Customer Reviews

An amazingly dark book - By: Alex DeLarge, 09 Jan 2004
I think that the fact that a passage is lifted from the pages of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" gives the reader a fair warning of the bleak story. Robert Stone introduces the reader to an American named John Converse who plans to make quick money with three kilograms of uncut heroin. The first third of the book describesin vivid detail the country of & the state of the country of Vietnam, with characters including a missionary, a prostitute, American G.I.'s, & more. The story cuts to the United States when Converse's friend (I lack the vocabulary for a better term for this relationship) named Hicks acts as courier. Sketchy characters enter the scene who, being utterly without conscience, commit horrifying acts, including burning Converse's ear on a stovetop. I don't want to give too much of the action away, so let me just say that it ends on a sad note & requires the reader to endure a couple hundred cheerless pages. The storyline & fascinating characters alone make this story worthwhile; the strong message adds a nice but often absent bonus to the novel.