The Suicide Run

(Paperback)

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Description

A powerful insight into the early years of one of America's greatest modern writers. The five personal and intensely powerful tales that make up this collection draw upon William Styron's real-life experiences in the US Marine Corps, and give us an insight into the early life of one of America's greatest modern writers.The stories are set in the gruelling camps and sweltering training fields which mark the limbo point between civilian life and the horrors of war. The stories tell of young men embarking on suicidal 1000 mile roundtrips to New York to see their girlfriends on 36 hour leave periods; the surreal experience of being conscripted for a second time to serve in the Korean War; and the frustration and isolation of returning home when service is over.The Suicide Run brings to life the drama, inhumanity, absurdity and heroism that forever changed the men who served in the Marine Corps.

Reviews

Quite brilliant * Esquire *
In his elegant, sometimes ornate, prose, Styron balances a loathing of military life with a respect for the human nobility it grants the most unlikely candidates * Daily Telegraph *
This group of previously unpublished stories by Pulitzer Prize-winner William Styron crackle with youthful virtuosity -- Jeffrey Taylor * Sunday Express *
What intrigues here is the way all soldiers, whether or not they ever see combat, still live with the notion: I am expendable canon fodder. And that sort of existential knowledge makes even the toughest Marine pause for thought -- Douglas Kennedy * Independent *
This book will be welcomed by admirers of Styron's work * Times Literary Supplement *

Author Bio

William Styron (1925-2006), a native of the Tidewater region of Virginia, was a graduate of Duke University and a veteran of the Marine Corps. His books include Lie Down in Darkness, The Long March, Set This House on Fire, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice, This Quiet Dust, Darkness Visible and A Tidewater Morning. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the Howells Medal, the American Book Award and the Legion d'Honneur. With his wife, the poet and activist Rose Styron, he lived for most of his adult life in Roxbury, Connecticut, and in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts.