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The Odd Angry Shot
Based on the author's experience in the Australian Army, The Odd Angry Shot is the seminal account of Australian soldiers in the Vietnam brief and bracing, tragic yet darkly funny. This classic Australian novel won Australia's National Book Council Award and became an iconic film.
137 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 26, 2013
An amazing little book. Uniquely Australian in its use of language, but also in its style. The book is written as though it's a war story being shared by a group of mates at the pub or around a barbie.
It is also a very rare type of war novel due to it being neither pro-war, nor anti-war. Certainly, there are touches of both, but Nagle in no way tries to sermonise. It is simply a war story that paints a picture of a conflict through the eyes of soldiers living through it. It doesn't aspire to be an important piece of war literature, it'll never be revered like "All Quiet on the Western Front" or other cornerstones of the genre, but in 137 pages it paints a realistic "warts and all" picture of soldiers. They don't have any delusions of glory, heroic notions or political convictions to explain why they're fighting; they've been sent there to do a job, and that's all there is to it.
In "The Odd Angry Shot", Australians can have our own perspective of soldiering and be damn proud of it.
It is also a very rare type of war novel due to it being neither pro-war, nor anti-war. Certainly, there are touches of both, but Nagle in no way tries to sermonise. It is simply a war story that paints a picture of a conflict through the eyes of soldiers living through it. It doesn't aspire to be an important piece of war literature, it'll never be revered like "All Quiet on the Western Front" or other cornerstones of the genre, but in 137 pages it paints a realistic "warts and all" picture of soldiers. They don't have any delusions of glory, heroic notions or political convictions to explain why they're fighting; they've been sent there to do a job, and that's all there is to it.
In "The Odd Angry Shot", Australians can have our own perspective of soldiering and be damn proud of it.
October 28, 2011
Books on warfare written by soldiers (Nagle was in the Australian SAS)have a visceral feel to them that commentaries don't. He doesn't question why the Australians were in Viet Nam, they were just obeying their orders. He recalls the humour and boredom every bit as vividly as the action and the whole book is written in the verbal style that you would expect to hear in a RSL club. I found this book in Melbourne thirty years ago and it is one of my treasured possessions. If you ever coms across a copy, read it. Read it to remember that the Americans were not the only soldiers in Viet Nam, that the grunts had little idea of the grand plan and that they fought only to survive. A book that will leave you in tears of laughter and distress.
July 21, 2020
Graphic but numbing. Dark humour makes things bearable. More people should read this.
November 28, 2013
A little ripper of a book. A colloquial, funny, tragic and provocative reflection on the experiences of a group of Australian men serving in the Vietnam War. Years after the war ended, its interesting to reflect on the sentiments of those days and the way we've gradually evolved our view of them. I think this is an important book among Australian fiction because of its documentation of a significant era, mood and social challenging time in our modern history.
September 30, 2013
Raw and honest, it's an interesting insight into the Australian experience of fighting in the Vietnam War. Equal parts brutal and moving. Highly recommended!
September 5, 2015
A riveting, no-holds-barred view of the Australian experience in the Vietnam War. Recommended.
December 14, 2020
A very interesting Australian Vietnam war memoir. The style of yarning is very Australian and intimate told with dark humour and visceral detail.
October 2, 2023
When it comes to Australian books about war there are numerous classics, though the majority are works of non-fiction. Histories and biographies, that expand or assess the ANZAC mythos are plentiful, and there is no doubt that if one wants to understand the Australian concept of war and how it has been experienced since the earliest days of our European epoch (including the Frontier Wars of the colonial invasion) there is no shortage of material. However, there is a bit of a paucity when it comes to Australian novels that deal with war. Frederic Manning’s The Middle Part of Fortune (reviewed here) is a classic however Manning’s WWI story is more British than Australian. There may be other novels out there that I am yet to come across, but in my opinion the best Australian novel about any war, and definitely about the divisive conflict in Vietnam, is The Odd Angry Shot by William Nagle. It captures with a telling combination of cynicism, realism, humour and a perfect ear for the Australian soldier’s voice what war means and how it shapes and twists those who fight it. Both intensely parochial and universal in its things The Odd Angry Shot is a masterpiece of its sub-genre that will offer meaningful connections to those who read it.
