REVIEWS FOR R&R
“From the opening page, in which monsoon rain unearths a coffin and sends it down the hill into the hands of tow sacrilegious GIs in a bar in South Vietnam, Dapin has you gripped. There are loads of books about the Vietnam War, but none is quite as funny, inflammatory and soul-scraping. … Verdict: blazing.”
Blanche Clarke, literary editor, Herald Sun, “10 books you should read before the end of 2015”
“Quote of the week: ‘I only know that the Aussies have done a tremendous job of pacifying Phuoc Tuy province, which was one of the most peaceful in Vietnam before they got here and doesn’t seem any worse since they arrived, which is a f..king outstanding success for any military program.’
Well, it’s a quote I read only this week, from the American protagonist of Mark Dapin’s riotous new novel R&R, a work that reminds me of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.”
Stephen Romei, literary editor, The Australian
“Dapin writes with tremendous swagger (his style is a head-on collision of Steve Toltz and Joseph Heller). Rude, raw, crude, violent and shocking, this is as satisfying a mateship story as you could hope for.”
Caroline Baum in Booktopia Buzz Read full review HERE.
“It is a lurid, often gruesome depiction of the endless shame and torment of war. Dapin, whose previous book, The Nashos’ War, is a ground-breaking account of the generation of Australian men who were drafted to fight in Vietnam, has unleashed a novel with a verbal ferocity that devotees of a hard-boiled writer such as James Ellroy might readily appreciate.”
Simon Caterson in The Sydney Morning Herald Read full review HERE.
“R&R is a modern Catch-22 by an author who writes with boots on his fingers. Prepare for a kicking because R&R is hilarious, poignant and incredibly powerful. … R&R is littered with memorable characters who burst into the book and jump straight from the page into the reader’s heart. … Just as with his utterly beautiful earlier novel, Spirit House, so Dapin is unique in the way he uses comedy to juxtapose the brutality of war without belittling or disrespecting the horrendous experience and immense courage of the men who fought and died. Taut and explosive, R&R is no crass anti-war diatribe. Brutal and uncompromising, there is only a hint of futility; rather, what Dapin does is bring a sense of humanity to the fore.”
Rob Minshull in Weekend Bookworm (ABC)
Read full blog HERE.
“This is one hell of a tough war story. … I highly recommend this explosive novel. And it’s got a fuckin’ great cover.”
Fred Negro in Booked Out – Book Reviews by Fred Negro
Read full review HERE.
“It’s difficult not to compare fictionalised versions of the Vietnam War – Apocalypse Now certainly comes to mind here, and Good Morning Vietnam – but the wry humour and pure insanity of R&R‘s plot is all Dapin. … Originality may be Dapin’s calling card, but raucousness should be up there too, and that’s what this book is about.”
Margot Lloyd in The Adelaide Advertiser
“Dapin writes prose that crackles and pops, at turns bloody and poignant, shocking but with wry humour.”
Bernard Whimpress in The Newtown Review of Books
Read full review HERE.
“R&R, a war novel set in Vietnam, is both violent and comic. It often has the power to shock as it describes psychopathic males in wartime. Author Mark Dapin has achieved something brilliant and striking. … R&R is a remarkable achievement. Writing a novel with several of the main characters being basically psychopathic, yet imbuing them with humour, is no easy task to pull off. Dapin controls his narrative superbly, with the action often becoming quite explosive, yet never running off the rails. He also has a wide cast of wonderfully developed supporting characters that gives the story a richness and believability. Often frightening and disturbing, R&R has the power to shock as it describes men’s violence and nihilism.”
Chris Saliba for North Melbourne Books
Read full review HERE.
Read an interview with Mark for North Melbourne Books newsletter HERE.