What do you think?
Rate this book
Year of the Monkey
Acclaimed as one of the most important novels of the Vietnam War, YEAR OF THE MONKEY takes us not only into the savage jungles where death waits in every paddyfield, but into the apocalyptic world of political corruption, where friendship and betrayal become unavoidable, where murder and love are common as body counts. It is the gripping story of two American soldiers trapped in a sinister web of cold-blooded murder during the shattering Tet Offensive of 1968.
In the poisoned soul of Saigon, Russ Payne is an army journalist partying his nights away when a wild grunt named Willingham is lobbed into his life like a grenade. Willingham, the lone survivor of a Special Forces squad, has been reassigned, inexplicably, to Payne's cushy rear unit. Suddenly Payne's fragile peace is shattered when he's forced to spy on his new friend as part of a secret CIA investigation. On a mind-bending odyssey into the depths of the war-torn jungle, he follows Willingham in his bloody quest to avenge the massacre of his former unit--and discovers a hell of his own.
Cutting through an apocalyptic jungle of intrigue, Payne falls in love with a woman who welcomes him into the fold of a Viet Cong camp, witnesses the death of his childhood friend, discovers the horrific meaning of attrition...and ultimately leads to him committing a crime beyond redemption.
In stunning scenes of combat and intrigue, we glean as in no other novel or movie the patch-quilt nature of the Vietnamese people and the murderous deceit of sinister body count politics.
In the year of the monkey, Payne will come to understand the terrible consequences of following orders--and of ignoring them.
"Argo's extraordinary first novel elevates him instantly to the front ranks of American war novelists--Crane, Dos Passos, Mailer, and James Jones. A tough, compassionate novel." "... dark, disturbing ... " "... the FROM HERE TO ETERNITY of the Vietnam generation."
In the poisoned soul of Saigon, Russ Payne is an army journalist partying his nights away when a wild grunt named Willingham is lobbed into his life like a grenade. Willingham, the lone survivor of a Special Forces squad, has been reassigned, inexplicably, to Payne's cushy rear unit. Suddenly Payne's fragile peace is shattered when he's forced to spy on his new friend as part of a secret CIA investigation. On a mind-bending odyssey into the depths of the war-torn jungle, he follows Willingham in his bloody quest to avenge the massacre of his former unit--and discovers a hell of his own.
Cutting through an apocalyptic jungle of intrigue, Payne falls in love with a woman who welcomes him into the fold of a Viet Cong camp, witnesses the death of his childhood friend, discovers the horrific meaning of attrition...and ultimately leads to him committing a crime beyond redemption.
In stunning scenes of combat and intrigue, we glean as in no other novel or movie the patch-quilt nature of the Vietnamese people and the murderous deceit of sinister body count politics.
In the year of the monkey, Payne will come to understand the terrible consequences of following orders--and of ignoring them.
"Argo's extraordinary first novel elevates him instantly to the front ranks of American war novelists--Crane, Dos Passos, Mailer, and James Jones. A tough, compassionate novel." "... dark, disturbing ... " "... the FROM HERE TO ETERNITY of the Vietnam generation."
384 pages, ebook
First published October 16, 2012
3 people want to read
About the author
Ron Argo
4 books7 followersIn the late 1980s, Ronald Argo published one of the more important novels on Vietnam, Year of the Monkey, a story that paints a comprehensive and human canvas of the war. Before and after he served as a military correspondent in LBJ's war, he had worked as a psych-ward aide, a prize-winning photographer, a Florida Keys boat captain, a special-needs bus driver, a stock trader and an award-winning newspaper reporter, and a restorer of old houses. Those among other constructive and nefarious occupations.
Argo is the author of The Courage to Kill and The Sum of His Worth, both historical thriller novels, and both recipients of several notices and awards for literary fiction. His latest novel, Baby Love (2016), is the second in the Ray Myers thrillers, following Myers' exploits as he chases a baby smuggling ring into the badlands of Baja Norte. He spent some time working for three university degrees including a bachelors in Journalism, the Masters in English Lit and the MFA.
