The Gates of the Shadow

The Gates of the Shadow is a chillingly honest, frightening and sometimes humorous novel about young Richard Murphy and his nearly two years on the battlefield. It is 1972 when Murphy tells his story from the orthopedic ward of an Army hospital. Shifting between narrative and letters exchanged with his love, Theresa, Murphy's perspectives on America's longest war are uncommonly incisive and unexpected. The reader is immediately pulled into the seventeen year old Murphy's stateside training; training that he will soon discover is wholly inadequate for the realities of Vietnam. When he is sent to Chu Lai, on the South China Sea, to serve with the Americal Division he begins to realize how ill-prepared he is for battle. As the months wear on, through combat, boredom, terror and unexpected death, Murphy, now a tank gunner, learns the rules of war. Along the way he encounters a fascinating cast of characters. There is Henry Mata, a young Private who is occasionally promoted to Sergeant and is on his fifth tour in Vietnam, Jose Rojas, the memorable tank commander, and Tommy, only twelve years old and already battle-savvy. But Murphy also undergoes a subtle awakening. He gradually becomes enamored with Vietnam and the war that goes with it and this leads him to make the fateful decision to stay on. Not at all the typical war story. Richard Vidaurri served with the Americal Division in Vietnam from 1970 to 1972. He lives and writes in Los Angeles.