Vietnam Vet Ray Gleason Releases Second Novel THE VIOLENT SEASON

Forty years ago, the last U.S. troops were withdrawn from Vietnam, ending U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. That nearly decade-long war divided the nation, defined a generation and changed the U.S. military's mode of operation (1). Today, many people learn about the war through the media, pop culture, and history texts.

In The Violent Season, Vietnam veteran and author, Ray Gleason tells the story of his generation caught up in the crucible of that war. Gleason's novel, is a collection of stories whose emotional reach spans from the humorous to the tragic, from the routine to the heroic, recounting the experience of men and women caught up in events far beyond their ability to control.

Gleason invites readers to experience not just the suffering, but the triumphs and the camaraderie of Americans, Vietnamese and their families during the Vietnam War.

- Pat Green is a young man raised on stories of adventure and romance in the forests of New York's Hudson River valley. When he is drafted into the infantry, he wishes only to satisfy his military obligation and return to the life he left behind, to the woman he loves and hopes someday to marry. But, as he watches his closest friends destroyed in a war that he knows cannot be won, he is drawn into a dark abyss of violence, death and retribution.

- Jimmy Delvecchio never wanted anything to do with the Army or the war. Even after he's drafted, he tries to avoid being sent to Vietnam, but once there, he decides that he will simply do his duty, survive and return to his family. But, in his last days of combat, he commits an act of selfless courage and compassion that will affect him and his family for the rest of their lives.

- Colonel Nguyen Van Dung is a professional soldier, a privileged party member and the youngest divisional commander in the People's Army of Viet Nam. Dung is a true believer in the science of war, a predictable interplay of aggressor and defender resulting in victory for the one who has best anticipated his opponent, planned for all eventualities and executed them. On a mountain in Viet Nam, he learns at his cost that war is nothing more than chaos, violence, chance and death.

- Marguerite de la Vieuville is the illegitimate daughter of a Vietnamese mother and a French father. Beautiful, urbane and well-educated, she ostensibly manages her father's hotel and his other interests in the mountain city of Ban Me Thuot. But Margot, as she is known to her intimates, is also the center of a web of intrigue, manipulation, bribery and sex as she navigates through the treacherous shoals of socialist revolution, criminal racketeering, reactionary repression, vice and civil war in the highlands of Vietnam.

Still today, the Vietnam war is a dark cloud over US history, leaving most with a feeling of defeat and futility. The return home for many soldiers was not a happy one; they were met with abuse, protests and the rejection by many American civilians (2). Gleason felt an obligation to share his experience of the war, and The Violent Season is the culmination of that duty.

"War infinitely changes you," Gleason commented. "Veterans returned to a virtually thankless country, and I think people should know what our time in Vietnam was really like. Americans need to hear the truth just as much as our fallen soldiers' stories need to be told."

The Violent Season is currently available as an affordable e-Book edition for the Kindle, Kindle for iPad, Mac, PC, and a variety of smartphones on amazon.com.

Ray Gleason is a retired infantry major of the United States Army. He has been awarded several commendations and decorations, including the Combat Infantry Badge (CIB), Bronze Star with V (Valor), and the State of New York Humanitarian Service Medal. Gleason was also granted the State of Ohio Commendation Medal and Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Gold Palm. He is currently a lecturer at Northwestern University's School of Continuing Studies in Chicago. Gleason received a Ph.D. (1997) in Medieval Literature and an MA (1989) in English Literature from Northwestern University. He also received a BA (1974), Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in English Literature and European History from Hunter College in New York. He has taught literature and writing at Mundelein College, Lewis University and William Rainy Harper College. Gleason is on the Leadership and English faculties of the Culver Academies in Culver, Indiana.

Gleason is the author of A Grunt Speaks and The Violent Season. For more information on this war author, visit http://www.raygleason.com.

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