Argo lives with his wife Mary Anderson in a small community of San Diego where he tends his garden and writes.
Please visit Ron Argo's website at ronargo.com.
Argo is the author of The Courage to Kill and The Sum of His Worth, both historical thriller novels, and both recipients of several notices and awards for literary fiction. His latest novel, Baby Love (2016), is the second in the Ray Myers thrillers, following Myers' exploits as he chases a baby smuggling ring into the badlands of Baja Norte. He spent some time working for three university degrees including a bachelors in Journalism, the Masters in English Lit and the MFA.
Argo lives with his wife Mary Anderson in a small community of San Diego where he tends his garden and writes.
Please visit Ron Argo's website at ronargo.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 26, 2014
`The pity of war, the pity war distilled' Wilfred Owen
The festering wound of the Vietnam War (1959-1975) will likely never heal - nor should it. That unconscionable war devastated a land with napalm and bombs, brutally murdered countless citizens and soldiers, marked deep indelible scars on the bodies and minds of those who returned, and remains a source of sorrow over fifty years later. Georgia-born Ron Argo captured that war through a journalist's eyes as he served in the days of the Tet Offensive of 1968 and recreated the horrors he observed and felt in his brilliant novel YEAR OF THE MONKEY, originally published in 1989 and now placed before our collective conscience in the Kindle format. His book falls in line with the finest of novels about Vietnam by such esteemed writers as Neil Sheehan (America in Vietnam), John Paul Vann (A Bright Shining Lie), Tim O'Brien (The Things They Carried), Tobias Wolff (In Pharaoh's Army), Bao Ninh (The Sorrow of War) and Philip Caputo (A Rumor of War). This reader, also in Vietnam at the same time, first encountered Argo's book (as well as the others) while publishing 'War Songs' - very soon after Argo's book was first published. The impact was and is a tattoo. Re-reading it now, in this format, brings the experience thought healed to the forefront, and it is hopeful an even wider audience will step into the Vietnam War as Ron Argo so deftly paints it.
One of the many aspects of Argo's account of the war is his sensitivity of not only reporting the quagmire of filth and danger and frank corruption that engulfed troops and civilians, but also building a human-interest story of how the war riddled the minds of those exposed. He offers the interplay of two men - journalist Russell Payne and the wildly unstable combat grunt Corporal Daryll Willingham - whose interplay in a twisted covert CIA operative is best outlined by Argo's description: 'Specification: On 6 January 1968, at about 2000 hours in an unmapped hamlet used as a North Vietnamese Army encampment in the province of Tay Ninh approximately two kilometers from the Cambodian border, Specialist 4 Russell Henry Payne of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Saigon Support Command, Long Binh, Vietnam, did commit assault upon Corporal Daryll Willingham by shooting him in or about the head with a pistol of unknown caliber and did thereby intentionally inflict fatal bodily harm to him Specification: ... that Specialist Payne, by not attempting to defend a senior officer in grave danger of his life, did willfully neglect and therefore contribute to murder in the brutal death of Lt. Colonel Rupert Shellhammer Specification: ... that Specialist Payne demonstrated blatant negligence amounting to acquiescence in the deaths of four enlisted personnel of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and furthermore of the systematic murdering of thirteen Asiatic refugees To the specifications, charges of one count of murder, and two counts of willful neglect resulting in murder.' It is this court martial specification that is the core of what the CIA has ordered: Specialist Russell Payne is to befriend and rat on Corporal Daryll Willingham as part of a secret operation that, no matter how sinister, cannot boost or sustain an unpopular war. The two troops are forced into an unwitting odyssey through hell -- and into a court-martial for murder. What eventually moves Payne to kill Willingham serves as the Argo's stimulus to make the remainder of the novel surprising and credible.
