This one grew on me as it went along, I can give it 3.5 stars. In “Dog Soldiers”, published 1974, Robert Stone shows the 60s dream turned into a nightmare: the hippie weed smoker is now into heavier drugs; the violence from the war in Vietnam has leaked back home and society is, well - morally corrupt. The characters are unlikable but they keep fighting; what they want is unclear, even to themselves. Having irrational actors allows Stone to put together an action movie plot not without interesting philosophical asides; he is skilled, perhaps a little too much so, at detailing the tortured thoughts of his troubled creations. The novel not a bad thriller, a sort of cowboy chase across the wilderness not without a decent shootout. That the Mexican border is not far off near the end is inevitable, Mexico exists as an escape route for the American outlaw. He hardly ever makes it across though, maybe because he knows that once out of the States he ceases to matter.

The book's opening scene throws you off guard: Converse, a thirty-five year old American journalist in Vietnam, tries to pick up a older woman on a park bench. He might have had a chance if she wasn't a missionary, but he tries anyway. Converse is going to run heroin back to the States. He'll use his merchant marine buddy Ray Hicks. The 'scag' is to be delivered to Marge, Converse's drug-addled wife. She’s into Dilaudid bought from the Samoan usher at the adult movie theatre where she works selling tickets. Once the heroin arrives she quickly gets hooked on that.

Thugs tipped off by Converse's Vietnam supplier jump Hicks when he delivers the drugs to Marge. Hicks fights them off and takes Marge and the scag to a former hippie colony in the forest. The thugs, the violent and unbalanced Smitty and Daskin, with Converse as hostage set out in hot pursuit. They are working for a crooked cop of some kind and they’ll have their work cut out with Hicks, who was allegedly based on the famous beatnik Neal Cassady. I can’t imagine Cassady having the parts of a M16 in a safe place all greased up and ready to be assembled, Hicks even has a M70 grenade launcher attachment.

Some of the background about the hippie colony at the site of an old Spanish mission in the hills of Southern California doesn’t really come off. The spiritual leader, a German named Dieter, has put more security into his chill-pad than Castle Grayskull. Converse's past as a journalist with a flare for catchy headlines is mapped well enough, but I would have liked to get a clearer picture of Hicks.

Dog soldiers reminded me of Conrad’s "Victory" and Cormac McCarthy’s "No Country for Old Men". "Victory" has the same chase narrative and Stone was a fan of Conrad. "Dog Soldiers" has the evil of "No Country For Old Men" but more humour and less self-conscious preciseness. The female characters are all junkies in this book, but the men are messed up too, so it doesn’t feel too sexist. Here is an idea of Stone’s prose:

“He sat desiring the girl - a speed-hardened straw-colored junkie stewardess, a spoiled Augustana Lutheran, compounded of airport Muzak and beauty parlor school. Her eyes were fouled with smog and propane spray.”

I haven’t seen the movie with Nick Nolte, but I can imagine this novel would make a good film. A few years later Nolte starred in a movie of Steinbeck’s "Cannery Road", a much more positive take on the human condition - but not a book to make a movie out of. ( )

Rereading this and A Hall of Mirrors, I was knocked over by both of them again in different ways... but while I still can't rate this one as any less than great, it now seems like a lesser kind of thing, a little more schematic. Where A Hall of Mirrors felt like it took place in a living world (though an often yucky one), Dog Soldiers feels more like a hollowed-out dream-world where the characters are totally alone with the results of their free will-- which is probably exactly the effect Stone was going for, but it's less interesting to me. Still, it's stunningly written, with his usual great ear for dialogue, and as a straight-up crime story it sure does convey the pure miserable terror of having to be around people who hurt and kill people. Also, if you stick it out to the end, there is one character who's not crazy, cowardly, or destructive, and that person does okay.

The movie adaptation, Who'll Stop the Rain, had a decent cast but left out pretty much everything interesting. This is 10,000 times better. Just don't read it without some ice cream and kittens nearby as an antidote. ( )

While I enjoyed and appreciated Stone’s writing this fell short for me in the category of likable characters. I found none to root for or respect, leaving me unsatisfied ( )

This was an amazing tale. I was thoroughly wowed, especially by the ending-- which was a roller-coaster ride of emotion and action. Stone is a great writer and he exemplifies his talents well here. A must read for anyone who looks at the synopsis and wishes to go further. Impressive and integral. Full marks. ( )

I read the first 100 pages--and the first 30 twice, since the first time through I wasn't giving them my all and wanted to give this book about which I'd heard so much the benefit of the doubt. I just found myself looking at the ceiling and asking, "Who cares?" The abandon-moment for me was the scene with Marge taking Dilaudid and calling her father. I just couldn't believe it. ( )