The Long March and In the Clap Shack

By William Styron

Book Overview

Two extraordinary works about soldiers in a time of dubious peace by a writer of vast eloquence and moral authority. With stylistic panache and vitriolic wit, William Styron depicts conflicts between men of somewhat more than average intelligence and the military machine. In The Long March , a novella, two Marine reservists fight to retain their dignity while on a grueling exercise staged by a posturing colonel. The uproariously funny play In the Clap Shack charts the terrified passage of a young recruit through the prurient inferno of a Navy hospital VD ward. In both works, Styron wages a gallant defense of the free individual--and serves up a withering indictment of a system that has no room for individuality or freedom.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679736751
• ISBN13: 9780679736752
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Two stories of noncombat military life.

The Long March: A novella set in a Marine training area during the Korean War. An officer sets his battalion on a forced march over 36 miles to complement his swaggering self-image. Soldiers drop out by the truckload in the sweltering heat, and one is driven to insubordination by his conflicting senses of self and duty.In the Clap Shack: A play in which a young Marine tested positive for syphilis is taken advantage of by an egotistical doctor. Styron witholds little in his depiction of the unpleasantries to be found in a World War II Naval Hospital urological ward: "short arm inspections," racism, doctors' lack of compassion. Despite this, a grim humor can be found in several scenes.William Styron (himself a Marine) gives us believable characters facing an environment that seeks to depersonalize them and shows how the military's command structure can leave little room for individuality.