Fallen Angels **** 1/2

Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels.

This was one of the best books that I read, back in Library School. I loved it then and love it now that I have to read it again.

Fallen Angels details the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War, and others in his platoon. Perry is a black soldier that enlisted because he didn't know what else to do with this life. While he is in Vietnam, he worries about his younger brother and his alcoholic mother, back in Harlem. He befriends PeeWee, another black soldier from Chicago. Together, they try to survive the war while getting into many scary situations.

We know, of course, that there are going to be a lot of deaths. There is a lot of talk about wounds, and descriptive sections on how the various soldiers died. It is gory, but not gross. The story itself isn't just a war story. It is about Perry, PeeWee, and the rest of the people they come into . There are descrptive passages that really explain the various "battles" and ambushes they are involved in.

This book provides a snapshot into what it was like for many army troops during the Vietnam War. It is a great book for anyone to read that is interested in history, wars, and the Vietnam War in particular. There are many fiction novels about the war, but this one is aimed specifically at a high school audience, and it is particularly well written. I recommend it highly, especially to male readers.