They Marched Into Sunlight by David Marannis

This is a book I picked up at the library that looked interesting. The book tells the tale of an army battalion in Vietnam and a protest at the University of Wisconsin. Both occur in October, 1967, often with events occurring on the same days to both story lines.

Marannis is an excellent writer and he draws us into being interested in the characters, real people all, who are involved in Vietnam and the protest in Madison. We learn their personal histories and motivations.

For me though what became apparent is the book could not hold me. It is my disinterest in things military. I am sure the book is well written and in the case of the battle thr soldiers get in, one in which too many die it is tragic. Still one of the things I have read about reading is that some books are good, some are great, and they will not interest you. This is one of those books. So at about one hundred pages I threw in the towel.

Still my respect for Marannis requires me to encourage anyone who would enjoy both the character development and military minuate to read this book. It is well written and the story of the Dow protests was for me especially interesting.