It was Friday, February 26th and the call came from Morgan Entrekin of Grove/Atlantic informing John that the press was almost sold out of first editions of Matterhorn prior to the March 23rd release date. At that point, the novel was already in its 6th printing. The initial print run at Grove/Atlantic was between 80,ooo and 100,000 after being bought from the small nonprofit press El Leon in 2007.
We needed to make our decision quickly to ensure first editions for the May First Editions Club selection. Joe’s reading of Matterhorn settled any ambiguity and Lemuria geared up for an event in May with debut novelist Karl Marlantes, the Yale graduate and Rhodes Scholar who also earned the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals for his service as a marine in the Vietnam War.
Despite the buzz in the book world about Matterhorn, Joe had already gotten a unique impression of Karl Marlantes from an article in the January 25th edition of Publisher’s Weekly and he decided to post the article in February on Lemuria’s blog. What struck Joe about the article was how neatly Karl explained why he writes, and in doing so he referenced his experience of reading Eudora Welty’s Delta Wedding:
“Ultimately, the only way we’re ever going to bridge the chasms that divide us is by transcending our limited viewpoints. My realization of this came many years ago reading Eudora Welty’s great novel Delta Wedding. I experienced what it would be like to be a married woman on a Mississippi Delta plantation who was responsible for orchestrating one of the great symbols of community and love. I entered her world and expanded beyond my own skin and became a bigger person.”
Lisa and Karl at the Eudora Welty House, May 12, 2010
At the time, there was no way for Karl to realize what a unique impression his mention of Eudora Welty would make on readers in Jackson, Mississippi. Knowing his admiration for Eudora, we set up a tour of the Welty House with Eudora’s niece, Mary Alice Welty White.
Over the next three months, Joe’s blog posting became a way for Karl’s readers, long lost friends and acquaintances to connect and express their thoughts about Matterhorn and the Vietnam war. Many readers and book critics have expressed this notion: Matterhorn is the classic novel of the Vietnam war.
Billy Watkins of Jackson’s Clarion Ledger interviewed Karl about his novel but also turned toward his personal experience during the war and finally to the reception he received afterward. Karl said that during the ride from the airport after 400 days of service, his brother remarked: “‘I have to warn you, it’s not going to be real fun when we leave this area. A lot of people don’t like the war.’” Karl concluded the interview: “When this country goes to war, it uses 19-year-olds as weapons. They’re the best weapons we have. So if we’re going to use them, we’d better be damn sure that there is no other way to resolve the issue.”
After being subjected to more than thirty years of writing and revision, Karl’s novel has been compared to such classics as The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer and A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. The New York Times Book Review called Matterhorn “a raw, brilliant account of war that may well serve as a final exorcism for one of the most painful passages in American history”.
One of the featured recorded readings by Eudora Welty at the museum was about memory:
“Of course the greatest confluences of all is that which makes up the human memory–the individual human memory. My own is the treasure most dearly regarded me, in my life and in my work as a writer. Here time, also, is subject to confluence. The memory is a living thing–it too is in transit. But during its moment, all that is remembered joins, and lives–the old and the young, the past and the present, the living and the dead” (One Writer’s Beginnings, 104).
A veteran of any war never forgets his or her experience. Karl Marlantes courageously served his country on foot in Vietnam, but he also serves his country to this day by keeping his memories alive and creating fictional characters, allowing readers the opportunity to get under a soldier’s skin and deepen their understanding of humanity.
More Links for Matterhorn and Karl Marlantes
Video: On Writing Matterhorn for 30 Years
Video: Understanding Other Lives through Fiction
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