R&R
Full of lacerating dialogue and typically sharp character portraits, R&R tells the story of US corporal John Ulysses Grant, aka Nashville, and his partner Shorty, an Australian military policeman, in the seaside resort of Vung Tau in South Vietnam, 1967. The Vietnam War rages across the country but Nashville’s concerns are closer to home: how did a corpse, buried just days before, turn up in a local bar without any ears? Written with a brilliant, concise wit and brutal, uncompromising insight, R&R is a startlingly original portrait of men and war in the twilight zone behind the front, a searing study of the violence that we do to others, and ourselves.
Reviews
“From the opening page … Dapin has you gripped. There are loads of books about the Vietnam War, but none is quite as funny, inflammatory and soul-scraping … Verdict: blazing.” – Herald Sun
“Mark Dapin’s riotous new novel R&R, a work that reminds me of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.” – The Australian
“It is a lurid, often gruesome depiction of the endless shame and torment of war. Dapin … has unleashed a novel with a verbal ferocity that devotees of a hard-boiled writer such as James Ellroy might readily appreciate.” – The Sydney Morning Herald
“The wry humour and pure insanity of R&R’s plot is all Dapin … Originality may be Dapin’s calling card, but raucousness should be up there too, and that’s what this book is about.” – The Adelaide Advertiser
Read more reviews of R&R HERE
Extras
Mark talks to North Melbourne Books about his inspirations for R&R HERE.
Awards
One of six shortlisted titles for the Australian Crime Writers Association Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction 2016