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The Long Walk
This PEN award Winner for Best Regional Fiction is a searing, heart rendering story of one American soldier's arduous odyssey from captivity to civilization and sanity.
One dreary. drizzling morning in 1973, months after the last American POW has been released from Vietnam, the Vietcong deliver a bedraggled man bound in wire to Corpsman Stanley Baker. The prisoner's name is Lieutenant William Hill and he's a former star quarterback and one of the Navy's best and brightest. The Pentagon assumed Hill died in a crash nine year's earlier in North Vietnam--now they learn he's very much alive.
What goes on in the mind of a man held prisoner for nine years? What is the sum effect of endless months of bamboo cages, beatings--and torture?
Sergeant Baker soon realizes that Hill's unlike other POWs. Hill doesn't speak and hoards food, and he seems to be searching for a way to escape the hospital.
As Baker and his superiors soon discover, Hill may have been released but his long walk home has just begun
One dreary. drizzling morning in 1973, months after the last American POW has been released from Vietnam, the Vietcong deliver a bedraggled man bound in wire to Corpsman Stanley Baker. The prisoner's name is Lieutenant William Hill and he's a former star quarterback and one of the Navy's best and brightest. The Pentagon assumed Hill died in a crash nine year's earlier in North Vietnam--now they learn he's very much alive.
What goes on in the mind of a man held prisoner for nine years? What is the sum effect of endless months of bamboo cages, beatings--and torture?
Sergeant Baker soon realizes that Hill's unlike other POWs. Hill doesn't speak and hoards food, and he seems to be searching for a way to escape the hospital.
As Baker and his superiors soon discover, Hill may have been released but his long walk home has just begun
256 pages, Hardcover
First published June 20, 1986
27 people want to read
About the author
George LaFountaine
21 books3 followersGeorge La Fountaine was born in Massachusetts and raised in Seattle, Washington. He served as a marine in the Korean War, where he was promoted to sergeant. After the leaving the Marines he attended classes at Pasadena Playhouse from 1955-57. It was there that he learned his craft; having to write scripts for television plays as a regular (weekly) assignment. He also worked in Hollywood as a lighting director, actor and consultant. He worked for the Mary Tyler Moore Company for several years as a scriptwriter.
His first novel, Two Minute Warning, was published in 1975 and came out as a movie the following year. Suspense thriller about an assassin at a Super Bowl game. It had an all-star cast, but received so-so reviews. The same year, Flashpoint was published, but the movie didn't come out until 1984. According to a New York Times review Flashpoint is "much better--more original, written with more security, and with a chilling impact in its last pages."*
He published three more novels over the next eight years--The Scott-Dunlap Ring (1978), The Killing Seed(1980), and The Long Walk(1986). The Long Walk won critical praise for its depiction of a Green Beret POW's return home from Vietnam, and his recovery from the effects of years of torture.
After 1986, La Fountaine dropped off the radar until Dec. 27, 2010, when the first of ten novels appeared in Amazon's Kindle Store, some of them published within a month of each other. This suggests the author had run into difficulty finding traditional publishing outlets, and, as so many are doing these days, took to the self-publishing route for a backlog of novels he'd been writing over the previous two decades.
His first novel, Two Minute Warning, was published in 1975 and came out as a movie the following year. Suspense thriller about an assassin at a Super Bowl game. It had an all-star cast, but received so-so reviews. The same year, Flashpoint was published, but the movie didn't come out until 1984. According to a New York Times review Flashpoint is "much better--more original, written with more security, and with a chilling impact in its last pages."*
He published three more novels over the next eight years--The Scott-Dunlap Ring (1978), The Killing Seed(1980), and The Long Walk(1986). The Long Walk won critical praise for its depiction of a Green Beret POW's return home from Vietnam, and his recovery from the effects of years of torture.
After 1986, La Fountaine dropped off the radar until Dec. 27, 2010, when the first of ten novels appeared in Amazon's Kindle Store, some of them published within a month of each other. This suggests the author had run into difficulty finding traditional publishing outlets, and, as so many are doing these days, took to the self-publishing route for a backlog of novels he'd been writing over the previous two decades.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 29, 2024
Took a while to get interesting but was so worth it
July 14, 2014
“One terrific novel: an arduous journey from captivity to freedom”
“The Long Walk” was written by author George La Fountaine (1986). Mr. Fountaine is the author of several other novels including “Two-Minute Warning” and “Flashpoint”. Among his many accomplishments, he is also known as a cinematographer. Selected novels have been made into movies. Consolidated biographical information on Mr. La Fountaine appears otherwise limited.