What makes this book so good is that the author has truly developed through his narrative, a truthful picture of what the Australian soldier of the Vietnam War era experienced, and he articulates this literary conceptualisation through his perfect ear for the voice and character of the digger in that conflict. The dry, fatalistic, and at times absurdist humour of the Australian soldier is omnipresent, and this is balanced perfectly with the growing nihilism inherent to what his characters develop as the war becomes more and more senseless. The jokes, the drinking, the camaraderie, and the three Fs (food, fighting and fucking) are all depicted with a telling accuracy that will resonate with anyone who knows anything about our failed intervention in South Vietnam.
Here is a perfect example of how Nagle has captured the language of the Vietnam War digger, and arguably the spirit of the Australian soldier both before and since:
“REMEMBER the mess line the morning after. Remember how Harry and I were three parts drunk.
The Officers’ and Sergeants’ Mess had a huge hole in the roof, the result of a direct hit last night.
‘Right place, wrong time,’ came from some wit farther up the mess line.
‘What’s this shit?’ says Harry.
‘Powdered egg.’
‘You’ve really excelled yourself this morning, cookie.’
‘You know why they call cooks fitters and turners, cookie?’
‘No, why?’
‘Because you fit food into pots and turn it into shit.’
A bumble of mirthful snickering and faces break into smiles.
‘Up your arse,’ comes the stern reply.
‘Be nice, cookie, or I’ll piss in your powdered egg.””
This is archetypal banter between Australian soldiers (speaking from some personal experience), and it is explicit and truthful in how they understand themselves and each other. The use of humour to negate the awfulness of a pretty shitty situation, and they don’t come much shittier than a war, is vital to the Australian military identity. This passage, and many others in The Odd Angry Shot also reflect with considerable accuracy the truth about war being ages of boredom interspersed with moments of terror.
Nagle is terse when it comes to describing the actual combat that his characters encounter, relying on the power of short, visceral descriptions to elucidate the horrors of war. In this quote Harry, Rogers and Bill (all SAS troopers and the last being both protagonist and narrator if the novel) experience the after effects of a mine destroying an AOC:
” “Two bodies lie in the red dust of the road surrounded by spreading patches of crimson. Someone throws a camouflage-pattern shelter over one and an oil-stained canvas over the other.
The wounded crew member lies in the dust about twenty feet from them. Two medics are bending over him, working frantically. I notice a crimson trail leading from the burning vehicle to where he lies in the dirt.
‘Shit, he must have dragged himself over there when it went up,’ says Rogers.
‘Give us a hand will you, mate?’ yells one of the medics, turning his head and nodding at the group of us standing at the roadside. About six of us run forward.
‘How is he?’ asks an Armoured Corps captain pushing between Harry and myself.
‘Lost his left leg and hip,’ answers the medic closest to me.
‘And his balls,’ says the other medic not taking his eyes off the huge burn dressings he is using to try and stem the blood flow.
‘Will he make it?’ asks the captain. I notice that two watery lines are drawn on his dusty face.
‘Not if Jesus came down and held the saline bottle himself…”.”
Again Nagle captures the emotion, the ugliness, the bloody ordinariness of death in war through his writing, making the experience accessible for the reader. There is a universality to what is described, yet the language reminds one again that this is an Australian voice.
Perhaps the most interesting stylistic aspect of The Odd Angry Shot is the first person narration provided by Bill, with its continual imprecations to “remember”. It’s hard to tell who exactly Bill is telling in the novel that they must remember; is it himself?is it his mate Harry? Is it the girlfriend who has abandoned him after he went to war or is it all Australians, especially those who had no concerns whatsoever for Bill and all the other diggers who fought in the war? This element of the narrative certainly encourages a more personal response to what Nagle has written, whilst leaving us potentially disconnected as well.
