Purple Sun: An epic tale of war and redemption

By Lawrence McAuliffe

This book has won high praise from those who served in Vietnam, those who protested it, and from younger people learning about the war as history.The story begins in 1968 in Vietnam. Master Sergeant... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 094267927X
• ISBN13: 9780942679274
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Upper Access, Inc.
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Purple Sun - a should read

I have now read, "Purple Sun" twice. More than readable, I found it deeply thought provoking. As a `Nam combat vet, I was ambushed by a fellow Marine's (Lawrence McAuliffe through his character, Billy Kern) question,`Why did I survive . . . why am I still alive?' That one question is one of the most persistent questions many of my teammates and I who survived actual rounds fired around and into us have asked countless times. From mind set, Purple Sun facilitated a journey that only a former "in country" guide could have run point for. I related to the Sgt. character and was thankful that I never had a Lt. Gallo in any combat situation. For those of us who served in Recon, the story is especially intriguing . . . you'll know what I mean. In the end, I disagree with reviews who try to make Kern's penance a metaphor for our service in Vietnam but I can understand it for Kern.This book is important and its readability is a true bonus. Si Reid

Faith in a Land of Hurt

"Purple Sun" by Lawrence McAulliffe is an easy book to read. It is also a deep examination of faith in a war zone. This Vietnam War novel is a brilliant narrative with outstanding "dialogue" and daring "Interior monologues." However, it is clear that McAulliffe purposely wrote this book with a heavy flavor of Vietnam era vernacular. Consequently, "Purple Sun" may have a deeper meaning for Vietnam vets than other mainstream readers in America. Faith is a constant thread from cover to cover. Having said that I think it is important to add that the author is not heavy-handed with it. To this end, the age-old question of right and wrong and listening to one's heart appears again and again. Moreover, McAulliffe addresses faith in conjuction with a soldier's sworn oath to country. "Love God & Country more than your own life," is a central theme in this novel. Overall I think the author makes a sincere effort to examine the meaning of religion in war. He also does so with some of his most beautiful prose.In conclusion, "Purple Sun" has a mystic - poetic dimension that only gifted writers can reach. The transitions are polished, McAullife cleverly uses flashbacks and flashforwards to move the plot back and forth and to maintain tension (conflict) throughout the novel. Lastly, the characters in this touching novel...Master Technical Sergeant Isaiah Ross, Lieutenant/Journalist Patric Tomas Gallo, Corporal Bill Kern and the Monk in Hue are outstanding. "So it is," with this suspense-filled book...it is a great read. Highly recommended.Bert Ruiz

A True, Original and Healing Parable About the Vietnam War .

McCauliffe captures the lonliness of soldiers forever changed by their violent experiences; he reveals their alienation from themselves and others who cannot be expected to understand them. McCauliffe has on the ground experience in Vietnam. He accurately recalls the feel of the climate and countryside, and the smell of war; and he indicates the difficulty that men have in speaking about feelings buried deeply by the weight of war. His story is a parable that carries important meanings and hope for the casualties of Vietnam and of violence everywhere. McCauliffe, an ex-Marine, tells us of three soldiers driven close to madness by the war. Two of them survived and found lives at home that were forever haunted by what they could not forget. A third soldier, a young man of especial idealism, had been lost or went missing in Vietnam. After many years, one of the troubled survivers heard stories over the possible sighting in Vietnam of their much remembered but long missing comrade and seeks out the second surviver in order to return to Vietnam and find him. McCauliffe writes beautifully about the separate American worlds inhabited by the two emotionally crippled survivers and of their dificulties in communicating about their mission. Together, they return to the new Vietnam with all its memories and find their comrade dying . He has spent his years as a revered Buddhist and priest in prayerful service of man and God in a monastery in the Vietnamese highlands. His story of redemption is a healing one for his comrades too.

A story of compassion triumphing over the inhumanity of war.

Lawrence McAuliffe takes us back to where many Americans wish never to go, to the Vietnam war. Again, we face its deadly contradictions. Again, we wonder at our own inability to comprehend what really happened in that place at that time. But this is no preachy sermon. This is a story of strong and complicated characaters who quickly suck up our empathy as they seek to solve a mystery by returning to that place and, in so doing, find some measure of peace in themselves. McAuliffe has penned a touching book and has done so with a magnificent sense of description, be it in 'Nam or in the remote ranges of the U.S.

A thoroughly captivating saga

Purple Sun: An Epic Tale Of War And Redemption is a novel by Lawrence McAuliffe of Billy Kern and Isaiah Ross, two veterans of the Vietnam war, and men who care little for one another yet share a common concern for another young soldier who had gone missing in action (MIA). Some twenty-eight years after the war was over, and guided by a former Viet Cong soldier, the two men search from the monastery of the Purple Sun of Vietnam to the mountains of Wyoming, seeking to uncover the answer to a wartime mystery. Purple Sun is a thoroughly captivating saga, one of those reads which are so easy to pick up and so hard to set down.