Bob decides to end it by parachuting Barbonella stark naked into Hanoi. He knows Ho Chi Minh has the hots for Barbonella, an antiwar movie sex goddess, and she can end the war with an assist from two helicopter pilots with an as yet undisclosed secret plan. Gearheardt accepts the mission, enlists his friend Jack and the story gets really wacky.

Phillip Jennings was a Marine helicopter pilot in Nam and he also flew for Air America. His story brutally lampoons the hierarchy that planned the war, but evokes deep respect for the soldiers who fought it. There are deadly serious passages from a guy who was there. It is whacky, funny, irreverent and heartfelt.

[Donald Plugge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hill Air E Us. I brought this book to the beach not realizing it was a satire. The sting of his humor is directed not at the War or the soldier, rather the establishment. The writing is similar to Catch-22 and the lampoons are both sharp and subtle. It was a little embarrassing to find myself sitting on the beach and laughing out loud to no one in particular.

The author was a marine in Vietnam, so he is quite detailed in the events and culture of the time. As a side note, I found out later that he also wrote a serious book on the entire history of the war in Vietnam. He appears to research the subject well and brought to light many ideas and insights I had never heard before.

dgp

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I really wish I'd discovered the joys of Jenning's boys in order, I didn't know Mexico was a sequel when I picked it up. So I knew more going into this book (plot points and weird quirks) than I'd have liked.

But that may be my only complaint.

Almost Captains Gearhardt and Armstrong may be my favorite (anti?) war heroes ever. And their absurdity-laced tale is as close to any truth as I've ever read about the war. Plus it's a hell of a lot more fun -- if not much less painful.

Jennings cuts a wide path, but uses a fine, fine blade to do so.

Can't wait to see what the pair pull off (or crash and burn trying) next.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished...at the airport. You may remember I've been "reading" this one for a while. I had gotten bogged down in this weird chapter that was somewhat told from the sidekick's point of view, instead of the main guy. Finally I barreled through that, and afterward began to enjoy the novel much more again. Thought it was a decent book, interesting twist on your typical Vietnam literature, although were I to give someone a list of "must-read war books" I'm not sure this would be on it.

[J.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

a bit of an update of Catch-22 with the insanity of One flew over the Cuckoos Nest and the humor of a good old buddy action movie like 48hrs or Lethal Weapon (well the first two at least). This author is a Viet Nam Vet and (marine?) chopper pilot. He knows what he's talking, but does it with both horror and humor. I look forward to many more novels.

[Stephan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was thought provoking and humourous. I am not a Vietnam Vet-due to being born in the 80s- but I bet most Vietnam Vets would enjoy this read.

This has it all, from a starlet being dropped out of an airplane in the hopes of being close to Ho Chi Minh, to a couple of beer drinking, muff chasing, duo of almost Captains.

[Ken Sodemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darkly humorous, I kept thinking of three things while reading this. Napalm Sticks to Kids, Dr. Strangelove, and Catch 22. If you enjoy any of that then this book may be for you. The only reason I didn't give it five stars was that there were several typos in the book, so it wasn't really the content that brought it down but some sloppy editing. Otherwise, this is quite a good read.

[Cheryl S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of this book is pretty silly, actually most of it is, however it is also clever and funny. For those of us who lived through the Viet Nam era it can bring back some painful memories of a time a lot of people would like to forget.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow, this guy snuck up outta nowhere. a really fun read. when is he writing more books. (review edit: just realized there was no question mark at the end of that sentence. i figured my daughter would catch that as she is an editing machine and i am her retard father)

[Books Ring Mah Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really, 4 and a half stars... Loved it. Laughed out loud! Kudos, Phillip, you hit it right on!!