The Odd Angry Shot has some rather provocative and unsettling elements aside from its description of his Bill and his comrades experience the war. The characters and their language are often offensive and will not please more PC focused readers. The racism, misogyny and violence is strong stuff, yet one has to recognise the truthfulness of this ultra-masculine world where life seems so cheap. There are some pointed political statements too made by Nagle through his characters, and quite often it seems as if there is nothing but a cruel nihilism at the heart of the narrative. Throw in the incessant boozing and it would be understandable to find some readers rejecting Nagles story and his ‘heroes’.
This would be an unfortunate response, because at the end of the day this is fiction that tells truths that are often unpalatable but recognisable. In the introduction to this edition the historian and writer Paul Ham speaks to the anger and rejection felt and projected by Vietnam War veterans. Aside from the fact that all veterans surely must feel anger, and want to reject what hurts them, this is a key point to consider when reading The Odd Angry Shot. Nagle has written a diatribe against the war that incorporates an honest appraisal of what Vietnam meant for so many diggers with an insight into the Australian identity that ensures its value as an outstanding work in our nation’s fiction. This is a classic that deserves reading alongside the likes of All Quiet on the Western Front.
What makes this book so good is that the author has truly developed through his narrative, a truthful picture of what the Australian soldier of the Vietnam War era experienced, and he articulates this literary conceptualisation through his perfect ear for the voice and character of the digger in that conflict. The dry, fatalistic, and at times absurdist humour of the Australian soldier is omnipresent, and this is balanced perfectly with the growing nihilism inherent to what his characters develop as the war becomes more and more senseless. The jokes, the drinking, the camaraderie, and the three Fs (food, fighting and fucking) are all depicted with a telling accuracy that will resonate with anyone who knows anything about our failed intervention in South Vietnam.
Here is a perfect example of how Nagle has captured the language of the Vietnam War digger, and arguably the spirit of the Australian soldier both before and since:
“REMEMBER the mess line the morning after. Remember how Harry and I were three parts drunk.
The Officers’ and Sergeants’ Mess had a huge hole in the roof, the result of a direct hit last night.
‘Right place, wrong time,’ came from some wit farther up the mess line.
‘What’s this shit?’ says Harry.
‘Powdered egg.’
‘You’ve really excelled yourself this morning, cookie.’
‘You know why they call cooks fitters and turners, cookie?’
‘No, why?’
‘Because you fit food into pots and turn it into shit.’
A bumble of mirthful snickering and faces break into smiles.
‘Up your arse,’ comes the stern reply.
‘Be nice, cookie, or I’ll piss in your powdered egg.””
This is archetypal banter between Australian soldiers (speaking from some personal experience), and it is explicit and truthful in how they understand themselves and each other. The use of humour to negate the awfulness of a pretty shitty situation, and they don’t come much shittier than a war, is vital to the Australian military identity. This passage, and many others in The Odd Angry Shot also reflect with considerable accuracy the truth about war being ages of boredom interspersed with moments of terror.
Nagle is terse when it comes to describing the actual combat that his characters encounter, relying on the power of short, visceral descriptions to elucidate the horrors of war. In this quote Harry, Rogers and Bill (all SAS troopers and the last being both protagonist and narrator if the novel) experience the after effects of a mine destroying an AOC:
” “Two bodies lie in the red dust of the road surrounded by spreading patches of crimson. Someone throws a camouflage-pattern shelter over one and an oil-stained canvas over the other.
The wounded crew member lies in the dust about twenty feet from them. Two medics are bending over him, working frantically. I notice a crimson trail leading from the burning vehicle to where he lies in the dirt.
‘Shit, he must have dragged himself over there when it went up,’ says Rogers.
‘Give us a hand will you, mate?’ yells one of the medics, turning his head and nodding at the group of us standing at the roadside. About six of us run forward.
‘How is he?’ asks an Armoured Corps captain pushing between Harry and myself.
‘Lost his left leg and hip,’ answers the medic closest to me.
‘And his balls,’ says the other medic not taking his eyes off the huge burn dressings he is using to try and stem the blood flow.
‘Will he make it?’ asks the captain. I notice that two watery lines are drawn on his dusty face.
‘Not if Jesus came down and held the saline bottle himself…”.”
Again Nagle captures the emotion, the ugliness, the bloody ordinariness of death in war through his writing, making the experience accessible for the reader. There is a universality to what is described, yet the language reminds one again that this is an Australian voice.
