Since we're still hearing from right-wing imbeciles like this one, who thinks it's hilarious to compare James Webb as a novelist to John Mark Karr, I want to thank the reader who noted in my comments that Webb's first novel, Fields of Fire, is on the U.S. Marine Academy's reading list for corporals and sergeants.

The commenter also points to these reviews from the non-effete:

NAVAL WAR COLLEGE REVIEW: "The sound and smell of combat permeates FIELDS OF FIRE with a completeness that is extraordinary and a realism that is almost eerie. ... at the end the reader is disappointed only because there is no more good reading. ... While the reviewer has not read all of the books about Vietnam, he has read most of them. FIELDS OF FIRE is unquestionably the best. The rest aren't even close."

SOLDIER OF FORTUNE MAGAZINE: "If a grateful government wished to extend a meaningful GI benefit to the infantrymen who fought in Vietnam, it could simply send each a copy of FIELDS OF FIRE. They would then know that their suffering, courage and seemingly limitless endurance will be forever recorded. James Webb has immortalized them. ...certainly a classic war novel, among the best of the past 35 years."

(For other reviews quotes and that comment, see this post.)