Fortunate Son - by Lewis B Puller Jr (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

This Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir written "with simplicity and candor, with touches of spontaneous humor" is a moving story of a man born into a proud military legacy who struggles to rebuild his world after the Vietnam War has shattered his body and his ideals. (The New York Times Book Review)

Lewis B. Puller, Jr.--the son of "Chesty" Puller, a hero of World War II and the Korean War and the most decorated marine in the corps history--grew up in a family whose strongest tradition was that of serving one's country. Upon graduation from college at the height of the Vietnam War, young Lewis almost inevitably joined the Marine Corps, and his firm intention of commanding infantry troops was fulfilled with a tour of duty in Vietnam in the summer of 1968. A few months later, he returned home to his wife and soon-to-be-born child missing his left leg above the knee, his right leg at the torso, most of his left hand, and a thumb and a finger of his right hand.

Lewis Puller would never walk again, though he would complete law school, serve on President Ford's Clemency Board, and run for Congress from Virginia. He would also live with nightmares about his wounding in Vietnam, daytime horrors of feeling that he had been "used up and discarded" and a growing dependence on alcohol. But amid his struggles both mental and physical, Lewis Puller's greatest challenge was to wrestle with his father's legacy, to attempt to come to terms with both its honor and its snares: "If I could now summon the courage to forgive my government, to forgive those whose views and actions concerning the war differed from mine, and to forgive myself, I could perhaps move into the present, attain a degree of serenity, and find the reason for which I had been spared, first in Vietnam and then a second time, an alcoholic death."

Lewis Puller's is a story of the contradictory forces of family tradition and individual experience, and the strains of deep feeling--personal, political, and professional--that have riven our country for almost two decades and that still play themselves out among hundreds of thousands of veterans. Lewis Puller has overcome physical and psychological obstacles that few have faced: fewer still have told their stories more openly, more honestly, or more devastatingly.

Review Quotes

Praise for Fortunate Son:

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

"A haunting tribute to the names on the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. . . . An important contribution to the personal literature of war." --Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times

"Fortunate Son is a gripping book, partly because of the enormity of Puller's loss, but also because his candor reveals such human and unadorned truth." --Gail Caldwell, The Boston Sunday Globe

"Passionate. . . . Puller writes with simplicity and candor, with touches of spontaneous humor. His outcry of agony and isolation, while harrowing, leaves one primarily overwhelmed with wonder at the torture a human being can absorb this side of madness." --William Styron, The New York Times Book Review

"The miracle of Puller is that he was able to make such sacrifices and still want to make more. . . . We cannot account for miracles, we can only be grateful for them-and to Puller, who has lived to tell us of them in this remarkable and unusually moving book." --Susan Fromberg Schaffer, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"One of the more honest and moving books ever written about the Vietnam War and its aftermath. . . . [Puller is] a truly honorable witness to history." --Patricia Holt, San Francisco Chronicle

"An extraordinary story of survival. And of love." --Mary Jordan, The Washington Post

"Captures with aching immediacy the turmoil that has been our recent past." --Senator Robert Kerrey

"Fortunate Son, like its protagonist, is frank, tough, and completely honest. On the surface, it is the story of a man's emergence from the shadow of a famous father, only to be challenged by war, crippling injury, and alcoholism. But underneath, Fortunate Son is an absorbing, inspiring, and very personal tale of how grit, courage, and the love of a good woman combined to overcome repeated adversity. This is compelling reading for anyone who wants to understand how deeply the Vietnam War affected its veterans on an individual, personal level." --Senator Charles S. Robb

About the Author

Lewis B. Puller, Jr. (1945-1994) was born in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and lived on various military installations until his father's retirement from the Marine Corps in 1955, when his family settled in Saluda, Virginia. Upon graduation from the College of William and Mary, he joined the Marine Corps, was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and served in Vietnam until his wounds caused his evacuation and subsequent retirement. He was awarded the Silver Star, two Purple Hearts, the Navy Commendation Medal with valor device, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He graduated from Marshall Wythe School of Law of the College of William and Mary. He was a senior attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Defense.