Perhaps the most interesting stylistic aspect of The Odd Angry Shot is the first person narration provided by Bill, with its continual imprecations to “remember”. It’s hard to tell who exactly Bill is telling in the novel that they must remember; is it himself?is it his mate Harry? Is it the girlfriend who has abandoned him after he went to war or is it all Australians, especially those who had no concerns whatsoever for Bill and all the other diggers who fought in the war? This element of the narrative certainly encourages a more personal response to what Nagle has written, whilst leaving us potentially disconnected as well.
The Odd Angry Shot has some rather provocative and unsettling elements aside from its description of his Bill and his comrades experience the war. The characters and their language are often offensive and will not please more PC focused readers. The racism, misogyny and violence is strong stuff, yet one has to recognise the truthfulness of this ultra-masculine world where life seems so cheap. There are some pointed political statements too made by Nagle through his characters, and quite often it seems as if there is nothing but a cruel nihilism at the heart of the narrative. Throw in the incessant boozing and it would be understandable to find some readers rejecting Nagles story and his ‘heroes’.
This would be an unfortunate response, because at the end of the day this is fiction that tells truths that are often unpalatable but recognisable. In the introduction to this edition the historian and writer Paul Ham speaks to the anger and rejection felt and projected by Vietnam War veterans. Aside from the fact that all veterans surely must feel anger, and want to reject what hurts them, this is a key point to consider when reading The Odd Angry Shot. Nagle has written a diatribe against the war that incorporates an honest appraisal of what Vietnam meant for so many diggers with an insight into the Australian identity that ensures its value as an outstanding work in our nation’s fiction. This is a classic that deserves reading alongside the likes of All Quiet on the Western Front.
May 4, 2024
This short novel is based on the Special Air Service (SAS) Patrol 22 Regiment of Australian men and a part they played in the Vietnam War.
A hard-fought war, these men cannot escape the reality of violence and death. They form special bonds which binds them together and a wicked sense of humor.
I just finished watching the movie that was based on this book, and it was exactly like the book was the script for the movie.
Highly recommend both the book and movie.
A hard-fought war, these men cannot escape the reality of violence and death. They form special bonds which binds them together and a wicked sense of humor.
I just finished watching the movie that was based on this book, and it was exactly like the book was the script for the movie.
Highly recommend both the book and movie.
February 3, 2025
This was one of my all time favourite aussie films, and I only recently discovered the book it was based on. Since I had watched the film innumerable times, I was forced to do the dreaded comparing of the book vs the movie, and surprisingly they both came out looking good.
Of course, I will now have to go watch the movie again...
Of course, I will now have to go watch the movie again...
January 29, 2021
Jarhead with an Australian flavour.
July 10, 2022
Holy shit
November 8, 2023
By the time Gough Whitlam’s Federal Labor Government was elected in Australia in December 1972 the number of Australian troops in the war in Vietnam had been reduced from a maximum of about 7,600 down to a few hundred. From 1964 all Australian males turning 20 had to register for the compulsory national service. Conscripts were chosen by means of a lottery, conducted each six months, that chose those who would serve for two-years based on their birthday. This “national conscription lottery” was stopped in mid-December 1972. I was 17 at the time and was happy to have missed it by 2 years; my brother missed it by about 6 months. In all, about 60,000 Australians fought in the war, with 521 killed and over 3,000 wounded.
The whole thing was ridiculous then, and seems only more so now.
William Nagle enlisted in the Australian Regular Army in 1964, qualified as a cook and was sent to serve in Vietnam in June 1966 at the age of 19. He left Vietnam in March 1967, and left the army altogether in September 1968. After his stint in the army he wrote this, his debut novel, based on his experiences in South-East Asia.
The book follows the lives of three SAS army personnel (Harry, Rogers, and the unnamed narrator) based in Vietnam, as they struggle to get through the daily grind of survival.
