Panama

By John Segelbaum

Panama is a story of failure and redemption set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. It is 1969 and a rebellious young naval officer, John Shetler, reports to flight school with dreams of becoming a Navy fighter pilot. But as friends are killed and others turn to drugs, Shetler becomes disillusioned with the Navy and the war and drops out, Narrowly avoiding a one-way ticket to Vietnam, he is assigned to a top-secret naval operations center in Panama and soon finds himself involved with Marta, a beautiful drug-addicted nightclub singer, shadowy CIA spies and Manuel Noriega's decret police. The unwitting pawn in a murder plot to safegueard the Panamanian's drug smuggling operations, only Shetler's wits will determine if he and Marta survive.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1419676180
• ISBN13: 9781419676185
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Booksurge Publishing
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Great Read!

Panama is a terrific book. It is listed as a work of fiction...but my guess is that author John Segelbaum may have had more than a little experience with adventure and exotic ladies in exotic locations. On top of it all he almost totals a cool Corvette during the first few pages...that got my attention real quick. And it gets better from there! Fun to read, full of intrigue, with twists and turns that keep the reader turning the pages. Also...some amusing moments that add to the enjoyment of the book.

Graham Greene meets M*A*S*H

Whether you remember the Sixties or your parents have just told you about them, this book will capture for you what it was really like. It's not the funky nostalgia you see today of flowered vans (although it has one) but the gritty reality of what it was like when the draft or the threat of the draft made death seem that much closer. The author's words are fresh and exciting. He describes the chaos that seems to follow his main character wherever he goes. If Holden Caulfield had joined the Navy in 1969 this would be his story. The book is taut and suspenseful and totally unpredictable. It combines elements of Graham Greene's "Quiet American" with "Our Man in Havana". It captures the insanities of the Miliary life that are alternately hysterically funny and infinitely tragic. It has elements of "Catch-22" and yet it is totally original. You come to really care what happens to these people. They are real, and that is what makes it such a compelling story. Reading it is as vivid as a trip to Panama or a trip to the past.

Not since the Kite Runner have I relished a book this much!

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! It is a real page turner. I couldn't, and didn't put it down...except when I had to explain to those around me why I was laughing so hard. The reader gets a real sense of how honorable and crazymaking an experience the navy was for the author. The politics of the time intertwined with the author's social and naval life makes for a terrific read. Segelbaum's sense of the absurd and his fine tuned perceptions of people and cultures are dead on. I laughed, I cried...and the book stayed with me long after I finished reading it - the mark of a truly great story.

Panama is intoxicating

What an intoxicating journey! Panama is layered with political intrigue and cultural clashes. It's populated with colorful characters, romance and adventure. It made me laugh and it made me cry. The author took me on a mezmerizing journey to a land to which I've never been and from which I have not yet returned. Panama is both spellbinding and haunting. It's a a book you just can't put down until you've finished it.