The Marines of Autumn

by James Brady

War has been the inspiration of such great novels as The Red Badge of Courage and A Farewell to Arms, and daring feats of courage and tragic mistakes have been the foundation for such classic works. Now, for the first time ever, the Korean War has a novel that captures that courage and sacrifice.

When Captain Thomas Verity, USMC, is called back to action, he must leave his Georgetown home, career, and young daughter and rush to Korea to monitor Chinese radio transmissions. At first acting in an advisory role, he is abruptly thrust into MacArthur's last daring and disastrous foray-the Chosin Reservoir campaign-and then its desperate retreat.

Time magazine at the time recounted the retreat this way: The running fight of the Marines...was a battle unparalleled in U.S. military history. It had some aspects of Bataan, some of Anzio, some of Dunkirk, some of Valley Forge, and some of 'the retreat of the 10,000' as described in Xenophon's Anabasis.

The Marines of Autumn is a stunning, shattering novel of war illuminated only by courage, determination, and Marine Corps discipline. And by love: of soldier for soldier, of men and their women, and of a small girl in Georgetown, whose father promised she would dance with him on the bridges of Paris. A child Captain Tom Verity fears he may never see again.

In The Marines of Autumn, James Brady captures our imagination and shocks us into a new understanding of war.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Military Fiction, War, Military History, Historical, American History

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

James Winston Brady was an American celebrity columnist who created the Page Six gossip column in the New York Post and authored the In Step With column in Parade for nearly 25 years until his death. He also authored numerous books about his time serving in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War.

Brady was born in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. His career in journalism started working as a copy boy for the Daily News, where he worked while attending Manhattan College. He graduated in 1950. He left the paper to serve in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War.During the war, he was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines first leading a rifle platoon and later acting as an executive officer of a rifle company at one point serving under John Chafee. The majority of his service took place in the North Korean Taebaek Mountains during the fall and bitterly cold winter of 1951 and 1952. Brady was awarded the Bronze Star with the Combat V (recognizing an award resulting from combat heroism) in November 2001 for his actions on May 31, 1952 in a firefight with Chinese forces near Panmunjom.

Brady died at age 80 on January 26, 2009 at his home in Manhattan.

James Brady is the father of Susan Konig.