The book is told in episodic fashion which mirrors the war-time experience of the three men. Most of the time they are bored, sitting around their tents, drinking too much, playing cards, and getting into trouble. And then come the moments of sheer terror as they are involved in patrols or a fire-fight, with an enemy they cannot discern from the native population, in a climate that is a humid and raining version of hell, where foot-rot and sexually transmitted diseases are rife, and where they can only dream of going home.
There is no direct anti-war sentiment expressed in the book; there’s no need for it, as the environment does all the talking. Before arriving in Vietnam each of the men would have considered themselves against the involvement of Australia there, but after their deployment they just want to make it through to the end of their stint alive. And to be treated halfway decently when they return home. For a lot of them, neither of those things would occur.
Nagle’s style is clipped, with sentences short, and an almost total-absence of adverbs and adjectives. It fits the requirements perfectly.
R: 4.0/5.0
The whole thing was ridiculous then, and seems only more so now.
William Nagle enlisted in the Australian Regular Army in 1964, qualified as a cook and was sent to serve in Vietnam in June 1966 at the age of 19. He left Vietnam in March 1967, and left the army altogether in September 1968. After his stint in the army he wrote this, his debut novel, based on his experiences in South-East Asia.
The book follows the lives of three SAS army personnel (Harry, Rogers, and the unnamed narrator) based in Vietnam, as they struggle to get through the daily grind of survival.
The book is told in episodic fashion which mirrors the war-time experience of the three men. Most of the time they are bored, sitting around their tents, drinking too much, playing cards, and getting into trouble. And then come the moments of sheer terror as they are involved in patrols or a fire-fight, with an enemy they cannot discern from the native population, in a climate that is a humid and raining version of hell, where foot-rot and sexually transmitted diseases are rife, and where they can only dream of going home.
There is no direct anti-war sentiment expressed in the book; there’s no need for it, as the environment does all the talking. Before arriving in Vietnam each of the men would have considered themselves against the involvement of Australia there, but after their deployment they just want to make it through to the end of their stint alive. And to be treated halfway decently when they return home. For a lot of them, neither of those things would occur.
Nagle’s style is clipped, with sentences short, and an almost total-absence of adverbs and adjectives. It fits the requirements perfectly.
R: 4.0/5.0
January 24, 2017
‘Short, pithy and powerful.’
Dominion Post
‘This autobiographical novel stands the test of time, revealing human faces caught in a tragic chapter of Australian history.’
SMH/Age/Canberra Times
‘Evoking a time and place that can still provoke anger, here is a book long overdue for a reprint.’
Launceston Examiner
‘A savage and mordantly funny novel…Visceral and immediate, irreverent and agonised, the story pules with the plea to “remember…remember”…The narrative slams its way onwards, in brief, brutal, battering scenes like bursts of gunfire, unexpectedly modulating into moments of wistful hope…Nagle takes no prisoners, makes no excuses. It’s a story without sentiment, but packed with passion and compassion. Its damaged young men are the core of a shocking, sundering little book that punches far above its length.’
Auckland Weekend Herald
Dominion Post
‘This autobiographical novel stands the test of time, revealing human faces caught in a tragic chapter of Australian history.’
SMH/Age/Canberra Times
‘Evoking a time and place that can still provoke anger, here is a book long overdue for a reprint.’
Launceston Examiner
‘A savage and mordantly funny novel…Visceral and immediate, irreverent and agonised, the story pules with the plea to “remember…remember”…The narrative slams its way onwards, in brief, brutal, battering scenes like bursts of gunfire, unexpectedly modulating into moments of wistful hope…Nagle takes no prisoners, makes no excuses. It’s a story without sentiment, but packed with passion and compassion. Its damaged young men are the core of a shocking, sundering little book that punches far above its length.’
Auckland Weekend Herald
May 19, 2024
A short, powerful book that follows a unit of Australian SAS soldiers in Vietnam. Honest, funny, and brilliant, it concentrates on the little picture of war.
It was adapted into a terrific film starring John Jarratt and Bryan Brown, which is somewhat better known.
It was adapted into a terrific film starring John Jarratt and Bryan Brown, which is somewhat better known.
September 9, 2016
A very powerful book. The language felt right and it felt like I was there feeling the boredom and frustration and hurt as it happened all told in a dinky di voice that's right for the era.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews