Really gives us a look at the times of the Vietnam War and how it affected one guy's life. He worked on purifying water but then any place was a war zone. Many were drafted and came home to face those who did not support the war. They lived in a situation where they did not know who the enemy was from one moment to the next. Many of the guys who were drafted did not have a good attitude which did not help. You cannot begin to relate if you weren't there.

Author McGinnis offered a hard look back at the often neglected, perhaps most important aspect of the Vietnam War - the ravaged minds of the returning combat veterans. The eroding adrenaline rush of minute-by-minute fear that never ended, eventually, took an everlasting toll on the crumbling psyche. No infantryman or anyone else for that matter that slept alongside the devil in Vietnam will ever leave it behind. The tortured minds found their way home to a dismissive public and were left to fend for themselves. Welcome home.

Draftee, Private Theo Garrett was a combat engineer water purification specialist who was not left unscathed from the panic-stricken War. Though not attached directly to the Infantry, he soon was faced with his own personal demons that clawed their way through to his soul. Their silent screams are with him today.

Entering the war zone in Vietnam to a city boy was akin to going to another planet inhabited by hostile beings intent on having your entrails for breakfast. Over time, it slowly chipped away at the very core of our hard-wired human reasoning.

With all the training and preparation the military had to offer, there'd be no way to prepare for the mental onslaught, no getting around it. The mind had been taken prisoner. And there rests the premise of what this novel was all about. It was well done.

My thanks are offered to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this digital edition in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is an incredible story well written and with characters that will not leave your memory any time soon. This is a honest representation of the feelings of war and the relationships that are formed.

An interesting book on the Vietnam War. No glorification of war, no preaching of war's futility or war's glory, just one man's take on time spent in a foreign country under constant threat of death or injury and of the impact that this experience had on him as a person.

It should leave the reader thoughtful and mindful of the impact of conflict on the psyche and is probably as current today as it would have been had it been written in the Vietnam was era.

Really enjoyed the novel. It is written in an anecdotal style, so don't expect much of a plot. The novel offers insights on daily life while serving in Vietnam. If you have even a passing interest in the Vietnam war, I reccomend reading this book.