Danger Close: The Mike Yon Story

by Michael Yon and Mike Yon

Book Overview

Mike Yon frankly and poetically chronicles the hardships and fulfillment of the warrior's journey.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967512328
• ISBN13: 9780967512327
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Apple Pie Publishers
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Naval Aviator loved this book!

This poignant biographical work hits you in all places of your heart. At times laughing with him and at other times feeling the heartwrenching pain with him, this book captures your attention from page one to the end. While retelling his captivating adventures of being a Green Beret with the US Army, he also includes the less exciting and heartwrenching details of his life--including the untimely death of his mother. I picked it up and couldn't put it down until I was done with it. This book is great for military and civilians alike! If a submarine-hunting P-3 flier can enjoy this book, so can you. Mike Yon candidly opens up and relates life--as is. If you relish the adventure of fiction with the down-to-earth punch of reality, this book is for you!

A True Account of the Events.

I have just finished reading Mike Yon's book "Danger Close" and found it to be one of those "can't put it down" type of books. I was captivated by it until the very end. It is an accurate account of the times and events that occurred in his life. I can say that because I was present during some of the events. I was in that Special forces class going through the "Q Course" and I remember the news of his arrest. After the course, everyone went their seperate ways and it wasn't until this past year that I learned of Mike's fate when I saw the book. It is must reading for anyone wanting to get an insight into life in SF and the life of a winner. To Mike, I say, BON CHANCE!!

Editor from New York Chiming In

As a freelance editor and book reviewer, I am usually too preoccupied with submissions from the "major" publishers to pay attention to self-published books (although historically, the self-publishing pond has bred fine and acclaimed work). Yet a few months ago, after hearing about Danger Close on National Public Radio's "Summer Reading List," I decided to order a copy. Ninety days later I'm still thinking about this book.Danger Close is many things: a memoir, an adventure story, a coming-of-age story, a lament. It manages to be so much at once because Michael Yon decided against hiring someone like me to tease out "the main story" and toss out or polish away the rest. For some readers--and many publishers, I'm sure--this would seem a liability. In my opinion, however, the author's insistence on telling his story precisely as he chooses makes for a work that is--from one page to the next- intelligent, raw and brutal, hilarious at times, and decidedly itself. The narrative that frames the work, i.e., the story of how Yon becomes a Green Beret at the age of nineteen, how he comes to face murder charges, and moves on, will certainly attract a certain readership. But action is not, in my view, what carries the story. The "real" story is far subtler. Yon has written a familiar, classic human narrative: a young person suffers losses and betrayals at an early age, survives/transcends these ordeals, and emerges transformed. Here, Yon ultimately emerges a writer--a defiant one, an opinionated one, and one who has managed to evade slickness and pretension so that, at his best, his stories are lucid, heartwrecking, and true. The author's decision to use multiple fonts, italics, hand drawings, and so forth may disconcert some readers. But to me, these quirks help define what is memorable about the book. (And why it is fully deserving of the William A. Gurley award for creative nonfiction.) Ultimately, Danger Close is sort of gloriously imperfect: funny, tragic, and over the top--but also, undeniably, very moving.

The brother I never had -a 14year old's view.

I didn't use to read a lot, I was surfing the net when I heard of this book. I got it shipped to Sweden from the nice guys at AppliePie, by e-mailing (!) them.Seeing the fun and joy of the beginning of his life is like looking at my own at a certain age, you become one with the book. The very good descriptive way that he (Mike Yon of course) tells you his life, is amazing. The feelings coming through reading this book is tough, I had to lay the book down for a week.The hell he went through after his first 7 years was amazing, the whole book is amazing if you ask me.The book gives you faith, it makes you wanna fight. Parts of my life has been hard. I've had times when I thought seriously about suicide (planing it and all), then I thought it was weak and that I was a fighter so way would I do it? But then I was bouncing between those options becuz of the question "why live?". Now I can truthfully say that I won't help death dealing with me. This book gave me faith, strength and something that I really need and needed, a big brother. The brother I never had. Someone to look upto. Someone you in a way you wanna become, but in the end you don't. You realize the pain that is everywhere, in your life, and his life. Why try to get his when you can change yours? Lot's of questions like this came up but more about confidence. Now I can say "I won't give up!" "I will never give up, I will make it!". That is something I couldn't do before.I think that everybody either needs help or some kinda encouragement. In my case encouragment. This book won't tell you you're the best and that he is a super-man-invincible-green-beret rather it will make you stand up and see how horrible life can be, and at the same time there is a away out. I guess it's not the same thing as making Special Forces training and it's not telling you what todo, it's showing you that you can make a good thing out of bad experience. That's my point of view.A review can't justify this book, it will teach you, make you grow up, make you human, learn you not to give up. and a lot more.Description of book: Astonishing.Military have always been in the back of my head, now I know I wanna become a special forces soldier.