Reviews

[Scottnshana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I had a high school English teacher that survived both Chosin and the POW experience in Korea, and this man was one of the big mentors I needed as a young man (in the 1980s) and one of the islands in the archipelago of experiences that make up this review. While I never personally heard him speak of it, I was reacquainted with this focal moment in American military history around the time he passed on (during that blissful historical moment between Y2K and 9/11) via the best non-fiction account I've read on Chosin, Martin Russ's "Breakout". The pull-back action from Chosin--and Mr. Russ's book makes this explicitly clear--was in essence a hellish, freezing, bloody, and superlatively awful road trip. Military historians will of course compare this to Napoleon's or the Wehrmacht's retreats from Russia ("Twenty-five below now. For the first time, the division was counting more casualties from the cold and frostbite than from wounds.") or Xenophon's "Anabasis", but I think Mr. James Brady has instead handed off a classic more reminiscent of other road trip adventures like the "Lord of the Rings". In fact, the book has a quote from Kurt Vonnegut on the cover comparing it to the "Iliad"; I think it more closely resembles "The Odyssey", with its "Be dead by then. Or, better, home." theme. These comparisons, though, are tempered by the fact that General Oliver Smith managed to bring a large portion of his force back to a port and subsequent evacuation (from a tent at Hagaru--"Not a retreat, he told himself, but a march.") testifies to the leadership that flowed downward to the officers and NCOs slogging along the roads and mountainsides. Mr. Brady explores the relationship inside the chain of command throughout the novel, using his three principal characters--for example: "Gunnery and master sergeants had ways; they looked up their officers. If a man were going to issue an order that might kill you, you deserved to know more than his name, rank, and serial number. Gunnery sergeants took care of each other. [Captain] Verity was always aware he was being measured. Marines did that. On Guadalcanal he'd been measured as a kid enlisted man; on Okinawa as a young officer. He was being measured now." This was, however, a chain of command that again was in one of the most inhospitable landscapes on the planet, and Brady reads a lot like Hemingway when he consistently reminds the reader of that, again through the eyes of the company-grade officer: "Verity once might have felt guilty about having a roof and a fire while other men huddled out of the wind in open fields, squatting or lying on frozen ground with only a bit of canvas for shelter. Not now. Cold did that to men, reducing them to clever, self-absorbed animals ready to do anything for warmth, almost anything to survive." These details are interspersed with scenes describing the herculean efforts necessary to bring off the aforementioned evacuation, for instance when "Verity and his two men drew hot rations from the engineer battalion hacking out the airstrip and ate sitting on the warm hood of the jeep, watching the engineers work. It was interesting to see, especially if you didn't have to do it." In this short passage, the book has conveyed one of those memorable moments in war--the break to see to your men's needs in the midst of something monumental (I have a similar personal moment I often come back to--drinking coffee with on HESCO barriers adjacent the runway at Bagram Airfield, discussing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan with a superior) and the importance of providing hot chow and warming tents in the field. This is not something one who has never seen a war can adequately convey, and it speaks to the fact that the author himself stacked time leading a rifle platoon in Korea. I think that Brady's examination of the also-present and iconic Chesty Puller is also just enough to keep the narrative going without overwhelming it. Details of Puller's style--"favoring old sergeants over young officers"; recognizing the value of foreign area officers (trust me, this isn't a universal trait in military leadership) and seeking their advice; and Puller's documented proclivity for "not taking names and numbers and writing people up, just taking direct action"--are included, but again do not take anything away from the essential story as the 3 protagonists drive to the coast and home. Mr. Brady puts the Chosin story in historical context through those characters' discussions on their long jeep ride about not only Xenophon's 10,ooo, but also the Donner Party, Custer, and Nathan Bedford Forrest. He attempts to elicit the physical pain and endurance of those who survived this event via coagulating blood, prisoners left barefoot on the side of the road to freeze, and the men "who just shit in their trousers as they marched." The book ends with the statement that the men at Chosin were "Crazy or froze or dead. Or all three." There is more here though than a generalization on the men trapped under fire at Chosin. "The Marines of Autumn" is a rumination on leadership, home/hearth, and the extraordinary practice of keepin'on keepin' on in order to do a job under horrible conditions. It is about character and the people we send to do our business in war; and I personally believe that the passage of 65 years has not diminished the legend or the example that these men bequeathed us at Chosin.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunting. Not all heroes are victorious. These unsung heroes illustrate the courage and commitment that keeps us free. Thanks to the Marines of Autumn!

[Michael Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am rating this book as four stars instead of five because it is written to cover the story of a soldier, by a soldier who was in this war but at a different time and place. It is not exactly true but it is not fiction either. Brady has done his research, he has met and talked with soldiers who were there and he has found letters and the diary of the main character. I hate to call him a protagonist; the book is written like, and reads like, a memoir or autobiography. It is not a memoir, but it is memoiresque covering a short period of the soldier's life.

The story is set in late 1950 in the Korean War. It covers how a recently widowed US Captain (name of Verity in this book, Chafee in real life) with a three year old daughter, who is not in the active Reserve, who fought in WWII is conscripted into the Korean War against his will. He is promised a behind the lines job in intelligence; radio interception and interpretation.

The United Nations Corps (mostly American Marines and Army in two divisions) is already north of the North / South Korean border and is being ordered to get to the Chinese border as soon as possible. Winter is coming on and the terrain is mountains. There is one narrow road surrounded by high ridges. Besides being indefensible, it is late in the year and the road is getting deeper and deeper in snow and is very difficult to traverse for the highly mechanized US military. Verity identifies double digits, and growing, of Chinese divisions under two army commanders whom he knows personally to be very tough, ruthless and successful fighters. The lower level American generals: Brigadiers, Division commanders and Corps commander, accept his intelligence. However the Army commander and UN commander (McArthur) find his information unpalatable and exclude it from their decision making.

