The Suicide Run
Published on 3. February 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-0-09-953222-4 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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 / Votes
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a respect for the human nobility it grants the most unlikely candidates * Daily Telegraph * This group of previously unpublished stories by Pulitzer Prize-winner William Styron crackle with youthful virtuosity -- Jeffrey Taylor * Sunday Express * What intrigues here is the way all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 * There's such a depth to the characterization and mood here, with doubt, guilt, bravado, lust and more to be felt by the heroes, who of course never fit any such token template * thebookbag.co.uk * Styron's ornate prose has a wonderful rhythmic flow. The title story, a sultry, white-knuckle sex odyssey across the US, is a particular gem. Told with a frenetic humour that bleeds out into lyrical disquiet, it paints a vivid picture of young men trying in vain to drown out their own death knell * Irish Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
256 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-953222-4 (9780099532224)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
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.