Charles Templeton flew more than 150 missions as a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter crew chief in the Vietnam War from 1968-69. His book, Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam (S. Dogood Books, 317 pp. $14.99, paper; $2.99, Kindle), is made up of 37 short, disconnected chapters. The chapter titles tend to be wacky and whimsical. For example: “The Artists of Dong Ho,” “Panty Porn,” “Ly Cu Chi,” “Our Lady of Hue,” “On the Road to Shambala,” “The Wisdom of Wombats,” “Operation Corduroy Peach,” “Dien Cai Dau,” and “Mystic Foxhole Yacht Club Bowl.”

All the chapters of this excellent book are well-written and interesting. Many are humorous; some are horrific and intensely graphic. The book is also sprinkled with bits of poetry by Vietnam War veteran Bill McCloud. Those poems are deftly presented to support the narrative.

Boot appears to be part memoir (it often seems as though it was written from notes Templeton took at the time) and part phantasmagorical novel. The protagonist is George Orwell Hill, or G.O. The book tell stories of G.O.’s life as a Marine in Vietnam, what he learns about the country and its people, and the impact his war experiences had on for life.

The author effectively develops believable and sympathetic characters, while simultaneously communicating the diversity of experiences and backgrounds of these characters who have been thrown together to work as a unit during a war.

I have read the chapters of this fine novel multiple times and what I am always left with is Charles Templeton’s clear intent to communicate an honest, authentic picture of the Vietnam War Marine Corps experience, as well as the complexity of factors specific to the Vietnam War, and the consequences of war that last far beyond its supposed end.

David Wilson, Vietnam Veterans of America

Take This Book to Heart…

I took this book to heart because I had a nephew who had just joined the Marines.

The book begins with a realistic view of the first week or two of arrival in Viet Nam where every standard and expectation of hometown daily life is no longer there. George fills his mind with bits and pieces of his former self as if to ground his feet to the earth. I felt, perhaps for the first time, what a “Boot” feels upon first entry into war zone. I read the book a second time (yes, I enjoyed the book!) but I chose the Kindle version this time, which grounded me to George with the explanations of philosophers, about the eyes of a statue, and lyrics from songs. His ruminations become relevant as in the many colors of large gum balls which helped me like the character even more.

George, often called G. O., is a storyteller and does it well. Several moments are captured by the clever cockroach that watched and commented. Sometimes George loves trouble that brings fun, and sometimes the war is in his face. He fills his military role with intention and grows up. Relationships form and a few get in trouble. Don’t miss the football game to sort things out, sorta.

Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam by author Charles L. Templeton is a dynamic story about the Vietnam war as seen through the eyes of a marine. It follows the soldier’s experiences from pre-enlistment to returning home. The journey for the reader is somewhat like the authors description of a helicopter’s up and down movement during a descent into a hot zone—"like being on a roller coaster, going from being weightless one moment to feeling like you weigh a thousand pounds the next.” The reader feels the heaviness of harrowing rescue missions as well as the weightlessness of incidents that are light-hearted and at times, even humorous. But, the most captivating part of the story is how the author vividly depicts the relationships between the soldiers.

Many things make Boot a good read. The “marine talk” makes it feel real. The analogies are poignantly entertaining—a personal favorite. The names of all the colorful characters are the perfect solution for helping the reader keep everyone straight. The dialogue keeps the story moving at a perfect pace. The intensity of the rescues keep you on edge and then some far-out tale will have you laughing aloud. Finally, and most importantly, the serious undertones that play out are done exceptionally well, such as fears (of dying and living), racism, and politics.

Author Charles Templeton does an outstanding job of sharing a very difficult time in our nation’s history with clever depictions of reality. He uses personal experience and a hint of humor to write a great novel. I highly recommend this book.

Let me begin by saying that I am a pacifist, a feminist, and an introvert. I am not a fan of war, dick jokes, or the “boys will be boys” camaraderie I associate with fraternities and athletic teams. That said, I loved this book. Although I had read novels set in the world wars, I had never read novels (or watched films) relating to Viet Nam. I “knew” a lot (perhaps too much) about Viet Nam, having come of age in the ‘60s. Yet, I truly appreciate Templeton’s attention to detail and not pushing things too far. He manages to develop authentic characters I care about without creating superheroes or villains. He communicates the complexity of the cultural, geographic, ethnic, racial, and religious diversity that many “boys” encountered in the military. It’s clear that there is terror, horrific injury, and death along with on-going tensions between periods of great boredom and abject fear. Throughout, there is MASH-like humor and an easy narrative. To the extent that a good novel entertains and enlightens, Boot masterfully achieves both goals. 