The inevitable occurs and UN troops are attacked. The Chinese prove to be excellent fighters. The odds against the UN troops have been estimated at five to one, eight to one, even as high as sixteen to one. The UN positions can be held but casualties are very heavy. Platoons and companies need to be replaced every day or two while battalions can last only a few days. Casualties cannot be sustained and the corps is ordered to return to Hungnam where it started. They now have to return along the single, narrow, snow covered road that they started on.

By this time Verity is no longer needed for his intelligence; he has been proven correct. The Brigade and Division generals have all thanked him profusely as they had all taken as many precautions as they could without downright disobeying their orders. They had not partitioned or dispersed their forces. Verity was now placed in harm's way, ordered to become an infantry officer, a position he knew from WWII. On his first night, his platoon was reduced to eight by casualties. Reinforcements appeared and life went on from there.

While this is partially a war story, it is also a story about how men get on during terrible conditions. The conditions were indeed terrible on that road. It takes the author almost as much space to describe how terrible things were as to describe how men get on in those conditions. This was as interesting and shocking as the war story part.

Definitely worth reading if you want to know how these armies were fought or if you want to read a war story.

Four stars

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book and I learned a lot. They don't call Korea 'the forgotten war' for nothing. It wasn't a bright and shining moment for our military and they suffered mightily. The Chinese were a formidable enemy and were greatly underestimated by the higher up in command. With that said, this is a work of fiction that tells the story of a reserve Marine, Captain Verity, called back into duty during the Korean war. He is a recent widow with a three year old child and very reluctant to leave her. He had combat experience from Guadalcanal, but the Marines want him because he is fluent in Chinese.

Capt. Verity is tossed into the war and soon is paired with a grizzled Gunny named Tate and a questionable young enlisted driver, nicknamed "Mouse". I loved this book because the story reads "true" in the character development and the way the story unfolds. The three men are unsure of each other to begin with but soon develop a tight relationship as they endure the freezing cold, hunger, attacks by the Chinese, and the terrifying retreat to the sea.

I highly recommend this book for lovers of war fiction and historical fiction.

[Janis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have seen pictures and documentaries of the battles of the Korean War but this book made them real. James Brady did serve as a combat platoon officer in the battle of the North Korean mountains near the Chosin Reservoir. He bases his main character Thomas Verity on his Captain John H. Chafee of Rhode Island who became governor of his state, Secretary of the Navy , and a United States Senator.I felt like I needed a warm blanket when I read of the cold temperatures that the Marines endured. I felt so much admiration for Verity, his Gunnery Sergeant and radioman Tate who also spoke some Chinese. Verity knew Chinese from time spent there with his parents, which why he was pulled from his civilian life. His assignment was to listen to the radio and to pick up Chinese chatter. They found their driver,Izzo,a resourceful private from South Philadelphia who was n the brig for stealing Marine supplies. Brady's description of the terrain, the trio's emotions. and their loyalty to each other was right up there with Hemingway's Robert Jordan and to some extent both TimO'Brien's characters in The Things They Carried.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic fictional account of the Marines retreat from the Chosin reservoir in 1951. Told through the eyes of a Marine Captain, Gunny Sergeant and driver; the account begins in the heady days when the UN forces are advancing rapidly towards the Yalu River and ends at Hangnam, the port where 20,000 Marines are evacuated by sea. Captain Verity was raised in China and speaks Mandarin and six other dialects fluently. His job is to get as close to the front lines as possible and listen to the Chinese radio communications. He gathers information about the forces engaged and identifies the units and key personnel. As a single father with a small girl, he resists the call to arms unsuccessfully and ends up in the middle of the fighting. Aided by two very competent enlisted men, the three men with their jeep and radio make their way north and then south in the coldest winter weather any of them ever knew. Excellently written by James Brady and a combat platoon leader who writes of what he knows this is a warfare classic.

