D. S. Lliteras is the author of fourteen books that have received national and international acclaim. His short stories and poetry have appeared in numerous national and international magazines, journals, and anthologies. He lives in Montgomery, Alabama with his wife and author, Kathleen Touchstone.
"Viet Man is truth . . . Lliteras's ability to paint a visual
image, to put a thousand meanings into one succinct and profound
turn of a phrase, has you walking alongside him, trying to survive,
too. The Vietnam Lliteras effectively sketches for you to see, is
not a pleasant one. It's drug-filled, tense, raw, and aching. It's
all there to see, but you feel it in your soul . . . weaves in the
dichotomy of potential death and fragile life in phrases that keep
punching you between the eyes . . . Viet Man step[s] you back from
the canvas - not to judge - but to get a broader view."--Karen St.
John "This Is Vietnow Magazine"
"[Viet Man] is forcefully written, a nice mix of style and subject,
and it has much to say about life and death and war and peace . . .
Fine war fiction from a writer who's been there." -- "Booklist"
"[An] absorbing, gritty military novel . . . [Lliteras] wins the
reader's admiration with his loyalty to and compassion for his
battle-mauled patients . . . [he] spins his first-person narrative
with laconic prose and acerbic wit . . . [an] accomplished novel."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
"[A] very different picture of war from the heroic stories of
military glory Americans are used to."--Christine Verderosa "The
Daily Press"
"[Vietman War] veterans have finally received approval and
encouragement to talk about their experiences, only to find that
they cannot easily communicate their feelings to those who were not
there with them. When an author succeeds in carrying his readers
directly into the jungles, the rice paddies, the strangely
impersonal hootches and dusty base camps, the world of drugs and
blank-eyed mama-sans, the impact of his words makes us gasp for
breath and struggle for understanding.
D.S. Lliteras has managed to do exactly that in his tersely-worded
literary novel, Viet Man. His narrator has no name other than
'Doc.' . . . As readers, we follow him through his first patrols,
his first kill, his first visit to the local red light district,
the growing recognition of his own mortality. When he describes a
scene, his details are specific and honest. We don't just learn
what's going on; we see it and smell it, feel it and hear it. In
peaceful moments he speaks to us in sentences and paragraphs. When
danger threatens or fear overwhelms, his mental state retreats into
disjointed phrases or single words. We learn about his broken
romance back home only when something triggers his own memories.
And in the end, we accompany him when he returns stateside, only to
find that those at home cannot begin to understand that he now
lives in a different world than the one they know.
This is a powerful novel, eloquent while using the simplest of
vocabulary and poetic in its clear-eyed imagery. Read it. Your
understanding of this tumultuous period of our history will be
forever enriched."--Carolyn Schriber, MWSA Reviewer "MWSA
Dispatches"
"I definitely like his [Lliteras'] writing style. His books really
make me think. He's definitely an author worth checking out!"--
"Motherhood Moment (blog)" (11/30/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"What Viet Man offers us is not only a work worthy of literary
accolades, but a tribute to a time when the world was confused and
tenuous--and we have never been able to understand why, until now,
where between the covers of this book we find our own Wilfred
Owens. Highly Recommended."--Grady Harp "Literary Aficionado
(Ontario, Canada)"
From Literary Aficionado by Grady Harp
D.S. Lliteras has looked at the 20th century and found it wanting.
Or rather, the audience for excellent literautre has yet to
recognize his importance so perhaps it is we, the wanters, who are
still lost, searching for a voice to define the last fifty or so
years. His credentials are impressive: he has written twelve books
since 1992, his first novels were biblical in nature and while they
gained accolades from the press it was only when he decided to
enter and related that part of his psyche that was most vulnerable
that his books burst into significance. Lliteras joined the US Navy
after high school and became a corpseman assigned to the USMC First
Reconaissance Battalion First Marine Division near DaNang, winning
a Bronze Star for valor. He was trained as a diver and further
endured the Vietnam War in that role. Following his discharge from
the USN he gained his BA and MA in Fine Arts from Florida State
University and worked as a theatrical director until 1979,
resigning to become a merchant sailor. In 1981 he aligned with the
USN as a deep sea diving and salvage officer, following which he
resigned his naval commission and became a professional
firefighter. And yes, all of this is pertinent to the content of
this, his newest and most brilliant book.
There are many novels written about all aspects of the Vietnam
War--some famous for recreating all aspects of the Vietnam
War--some famous for recreating the atmosphere of that major
mistake in US history both in the ill-defined battle ground of
Vietnam and in the rebellion by those in the US who either
violently protested the war or ran way from it to Canada--but to
date this reader (who served in Vietnam from 1968-1970 in the same
region as the author assigned by the USN to the USMC, etc) has not
encountered a novel that breathes the humid musky air of that
jungle war so accurately as does Lliteras' Viet Man even the title
is telling--about the mixed emotion of participating in that war.
As a corpsman Lliteras takes us through his arrival in Danang, his
preparation for recon search and destroy missions with the Marines,
his response to every aspect of that robbed year of service, the
terror of near death episodes, the ever-respect paranoia of not
knowing where the 'enemy' was, the physical exhaustion of patrols
and combat enounters, yet he also shows a very human aspect of the
interdependence among his marines, the humor, the use of drugs and
other escape hatches to breathe outside the line of fire if only
for moments, and the bonding with men on whom to depend for
protection while he provided medical readiness for the results of
engagement.
But one aspect (of many) that makes his book so rich and so real is
his extraordinarily literate ability to place his descriptions of
thoughts poetically while relating the acrid details of the war
zone thinking in piercingly penetrating, sharp prose. He compares
'Patrol Reports' (set on gray sheets and all in military
terminology) with his relating from a corpsman's mind and memory
what really happened. This attention to both feelings and observed
details is what makes the books more credible--and it is that
combination that makes his eventual return to the US to find a
country that seems to disregard him as a meaningless non-existent
piece of unnecessary reminder dung that we all felt when returning
"home" to the country for whom we had placed our lives on hold in a
zone of persistent cerebral damage we are still feeling--it is that
aspect that has been missing.
What Viet Man offers us is not only a work worth of literary
accolades, but a tribute to a time when the world was confused and
tenuous--as we have never been able to understand why, until now,
where between the covers of this book we find our own Wilfred Owen.
Highly Recommended.
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