American soldiers who returned from the war in vietnam were not always treated kindly or with understanding. for culver, his memory of the love he and mabel shared before he went to war was a painful reminder of how his life was changed by being in vietnam. a hero’s welcome, in the words of leading vietnam war literature critic david willson, “has got baseball, summer camp, college dorm life, and war. it’s got everything. this is an all-american novel.” it’s about how one veteran rediscovered america and about how america treated those it sent to fight an unpopular war. “a classic of the american war in vietnam war. a brilliant novel of love gone wrong. naparsteck makes the 1960’s come alive.” —david willson, co-editor of vietnam war literature: an annotated bibliography; willson [please note: he has two l’s in his name] is widely considered one of the nation’s leading experts on vietnam war literature). date: february 2000 martin naparsteck’s writing is “knee deep in particulars, with the power of close-focus psychological observation.” —veronica geng, mississippi review, fall 1964 naparsteck’s writing “takes risks and survives, indeed prospers because of its honesty….as readers and human beings we all too seldom reflect on truth until we’ve the fortune to read authors like the one here.” —novelist colin hester, diamond sutra, 1997 “quirky, playful, and original, the work of martin naparsteck is not easily forgotten.” —janet hutchings, editor of ellery queen’s mystery magazine, july 1996