[Lauren Yorks · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Marines of Autumn has my respect. For how many WWII novels I can name, it took digging to find this Korean War one. Even so, it juggles a thin novel narrative with non fiction prose and atmospheric drama. Mainly the horrifically cold and unkind conditions of our heroes. Verity was a simple character, one you understand immediately, hence good investment. Izzo had the loudest personality, literally, he’s described as chatty. Tate’s chill, not much to say about him, but his moments were cool. I just wish the flow had more…. Plot. This is the war equivalent to slice of life. Focusing less on plot and more on (like I said) why these people endure. I give the story an A-, with a stronger end goal it had the pieces to be an S. On the other hand, I love the respect and harsh realities of war. It doesn’t hold any punches, and that’s admirable. Marines or Autumn is one of the most difficult reads to absorb, but it’s worth it to the end. A little more story than we’re close to perfect.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this when it first came out in 2000, and then passed my copy to my aunt, whose husband (and my favorite - if only - uncle) had been a "gunny" in Korea.

Written ten years after Brady's excellent The Coldest War, this is to some extent a fictionalized version of the same larger story, although Brady didn't see action in Korea until a year after the infamous retreat from the Chosin reservoir (which makes up this book). Taken together, they are a literary tour de force, although an almost indescribably horrific one.

For some reason I've long confused Brady with James D. Bradley, author of Flyboys, and the somewhat controversial The Imperial Cruise and The China Mirage, (at least controversial to a good Hyde Park-ian like me, as Bradley takes a dim view of the Roosevelts, both Franklin and Theodore).

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is hard to put down. It’s an eye-opening introduction to the Korean War – often referred to as the Forgotten War – and an accurate treatment of the disastrous Chosin Reservoir campaign in North Korea in the fall and early winter of 1950. Brady does a great job describing the brutality of fighting dozens of Chinese divisions during a severe winter and how Americans were unprepared to do so. If you always wondered why Gen. Douglas MacArthur was relieved of command by President Truman, “The Marines of Autumn” describes MacArthur’s arrogance and incompetence for allowing UN forces to penetrate so far into North Korea, only to be driven back with incredible losses. It’s a good tale, especially one that Marines would enjoy.

[Patsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My late husband, a Vietnam Marine, would never speak of the war or his experience. While these are two different wars, the book helped me to know that some of his sayings were from the Marine Corps. He was always saying, “saddle up”, meaning let’s go, which is used frequently in the book. The Marines of Autumn helped me learn a little about the Korean War. Even though I’m a Baby Boomer, I know very little about the 20th Century! I recommend this book if you’ve know a Marine or have a thirst for history! I’d love to have a chat with the author who was, himself, a Marine.

[Robert M. Roth MD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not his best

In my opinion, this book falls short because the central characters are essentially observers in the battle of the Chosin reservoir. While they are armed Marines, they spent the majority of their time driving around in a Jeep, have access to warming tents and the rare hot meal. I think the story would have been better told had they been in combat and seeking shelter in the snow. Other authors have done a much fuller depiction of what the soldiers had to endure to survive.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forgotten War remembered

If this novel fails to choke you up you’re a heartless reader. Brady writes here in a style reminiscent of Ward Just, digging into the character of the academic recalled to the Marine Corps for his ability to speak fluent Chinese. Brady laces this historically accurate account of the retreat of troops from the “Frozen Chosin” with grim humor. The horror of it all is unrelenting but speaks volumes about Marine Corps tradition.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a Marine for 46 years. I have heard the stories of the Chosin reservoir my entire adult life. This book and The Frozen Hours have brought the honor, courage and sacrifice of these men to life. It has cemented my admiration and profound respect for Chesty Puller and all the other Marines who served there. Goodnight Chesty, wherever you are.

[Laura Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay. An easy read. I think James Brady's writing style is more conducive to non-fiction. And I do have a book of non-fiction by him on my shelf which I plan on reading in the future. Don't know if I'll try anymore fiction by him though.

[Steve Bender · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe the best war novel I have ever read. After reading this book, I feel like I finally understand the horrors of the Korean War. don't miss this story from a man who was there. Highly recommended.

[Donna Herrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

An eye-opening, poignant story of the Korean War

[Ken Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good novel of Chosen Reservoir

[Tom Goyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done historical fiction. Similar to other well done books of historical fiction, you get a good sense of what it was like to be there while also telling a story.

[Steve Ewing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book on a war few of us know about or understand

[Philip Dolson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good story. Good attention to detail. Very sad ending, though…

[David Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a read, it felt like I was watching abit of MASH at times. Depressing ending though

[Int'l librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

One retreat. 270 pages to fall back from Point A to Point B. And my biggest complaint is that the brief pauses for contextual character development get in the way of the backward motion. It’s just enough of a complaint to make this novel very good instead of great.