This novel is of the Literary Fiction genre and human interest drama. The story is told by an anonymous narrator. Character dialog is interspersed with narration and directly attributable to the person speaking. The prose is not complex but is rich in imagery and elegantly constructed. The electronic version of the novel contains a good deal of grammatical and spelling errors. The errors are obvious and while annoying don’t markedly detract from the reading experience.
“The Long Walk” was written and published just over a decade of the ending of the Vietnam War. The opening scenes find Lieutenant William Hill, a POW for over nine years and the last POW in Vietnam, being turned over to Corpsman Stanley Baker. It becomes obvious that Hill has been beaten and savaged by his captors to the point of insanity and repatriation seems an impossible task. Born of a Navajo father, Stanley Baker has a special compassion for Hill and assumes a dedicated effort to help him. In the Navajo culture there was a period during the westward expansion when the entire Navajo tribe was moved to Fort Sumter. As it turned out, the tribe was eventually allowed to return to their home land but they were forced to walk the three hundred miles to get there. Many died and the experience was harbored in legend as “The Long Walk”, a testament to a determination to survive in spite of overwhelming odds; so began The Long Walk for Lieutenant Hill.
This is a story so well told it rivals all for a position as a truly memorable work. The plot development is exceptionally well done. The characters are wonderfully developed and the reader will come away entranced by the persons of Branch, Adjiba and Stanley. The novel’s theme of survival under the most adverse of situations is brought clearly to view in the nature of the remarkable characters; not the least of which is the protagonist of the story.
I highly recommend this novel to readers and rate it “Memorable”. This novel belongs in the lofty 1% of exceptional works.
“The Long Walk” was written by author George La Fountaine (1986). Mr. Fountaine is the author of several other novels including “Two-Minute Warning” and “Flashpoint”. Among his many accomplishments, he is also known as a cinematographer. Selected novels have been made into movies. Consolidated biographical information on Mr. La Fountaine appears otherwise limited.
This novel is of the Literary Fiction genre and human interest drama. The story is told by an anonymous narrator. Character dialog is interspersed with narration and directly attributable to the person speaking. The prose is not complex but is rich in imagery and elegantly constructed. The electronic version of the novel contains a good deal of grammatical and spelling errors. The errors are obvious and while annoying don’t markedly detract from the reading experience.
“The Long Walk” was written and published just over a decade of the ending of the Vietnam War. The opening scenes find Lieutenant William Hill, a POW for over nine years and the last POW in Vietnam, being turned over to Corpsman Stanley Baker. It becomes obvious that Hill has been beaten and savaged by his captors to the point of insanity and repatriation seems an impossible task. Born of a Navajo father, Stanley Baker has a special compassion for Hill and assumes a dedicated effort to help him. In the Navajo culture there was a period during the westward expansion when the entire Navajo tribe was moved to Fort Sumter. As it turned out, the tribe was eventually allowed to return to their home land but they were forced to walk the three hundred miles to get there. Many died and the experience was harbored in legend as “The Long Walk”, a testament to a determination to survive in spite of overwhelming odds; so began The Long Walk for Lieutenant Hill.
This is a story so well told it rivals all for a position as a truly memorable work. The plot development is exceptionally well done. The characters are wonderfully developed and the reader will come away entranced by the persons of Branch, Adjiba and Stanley. The novel’s theme of survival under the most adverse of situations is brought clearly to view in the nature of the remarkable characters; not the least of which is the protagonist of the story.
I highly recommend this novel to readers and rate it “Memorable”. This novel belongs in the lofty 1% of exceptional works.
September 13, 2008
I picked this book up for $1 on a bargain table at a book store. It is the story of a Vietnam vet who is pretty confused and of the Navajo doctor who helps him take the "long walk" back to mental health.
August 1, 2011
1987 PEN Center USA Award Winner for Fiction/General
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews