The Grass A Novel AYoung Man's Journey to the Korean War eBook Paul Zerby
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"Paul Zerby has written a forceful and absorbing coming-of-age novel set in the historic moment of our immediate post-World War II cold war and red scare conflicts. The novel is historically accurate in perfectly capturing the tensions of the firing of an African-American professor at the University of Minnesota for political reasons and the impact it had on the lives of its characters. This event propels our protagonist into Korea as an infantryman during the bloody battles raging without reason before the cease fire of 1953. The compelling personal lives of the novel's characters are perfectly integrated with the historical events of the time--events which continue to affect us to this day." Hy Berman, Professor Emeritus, History, University of Minnesota
"Paul Zerby has written a rich, satisfying novel, full of memorable characters, sharp, realistic scenes, and the heart-thumping drama of love and war. The Grass captures perfectly the social and political milieu of the fifties, and brings history to life in its vivid depiction of the Korean War, a 'neglected' war in terms of literature. Ultimately its anti-war message is as timely today as it was fifty years ago. Zerby has given us a compelling story with a lot of heart." Paulette Bates Alden, author of Feeding the Eagles and Crossing the Moon
"Paul Zerby's The Grass is a vividly engaging rumination on 1950s America, which is more complex than we would like to imagine. Zerby's novel allows us to journey along with young Tom Kelly as he seeks a deeper comprehension of his Catholic upbringing in Fargo, North Dakota. He protests the treatment of the University of Minnesota's lone Black faculty member, agonizes over relationships with very different women, and attempts to survive service in Korean War battles that are 'like the Fourth of July in hell.' Kelly becomes haunted by ghosts stemming from his decision to stand up to racial injustice, but he never loses the integrity and ability to dream for a better tomorrow. I recommend it highly!" Walt Jacobs, Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of African American & African Studies, University of Minnesota
"While 'The Grass' ostensibly is about one American caught up in the Korean War era, its subtext clearly is about racial injustice...Zerby is a talented, passionate writer with a knack for nicely turned phrases....an auspicious debut." Minneapolis Star Tribune
[Zerby] has also succeeded in crossing the many boundaries of generation, gender, nations, wars, and initiated conversations about the experiences we all share as human beings....The stories told in this novel will seep into your skin....we will close the final pages of the book and walk away with a small part of each character's experience within us." Korean Quarterly
"If you grew up in the 1950s, you're going to love this book. If you didn't grow up in the 1950s you better get hold of this book....['The Grass'] delineates that very strange time with warmth, gusto, and an assured hand...a ripping good yarn...no rah-rah stars and stripes forever tribute to the glories of war....an historical novel, with just the right amount of regional bite. Red Wing Republican Eagle
"...terrific coming of age story chronicling the journey of a Fargo teenager searching for answers about God, communism, civil rights, love/lust, and death...an expertly paced tale whose richly textured characters and colorful scenes depict an era--and a war--that was much more complicated than we may want to believe."
Minneapolis Observer Quarterly
"We might have changed the way discrimination is treated in the past 50 years since the Korean War, but it has certainly not gone completely away. 'The Grass's' themes of social change and questioning the system still ring true today in a powerful way.
The Minnesota Daily
The Grass A Novel AYoung Man's Journey to the Korean War eBook Paul Zerby
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The Grass A Novel AYoung Man's Journey to the Korean War eBook Paul Zerby Reviews
Don't let Paul Zerby's simple and direct style fool you; this book has great depth. Zerby spins a tale like he was born to do it. The Grass is filled with believable characters I cared about and a young protagonist that opens his heart and soul to the reader. It's about the senselessness of war, of racism, and of empty dogma. It's about life as a teenager in the midwest in the 1950's. It's about growing up physically and emotionally. About human relationships and the power of love.
There is not a wasted word here; it's a tightly woven story with energy that will keep pulling you in until the last page.
What a debut. I am eager to read Paul Zerby's next offering.