The setting is the Chosin Resevoir area, during the Korean War. The setup and flashbacks help to explain why our hero, Tom Verity, is there, and why he wishes he wasn’t. But that doesn’t make up for the fact that civilian Tom has the slightly slick demeanor of a 1950s soft-spoken sophisticated man’s man. A married James Bond, with all the appreciative objectification of women that implies.

Tom’s wife comes across as this impossibly tough, sharp, super-hot trophy. All the more of a trophy because she’s been dead for years. That scenario might make sense within the context of the story and the time period, but it still feels oily.

The war zone, on the other hand, is both frozen solid and fetid. The US-led offensive is over as soon as it begins, crushed by -20F snowstorms and an overwhelming swarm of Chinese soldiers on a desperate counter-attack.

That’s the story Brady tells best. He led a Marine combat platoon in Korea. He knows how poorly equipped the Marines were for winter weather. How out-manned they were. How arrogant and power-hungry the US military leaders, especially Douglas MacArthur, were. And he knows what the snow and ice did to vehicles, weapons and bodies. He captures all of that in the march back from Chosin to the sea. Everybody suffers. Thousands die. And Tom Verity takes each step one at a time.

I don’t know the factual details well enough to dispute Brady’s account. My only recourse is to sit back in awe of each imagined soldier’s struggle to survive, or surrender to the elements. And when the retreat ends, and the story becomes a different story once again, I no longer mind so much.

[ACS Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

One retreat. 270 pages to fall back from Point A to Point B. And my biggest complaint is that the brief pauses for contextual character development get in the way of the backward motion. It 19s just enough of a complaint to make this novel very good instead of great.

The setting is the Chosin Resevoir area, during the Korean War. The setup and flashbacks help to explain why our hero, Tom Verity, is there, and why he wishes he wasn 19t. But that doesn 19t make up for the fact that civilian Tom has the slightly slick demeanor of a 1950s soft-spoken sophisticated man 19s man. A married James Bond, with all the appreciative objectification of women that implies.

Tom 19s wife comes across as this impossibly tough, sharp, super-hot trophy. All the more of a trophy because she 19s been dead for years. That scenario might make sense within the context of the story and the time period, but it still feels oily.

The war zone, on the other hand, is both frozen solid and fetid. The US-led offensive is over as soon as it begins, crushed by -20 F snowstorms and an overwhelming swarm of Chinese soldiers on a desperate counter-attack.

That 19s the story Brady tells best. He led a Marine combat platoon in Korea. He knows how poorly equipped the Marines were for winter weather. How out-manned they were. How arrogant and power-hungry the US military leaders, especially Douglas MacArthur, were. And he knows what the snow and ice did to vehicles, weapons and bodies. He captures all of that in the march back from Chosin to the sea. Everybody suffers. Thousands die. And Tom Verity takes each step one at a time.

I don 19t know the factual details well enough to dispute Brady 19s account. My only recourse is to sit back in awe of each imagined soldier 19s struggle to survive, or surrender to the elements. And when the retreat ends, and the story becomes a different story once again, I no longer mind so much.

[Brent Bergman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marines of Autumn was a novel that portrayed this period of military history much further than anything else written about it. This book shows you even if the toughest times fight harder and you will prosper. The soldiers throughout this story line were always outnumbered due to their enemy being such a large country. Reading this book wouldn't be a disappointment but that's none of my business. I had high hopes for reading this because its based upon the Chosin Reservoir, in which my grandfather fought in. So there is a sole reason for me to read this novel. Anyone that enjoys history or military at that would enjoy this undeniably. I also recommend this novel to anyone leery about this time in history or would like a first hand account of the war of the Chosin Reservoir.

