The Marine: A Novel of War from Guadalcanal to Korea - Paperback

by James Brady (Author)

A rousing new Marine Corps adventure from the author of the New York Times bestselling Warning of War and The Marines of Autumn

The Marine is Colonel James ("Oliver") Cromwell, a warrior forged at Notre Dame and the Berlin of Hitler's Olympics, and honed by combat at Guadalcanal as one of Carlson's Marine Raiders. With the world at peace, the thirty-five-year old Cromwell is restlessly, if pleasantly, beached on garrison duty in California, aware of how much he misses the war, when he is ordered to fresh duty beyond the seas, as military attaché to the American ambassador in a dull Asian backwater half a world away. There, at dawn on a June Sunday, Ollie gets his wish for action. Korea violently erupts and Colonel Cromwell is caught up in the early, panicked, rout. While South Koreans cut and run, the first GIs hurried into battle are brushed aside by advancing Red tanks and tough peasant infantry.

The Marine chronicles the war-hardened Cromwell's experience of the dramatic First Hundred Days of a brutal three-year Korean War, the chaos and cowardice of retreat, the last-ditch gallantry of the Pusan Perimeter, MacArthur's brilliant left hook sending Marines against the deadly seawall at Inchon, and the bloody assault to liberate Seoul and promote MacArthur's 1952 presidential ambitions. Ollie Cromwell's is the story of a "forgotten war" that never truly ended, but for a bitter truce along what a recent U.S. president called "the most dangerous border in the world."

In The Marine, James Brady crafts a powerful novel of one man's service to his country and Corps.

Back Jacket

Praise for James Brady

"Brady has emerged as one of the best novelists of his generation."---Dan Rather

"Mr. Brady knows war, the smell and the feel of it."---The New York Times

"Mr. Brady captures the heart and soul of the Marine Corps in this stunning new novel. [He] writes with passion and great insight." Nelson DeMille, author of The Lion's Game

"Brady has stormed publishing high ground to become, arguably, our foremost novelist currently writing on the subject of Marines at war."---Publishers Weekly

"The Marines of Autumn is right up there with the very best of combat writing and is destined to become one of the defining novels of the genre."---Nelson DeMille, author of The Lion's Game

"The Marines of Autumn is a masterpiece that recalls the era with awesome authenticity. The novel's outcome is one of thunderous dramatic beauty and power."---The Associated Press

Author Biography

James Brady commanded a Marine rifle platoon during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star for valor. He wrote weekly for Parade Magazine and for Advertising Age. He lived in Manhattan and in East Hampton, New York.