Kim Jong-il, North Korea's mysterious leader, is a trusty newsmaker. Headlines scream of his cult of personality, his nuclear ambitions, his missile arsenal, his starving countrymen, and most recently of his renunciation of the uneasy truce that ended the fighting in Korea fifty-six years ago.
Tom Kelly, a young man from Fargo studying at the University of Minnesota, knows hardly anything about Kim's father when Kim Il-sung invades South Korea in an attempt to unify the country under communist rule. Tom's friend, Chick Belos, makes the front page of Fargo's newspaper as the first hometown enlistee to step up to fight the communist aggression on the Korean peninsula. Subsequently, Chick also becomes the first Fargoan to come home in a box. While Chick's father had been a WWII hero, Tom's father, too young for WWI and too old for WWII, works to get Tom an ROTC scholarship that also comes with a deferment from military service until Tom graduates. Nevertheless, a whirlwind of events (the University's decision to expel Tom after he publicly confronts and humiliates the University's president, while leading a student protest against the school's decision to oust its first and only African-American professor because of his politics, the undisguised animal attraction that Moira, Tom's longtime girlfriend, feels for his buddy, Will, the simple truth that Tom approves of President Truman's decision to intervene in Korea) pushes Tom through the recruiter's door, into the army, and off to the war.
Zerby, in his first novel, never allows himself to get in the way of Tom's first-person narrative. His strong prose propels the compelling account of Tom's coming-of-age to a satisfying conclusion. Most fulfilling is the authenticity of the social and political realities of the world Zerby paints on the pages. As a combat veteran of my own generation's war in Southeast Asia, I immediately felt that I trusted the author to tell the truth. Whether you are a veteran of the Korean War or if everything you know about the conflict you learned from M*A*S*H, you should read The Grass by Paul Zerby.
The Grass is a compelling read for many reasons, some of which have been documented in other reviews here. What swept me along was the voice of Tom Kelly, the young protagonist of the story. Warm, authentic, brash, cocky, wrong-headed, but always understandable and sympathetic. A likable character whose life and choices kept me interested. Tom's voice kept drawing me into the story of girlfriends, Fargo buddies, life at the U, then at basic training, the streets of New York, and finally the Witch's Tit in Godforsaken Korea. It's been a long time since I've read Henry Miller, but Zerby put me in mind of a kinder, gentler Miller with a dash of Hemingway. If you think that's an overstatement (and it may be) give The Grass a read for yourself.
It's a good sign when I read to the last chapter and am still wondering what will happen to the main character (and still care), and that's what happens here--I found myself thinking as Tom's days in Korea wound down on the Tit --"oh no, THAT's what the title of the book means!"--which is too cryptic except for those who've already read it--get a copy of The Grass--you won't be disappointed.
Well done book by first time author. Keeps you turning the pages to the end.
I felt a tremendous connection to this book's hero, having experienced similar romantic heartbreaks as a college student 40 years after the events described in the book. This attests to the timelessness of this book, and has appeal for young men today; though drawn from personal experience, this is not an alienating trip down someone else's memory lane. It is fresh, vital, and raw; it is not nostalgic pablum.
Because of this, I couldn't put the book down. There is no foreshadowing; I had no idea what would happen next, except for the cover blurbs that tell us our hero fights in the Korean War. The Korean War setting also contributes to the suspense, because (as the "Forgotten War") few people under 70 know the history of the conflict. This tension inspired me to learn more about the Korean War just so that I would have some inkling of what might happen.
This book may be best suited to young men, as it depicts our hero's experiences from a very male point of view. Though artistically valuable, the explicit descriptions of the hero's sexual encounters might keep this book out of the hands of the young men who need it most, and that is truly unfortunate.
There is a fuse burning through this book; that fuse is racial injustice. I confess that I doubted the hero's authenticity regarding his continuing defense of the black people he sees rolled over by America's pervasive racism after all, weren't all white people racists back in the 1950s? Were there really decent white people who saw these evils and risked their [...] to stop them? This is something young people today need to know about the past.
I can hardly wait for Zerby's next work; I hope he will give us an update on the beloved characters we become intimately familiar with in this book.
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