For immediate release: Nov. 1, 2001
Press contact: Michael Nolan at 415.282.9043 or mikeyno@earthlink.net
BRING THE WAR HOME!
A stirring novel of a nation and a generation in high-stakes conflict
As concerns of an Afghanistan "quagmire" emerge, a new book portrays
Vietnam-era military resistance
"Bring the War Home!" tells the dramatic story of a couple testing their
relationship and their values as they attempt to organize antiwar Marines in
Southern California
SAN FRANCISCO (Nov. 1) In the midst of increasing military entanglement in
Afghanistan, a new novel Bring the War Home! was released today, written by
Barry Willdorf, a San Francisco attorney who 30 years ago defended antiwar
Marines at Camp Pendleton in Southern California.
Bring the War Home! portrays the adventures of a newlywed student activist
couple as they put their beliefs and their relationship to the test in their
effort to organize Marines against the Vietnam War.
"As Veterans Day approaches," Willdorf stated, "we should recall the lessons
of another escalation when our young men were gradually committed to a
conflict in unfamiliar and hostile territory-first as "military advisers,"
later as combat troops."
Set at Camp Pendleton in Southern California and the Columbia University
campus in New York, the couple struggles poignantly, often comically,
through a maelstrom of the gender, racial, drug, and political debates of
the era. A fictional insight into the turbulent times of the late 60s and
early 70s, the novel is a precursor of the interpersonal and group conflicts
of today.
According to Peter Wiley, author of Yankees in the Land of the Gods,
"Willdorf knows the story well because he lived it, he tells it with
sympathy and honesty. A fine descriptive writer, Willdorf gets it down; the
headquarters that became a virtual bunker... the conflicted personalities of
the Marine resisters, the quirks of the radicals who chose this dangerous
site..."
Margaret Speaker Yuan of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association
comments: "Skillfully written, well-plotted, unique in its characters and
its setting, this book is a welcome addition to the literature of peace that
includes such classics as All Quiet on the Western Front." Coincidentally,
Yuan lived on Camp Pendleton as a girl in the 1960s.
Jonah Raskin, author of For the Hell of It; The Life and Times of Abbie
Hoffman, calls Bring the War Home! "A compelling love story... in the thick
of the GI Movement...when radicals quoted Mao and the Beatles provided the
sound-track for the real-life movie of a generation. This first novel is a
winner."
* * *
About Barry Willdorf
Barry Willdorf grew up in Malden, Massachusetts believing that one day he
would be in the military just like his neighborhood friends.
In 1965, he participated in his first demonstrations against the Vietnam
War. He entered Columbia Law School in 1966 and graduated in 1969. During
those years he joined Students for a Democratic Society and was an organizer
for "Vietnam Summer."
After he was thrown out of his pre-induction physical, he decided to use his
legal training to defend GIs who were war resisters and victims of racial
discrimination. In 1970 and 1971 he worked full-time for a civil rights
organization defending Marines at Camp Pendleton. Between 1970 and the end
of the Vietnam War, he represented more than 100 enlisted men from every
branch of the armed services at every level of court-martial. For his
efforts, he was described by the government as "armed and dangerous."
Today he and his wife Bonnie live in San Francisco where he is a trial
lawyer. They have three grown daughters, Megan, Nina, and Julia.
BRING THE WAR HOME!
By Barry S. Willdorf
A Gauche Press
Publication Date: Nov. 1, 2001
Price: $14.95 (paper/original)
Pages: 275
ISBN: 0-9713026-0-X
For more information on the book, visit www.agauchepress.com
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