[Emliu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author James Brady does a spectacular job of illustrating the hardships and struggles both physically and emotionally of the often forgotten Korean War. He puts the reader into a first person perspective of the Korean War through the eyes of Captain Tom Verity. Marines of Autumn evokes the emotional side of the reader through Captain Verity’s deep connection with the Chinese culture and also his constant heartaches of his wife Elizabeth and his daughter Kate. Tim Verity is a marine reservist who last fought as an enlisted man in the pacific theater of war. He was called back into service during the Korean War for his intricate relationship and knowledge of the Chinese. Besides Brady’s ability to intimately relate the reader to the main character, he also does a fantastic job of depicting the actual war itself. Brady- a Korean War veteran himself- does a great job telling the story of disastrous Chosin Reservoir campaign by the United States Marines from autumn into winter during the 1950’s. With the North Koreans already largely defeated, the U.S. continues pushing them closer and closer to the Korean/ Chinese border, but before they can be beat all the way back, the Chinese intervened with thousands of troops. The harsh winters depicted in the book kill many on both sides as each army pushes for control. All in all, Marines of Autumn by James Brady was an emotionally moving book with its close knit relationship to Captain Verity. It also helps readers grasp a understanding of the true hardships faced by soldiers throughout the “forgotten” war, the Korean War.

[Matt Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are few books on the Korean war, and even fewer fiction books on the subject. This novel did it's job in being an entertaining read for the most part. It did well in giving the reader the sense of desperation that must have been felt on the march out of the Chosin Reservoir.



I did have a couple of problems with this book. The foreshadowing that was present from almost the beginning of this book can really give away the story a perceptive reader. The ending of the book didn't fit with the rest of the story at all, and was hard and sometimes difficult to finish because it had an almost comical sense to it. Other events in the book seemed really unnecessary and only served to mess with the emotions of the reader without contributing anything to the story.



The book is a good mixture of true events, historical accounts, and pretty decent story telling. I would recommend this book to readers who were interested in the subject matter, but I would caution the casual reader.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brady's work has a ringing of truth to it, from start to finish. Very nearly reading as if it's a piece of nonfiction, but for its strict focus on the story and the characters at hand, the work brings to life moments of humor, love, and misery, and does so with such attention to setting and attitude that the reader becomes something of a fly on the wall of Captain Verity's journey... and is just so horrified by it as they are thankful for Brady's crafting of such a narrative.

It took me some time to discover Brady, though I'd heard his name. When I thought of war literature, I thought of Norman Mailer and Tim O'Brien, and of All Quiet on the Western Front and a handful of others. Yet, there's something about The Marines of Autumn--a sort of authenticity that comes through in Brady's style--that I'm not sure I've quite seen elsewhere. There were moments here where I was reminded I was reading fiction, but more often than not, that wasn't how I felt at all.

Absolutely recommended.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never read a book like this. It was a gut wrenching story of our military and how they had to retreat when the Chinese crossed into North Korea by the thousands. The north Koreans had already been defeated and the Korean war was thought to be nearing the end. It was bitterly cold, 20 below and the weather was killing our men as well as the Chinese. Captain Verity had been drawn into this conflict because his understanding of the Chinese people having spent his childhood in China. This story, written around Captain Verity was very moving. No one can read this book without marveling at the courage and toughness under fire of our U.S. Marines. Douglas MacArthur was not spoken well of. This book was an inspiration and a learning experience for me. I very much recommend every American read it.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like the book more than I did.
This book with respect to the quality of writing
had too many ups and downs with regard to engaging
the reader. I frequently found characters to be rather
stereotypical and from my perspective failed to evoke
much of anything with regard to their particular plights.

However, that said, there are moments in this story where
the particular dilemmas experienced caused this reader to
stop and consider the situation portrayed in this winter
withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir Region of North Korea.

As a Marine I wondered how I might have performed under these
circumstances, and while glad not to have been there, I am grateful
to those who were.

[Stephen Cluff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel written by a man who was there tells the story of the disastrous Chosin Reservoir Campaign in Korea in the autumn and winter of 1950. The book was well written and gave a good grunt’s eye view of the United State’s Army’s blundering first months of the Korean War. In the end, however, I was disappointed by the novel’s heavy-handed tug at the reader’s heartstrings. The author ended the book exactly as I had cynically and pessimistically thought he would while reading the book’s first chapter. All in all, however, I consider The Marines of Autumn a good read, especially if one has an interest in the Korean War.