RaveThe Cleveland Plain DealerCracking its cover is like the click, click, click of the first upward climb of a roller coaster. After that, there's no looking back. It's a brilliant, stomach-lurching ride through the Vietnamese jungle bordering the DMZ … Mellas is initially terrified of appearing to be exactly what he is — scared, ambitious, uncertain. His flaws render him compulsively studiable as he works to protect his platoon, manage Vesuvian racial tension in the ranks and parry all the jungle can dish out: leeches, biting ants, ‘jungle rot’ (when skin oozes with infection), mud, malnutrition, even tigers … At its core, Matterhorn is an unforgettable war story.
