Keep Your Head Down: Vietnam, the Sixties, and a Journey of Self-Discovery
Starred Review. Anderson (The Moon Reflected Fire) has led an amazing life—before, during and after his 1967–1968 tour of duty as a navy corpsman with the 1st Marine Division in Vietnam. He has been a jazz drummer, a playwright, an actor, an alcoholic and son of an alcoholic, a college dropout, a college instructor, a drug abuser, a PTSD sufferer and a poet. In his first book of nonfiction, Anderson tells his story in inviting, poetic prose. He begins with his dysfunctional childhood in Memphis, then offers an evocative depiction of his service in Vietnam, which included a firefight on his first day in the field and more than his share of closely observed horror. He shows the hell of war as he went through it. Only in recent years did Anderson stop drinking, find meaningful work as a poet and teacher, marry and make a life-changing trip back to Vietnam in 2000. Yet what Anderson dubs Snakebrain (the demons inside him) remains a part of him. His beautifully told story is one of redemption, but also one without a happy ending.(July)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.