Argo spares no visualization of the sights, sounds, stenches, days of boredom interspersed with frequent states of panic, the corruption visible on all sides by all participants - including the altered and falsified `daily reports' of casualties transmitted to the families and loves ones, hoping to garner support that the nation knew was a wrongful war. Argo's book tells it all, in stunning prose. Once read, this book will never leave the interstices of the mind. And that is the way it should remain. Brilliant!
The festering wound of the Vietnam War (1959-1975) will likely never heal - nor should it. That unconscionable war devastated a land with napalm and bombs, brutally murdered countless citizens and soldiers, marked deep indelible scars on the bodies and minds of those who returned, and remains a source of sorrow over fifty years later. Georgia-born Ron Argo captured that war through a journalist's eyes as he served in the days of the Tet Offensive of 1968 and recreated the horrors he observed and felt in his brilliant novel YEAR OF THE MONKEY, originally published in 1989 and now placed before our collective conscience in the Kindle format. His book falls in line with the finest of novels about Vietnam by such esteemed writers as Neil Sheehan (America in Vietnam), John Paul Vann (A Bright Shining Lie), Tim O'Brien (The Things They Carried), Tobias Wolff (In Pharaoh's Army), Bao Ninh (The Sorrow of War) and Philip Caputo (A Rumor of War). This reader, also in Vietnam at the same time, first encountered Argo's book (as well as the others) while publishing 'War Songs' - very soon after Argo's book was first published. The impact was and is a tattoo. Re-reading it now, in this format, brings the experience thought healed to the forefront, and it is hopeful an even wider audience will step into the Vietnam War as Ron Argo so deftly paints it.
One of the many aspects of Argo's account of the war is his sensitivity of not only reporting the quagmire of filth and danger and frank corruption that engulfed troops and civilians, but also building a human-interest story of how the war riddled the minds of those exposed. He offers the interplay of two men - journalist Russell Payne and the wildly unstable combat grunt Corporal Daryll Willingham - whose interplay in a twisted covert CIA operative is best outlined by Argo's description: 'Specification: On 6 January 1968, at about 2000 hours in an unmapped hamlet used as a North Vietnamese Army encampment in the province of Tay Ninh approximately two kilometers from the Cambodian border, Specialist 4 Russell Henry Payne of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Saigon Support Command, Long Binh, Vietnam, did commit assault upon Corporal Daryll Willingham by shooting him in or about the head with a pistol of unknown caliber and did thereby intentionally inflict fatal bodily harm to him Specification: ... that Specialist Payne, by not attempting to defend a senior officer in grave danger of his life, did willfully neglect and therefore contribute to murder in the brutal death of Lt. Colonel Rupert Shellhammer Specification: ... that Specialist Payne demonstrated blatant negligence amounting to acquiescence in the deaths of four enlisted personnel of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and furthermore of the systematic murdering of thirteen Asiatic refugees To the specifications, charges of one count of murder, and two counts of willful neglect resulting in murder.' It is this court martial specification that is the core of what the CIA has ordered: Specialist Russell Payne is to befriend and rat on Corporal Daryll Willingham as part of a secret operation that, no matter how sinister, cannot boost or sustain an unpopular war. The two troops are forced into an unwitting odyssey through hell -- and into a court-martial for murder. What eventually moves Payne to kill Willingham serves as the Argo's stimulus to make the remainder of the novel surprising and credible.
Argo spares no visualization of the sights, sounds, stenches, days of boredom interspersed with frequent states of panic, the corruption visible on all sides by all participants - including the altered and falsified `daily reports' of casualties transmitted to the families and loves ones, hoping to garner support that the nation knew was a wrongful war. Argo's book tells it all, in stunning prose. Once read, this book will never leave the interstices of the mind. And that is the way it should remain. Brilliant!
March 29, 2013
Acclaimed as one of the most important novels of the Vietnam War, YEAR OF THE MONKEY takes us not only into the savage jungles where death waits in every paddyfield, but into the apocalyptic world of political corruption, where friendship and betrayal become unavoidable, where murder and love are common as body counts. It is the gripping story of two American soldiers trapped in a sinister web of cold-blooded murder during the shattering Tet Offensive of 1968.
