3463. The Grunts, by Charles R. Anderson (read July 20, 2001) This is a well-written account of a month in the field in Vietnam in May 1969 by a Marine, first published in 1976. The language is tape-recorder literal and filled with scatological obscenities, but somehow it did not bother me too much because it was obviously accurate--though I have read really great books of the kind which did very well without the literality: I think of With the Old Breed, by E. B. Sledge, which I read Mar 9, 2001, and which is probably the best book of its kind extant and which conveyed the time of a Marine in World War II as well as it has ever been done, I thought, and all the language in that book could be used in decent company. The Grunts does a lot of talking about why men acted as they did in Vietnam, and quite a bit of what is said sounds plausible. This book was well worth the nickel or dime I paid for it (at a rummage sale). ( )