"Four Corners From LBJ"

Paradise writer Marty Beebe calls his novel "a saga of war and redemption." "Four Corners From LBJ" ($9.95 in paperback, self-published through CreateSpace; also for Amazon Kindle), begins in the summer of 1967 with Benson Baker, 19, enlisting in the US Army.

"He volunteered for active duty and soon became just another hired gun. Deployed to South Vietnam … he had been gung-ho and followed orders, but only for a short time. … Dealing with intolerable deportment, he turned against some of his superiors."

His actions at the "Long Bin US Military Supply Complex" land him in the mythical "LBJ ranch," named for Lyndon Baines Johnson, "the only 'in-country' US Military Stockade." The myth turns out to be reality, "a god-awful Military Stockade overflowing with Uncle Sam's best rejects … a place consumed in inconceivable wickedness."

Benson is one of twenty new inmates, the only Caucasian. The Lieutenant Commander makes things very clear: "Now you listen here, white boy. … Brothers don't like rabbits in the buildings. … Earlier this morning a white inmate died in billet number three. … Nobody ever sees anything whenever a rabbit dies, you dig. I'm talking to you, Private!"

Within moments Benson spouts off, earning a place in Silver City, a group of solitary confinement cells, hot beyond measure ("opening the cell door was akin to standing near a fired-up pizza oven"). The language throughout the book is crude and rude, and decidedly not politically correct. Racial tensions run high. There's a riot, but Benson survives. Eventually he is discharged, and his wanderings take him to the Four Corners area of Arizona.

There he meets Sau, an Apache, who takes Benson under his wings. Sau's son, Adam, is also in Vietnam, and Sau appreciates Benson's honesty. It is a healing time for Benson and Sau, but then, inexplicably, some of Benson's enemies from LBJ show up in the area and hijack a tour bus carrying proceeds from several national parks. The heist turns deadly.

The story's end includes suitable comeuppance, Christian conversion, and a naughty joke. In Benson Baker ("Bb"), Beebe has created a wounded warrior with huge flaws--who nevertheless shows the middle finger to injustice.