In the poisoned soul of Saigon, Russ Payne is an army journalist partying his nights away when a wild grunt named Willingham is lobbed into his life like a grenade. Willingham, the lone survivor of a Special Forces squad, has been reassigned, inexplicably, to Payne's cushy rear unit. Suddenly Payne's fragile peace is shattered when he's forced to spy on his new friend as part of a secret CIA investigation. On a mind-bending odyssey into the depths of the war-torn jungle, he follows Willingham in his bloody quest to avenge the massacre of his former unit--and discovers a hell of his own.
Cutting through an apocalyptic jungle of intrigue, Payne falls in love with a woman who welcomes him into the fold of a Viet Cong camp, witnesses the death of his childhood friend, discovers the horrific meaning of attrition...and ultimately leads to him committing a crime beyond redemption.
In stunning scenes of combat and intrigue, we glean as in no other novel or movie the patch-quilt nature of the Vietnamese people and the murderous deceit of sinister body count politics.
In the year of the monkey, Payne will come to understand the terrible consequences of following orders--and of ignoring them.
"Argo's extraordinary first novel elevates him instantly to the front ranks of American war novelists--Crane, Dos Passos, Mailer, and James Jones. A tough, compassionate novel." "... dark, disturbing ... " "... the FROM HERE TO ETERNITY of the Vietnam generation."
In the poisoned soul of Saigon, Russ Payne is an army journalist partying his nights away when a wild grunt named Willingham is lobbed into his life like a grenade. Willingham, the lone survivor of a Special Forces squad, has been reassigned, inexplicably, to Payne's cushy rear unit. Suddenly Payne's fragile peace is shattered when he's forced to spy on his new friend as part of a secret CIA investigation. On a mind-bending odyssey into the depths of the war-torn jungle, he follows Willingham in his bloody quest to avenge the massacre of his former unit--and discovers a hell of his own.
Cutting through an apocalyptic jungle of intrigue, Payne falls in love with a woman who welcomes him into the fold of a Viet Cong camp, witnesses the death of his childhood friend, discovers the horrific meaning of attrition...and ultimately leads to him committing a crime beyond redemption.
In stunning scenes of combat and intrigue, we glean as in no other novel or movie the patch-quilt nature of the Vietnamese people and the murderous deceit of sinister body count politics.
In the year of the monkey, Payne will come to understand the terrible consequences of following orders--and of ignoring them.
"Argo's extraordinary first novel elevates him instantly to the front ranks of American war novelists--Crane, Dos Passos, Mailer, and James Jones. A tough, compassionate novel." "... dark, disturbing ... " "... the FROM HERE TO ETERNITY of the Vietnam generation."
April 29, 2014
This book was probably one of the most raw and rough I have read in a while. The two main characters are definitely going through a tough time, but war has that effect on a lot of people. Russ Payne, an army journalist is the main character just trying to get some insight to the terrible war going on.While Willingham, is the last one standing of his special forces team and is definitely looking for revenge.
Payne has to make some tough decisions when the CIA has him follow Willingham as a part of a special investigation. Unfortunately for Payne, Willingham is on a quest to seek revenge for his fallen team.
This book goes into so much detail about the jungle and hardships of war. It is definitely a worthwhile read.
Payne has to make some tough decisions when the CIA has him follow Willingham as a part of a special investigation. Unfortunately for Payne, Willingham is on a quest to seek revenge for his fallen team.
This book goes into so much detail about the jungle and hardships of war. It is definitely a worthwhile read.
June 9, 2014
This is the only book I've read about the VN war. You can tell the author had been there. His writing puts you in the middle of the action. I can't imagine any vet with PTSD, like my brother who was in VN 1971-72, could read this book. Each war has their own unique stories. VN was bad enough trying to figure out who the enemy was without the CIA muddying up the picture.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews