First Ship

by John Merriam

Set in 1969-70, this is a chronicle of a young man's flight from the Viet Nam draft and potential arrest on unrelated charges. The story starts in Seattle and goes to the coasts of Maine, a vegetable oil factory in New Orleans, the red light district of wartime Saigon and ends up with hitchhiking on Route 66 to get back to Seattle from New Orleans.

96 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 18, 2018

Reviews

[Tanner Borger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books are choppy and repetitive. Not sure why they chose to publish as a collection of short stories. Collectively, it’s a decent look at the merchant marines through the lens of the lowest members of the crew. But should be edited together as a single book.