Native Ground: A Novel

Lieutenant Christopher Shaw is scheduled to conclude his tour of duty in Vietnam in one month. He is also scheduled to lead an offensive against the Army of North Vietnam in five days. Having heard more than he has seen about warfare, he can only find one parallel within his experience: his hunting expeditions with his father, Conrad, and his black handyman, Barrel Bradford, in the south Arkansas delta. Conrad Shaw, a powerful, self-made farmer and politician, is for his only son a model of hard work, fair play and diplomacy. From Barrel, Christopher has learned to love the out-of-doors and to aspire to, despite his family's wealth, a simple, noble lifestyle unencumbered by material acquisitions. These lessons are uppermost in Christopher's mind as he takes a weekend leave in Saigon and attempts to reassimilate himself to "the World." His host, Monty Poltam, a former college roommate and now a high-level federal bureaucrat, has a vastly different perspective on war from Christopher's. In an attempt to reconcile the two points of view as he returns to the front, Christopher stays his mind on the one constant in his life, his native ground.