Jacob Sturm: Young, idealistc, a medevac who is shocked by the horrors of war, but who is all too soon sucked into a system that dictates - kill or be killed!

Franklin: A giant, wild-eyed negro soldier whose method of escape from reality is a bagfull of heroin.

Kowalski: A sadist, whose tendencies are encouraged by a cynical high command.

Chaplain Montano: As much at home with a gun in his hand as with a Bible.

Set against the alien landscape of Vietnam, where the only escape from the horrors of combat are a black sense of humour and a head full of 'hash', THE GLORY HOLE is a bitterly authentic novel of a war that was different from any other war...

This is a fairly visceral story, which follows a young medevac as he battles with the morals and justifications of the Vietnam war.

Going the whole gamut of experiences, we see sex, drugs, rock music, officers being 'fragged' and the sheer terror of a jungle patrol by soldiers who are completely out of their depth in a country they have no connection with.

The public face of this novel is a story about Jacob Sturm, who is coming to the end of his tour of Vietnam and the ways he tries to deal with the mounting pressure of his stay.

Behind the public face though is a searing commentary of war and the way it can turn ordinary young men into little more than animals as they struggle to survive the awful pressures of their situation. While based in Vietnam, the lessons to be found in this book are lessons which can be applied to incidents in any of the recent conflicts.

This book is easy to read, but challenging to digest. Well worth it.