I graduated college in 1966, so my young adult years were definitely defined by the Vietnam War. When our friends came back, they were so very different than when they went. They didn’t talk about what had happened, the things they saw. My Boot review is personalized by my experiences and my reaction to the writing. The book captured the frantic activity, the fear, the love for buddies, the adaptation to the land, the brave faces that accomplished great feats, the uncertainty of life, the influence of comradeship. The language sounded raw, the details of fighting seemed authentic, the men we met were memorable. Laughter seemed to lighten the load for the men. For an author to generate the writing that highlights these aspects of the Vietnam War because he was there gave me an insight I never had before.

In a world awash in books on War and in particular the unabated American obsession with Vietnam, Templeton has artistically created a mosaic that uniquely combines Heller’s famous portrayal of normal society exposed to the frustrating bureaucratic logic of the military with Remarque’s description of the extreme physical and mental stress brought on by detachment from civilian life by soldiers. Although Templeton, demurely, attempts to disguise his own self in the book through the use of his, one of a kind - “SORTA NOVEL”,…

Reading Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam, by Charles Templeton, took me back to the 60s, to the neighborhoods. The language, delivered with that cocky, wide-stanced attitude which pervades sports, Rock and Roll and the Marine Corp, rolled film clips in my mind.

It’s all there in the conversations, the barked orders and curses, the scuttlebutt, the raunchy jokes commonly heard at drive-in theaters on Friday night…

This book is a great accounting of the confused mental state of young warriors, and the stupidity of war. Is this why we have so many Vietnam war vets who still carry the burdens of that war? Aside from that, Templeton's story of young G.O. Hill and his many compatriots and companions in flight and combat is compelling and engaging. It's a very good read…

WOW. As you can see below, I fully intended to make notes as I went along, but once I got into the book (thanks to Kindle and finally being able to read at night), I couldn’t stop to make notes…just wanted to see what happened next. And, of course, that is the sign of a great book.

Here are a few observations jotted down while reading your book…. SPOILER ALERT

SEVEN of my poems appear throughout this novel, six of them original to this book.

I fell in love with Charles Templeton’s Vietnam War novel, Boot, even before I was asked to add a few poems to the story. What I read was a pretty complete early manuscript. Actually, what I loved most about it were the various characters who brought the story to life.

Travel WranglerTempleton speaks in the language of Marines on the battlefield, knowing they may die - soon. I was not a soldier. I was against the war pretty much from the beginning, but I always appreciated and supported the guys who were there, on the ground, doing the dirty work. This is not a book about Kissinger, politics and strategy; this is a book about a naive young man, like all of us then, who joined the Marines to defend his country. Boot explains the way they talked every day and how they felt and their pain. It’s about reality setting in for him. If you want to know the down and dirty of war, this book is for you. – Verne Rudebusch, Travel Wrangler

War is crazy, grizzly, obscene, and fatal but you will never get a vision of it like Charles Templeton tells his story of the Viet Nam War. The main character George Orwell Hill, travels through this nasty semi-biographical war (because you can’t make this stuff up) with buddies like Bugman, Bear, Locker, Gallo, Gerber Baby and Duck. Even the helicopters have clever names like Groundz for Divorce and Pandora’s Box. Curiously, there is a one-eyed cockroach called Lomax with his own voice, an anthropomorphic literary device that sometimes serves as a North Star for G.O.

Reading Boot I laughed so hard at times I forgot I was reading about the gruesome war I grew up watching on television every night. Where the enemy traveled in tunnels and

While much has been written and said about the Vietnam War from those who lived through it, Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam by Charles Templeton is an undeniably unique and surreal reflection on that troubled time in history. A linguistic triumph about a military failure, the book is a truly unusual tale from the semi-trustworthy perspective of George Orwell Hill, a singular grunt among the mass of young soldiers sent to Southeast Asia in the 1960s.

Spanning years of service in Vietnam, this is not a typical…

A debut postmodern literary novel explores the madness of the Vietnam War via the perspective of a helicopter squadron Marine.

George Orwell “G.O.” Hill of South Texas comes from a long line of Marines, which is why he decides to enlist in the corps during the height of the Vietnam War. He spends his last night in America attempting—unsuccessfully—to lose his virginity to the girl he’s had a crush on since elementary school. He arrives in-country at Hue-Phu Bai Airport, where he is assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 265. There, he receives his first injury…