Marching to an Angry Drum
 C. G. Mitchell
 (Associate Reviewer - Donald D'Haene)
 2000 iUniverse, Inc.
 ISBN: 0595001440
  Amazon's price is: Paperback - $14.95
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Gays in the Military novel. Marching To an Angry Drum deals principally with two individuals, John & David, who joined the U.S. Army at the same time & eventually became inseparable in their relationship.

Associate Reviewer Donald D'Haene writes:

Medical Corpsman C. G. Mitchell served in the United States Army from 1949 to 1952. He saw action in the Korean War and also served in the U. S. Navy & Marine Corps. Mitchell served bravely & heroically. He was decorated with a bronze star.

So why is author Mitchell now Marching to an Angry Drum?

Mitchell realized he was gay after enlisting in the army. Today's readers can only imagine the difficulties encountered by both gays & lesbians who were required to lead a double life. “The Angry Drum” is that aspect of the military that is totally intolerant & hostile to the gay & lesbian community. It is also that part of the military that destroys lives not only through combat but through the hostility of purges, intolerance & prejudice.

Mitchell says his book is 90 percent factual, that he wrote it to dispel the myths that gays in the military are just out to put the make on everybody, that they can't heroically serve the same as everybody else.

I'd say many of those myths had been buried long before this book was published. Yet nothing I have read or heard in the debate on the topic of gays in the military has been more profound than the following lines found in the introduction to Marching To an Angry Drum:

“I am reminded of the epitaph
of the late Leonard Matlovich,
a gay Vietnam veteran
‘When I was in the military
they gave me a medal for killing two men,
and a discharge for loving one.'”

& so this book of simple prose & structure does what many more skilled authors, in my opinion, have not--written a book that shows that personal lives of everyone in the military should be immaterial, that gays do not enlist to “put the make” on people. They have a professional approach & do the best job they can. In combat situations the concern of every serviceman is the same, staying alive, not how cute the man's butt is ahead of them.

What Marching to an Angry Drum also accomplishes is presenting gay characters in seeming paradoxical circumstances: a world full of innocent sexuality & sweet dreams juxtaposed with characters fighting a deadly war.

The gay men & women who fought in Iraq, maybe never wear the rose coloured glasses of days gone by--in the world of Mitchell & his company of men--but they join a hell of a lot of servicemen who served their country with an invisible rainbow flag draped over their collective ample & worthy shoulders.

C.G. Mitchell was born in Hazel Park, Michigan. In 1949 at the age of seventeen, he joined the US Army where he served as a Medic before, during, & after the Korean War. He has also published I Quit, I Promise, consisting of 18 short stories & Storytime Anytime: 22 Short Stories


(06/22/03)

Donald
2003©Donald D'Haene
A RebeccasReads.Com Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
My most important work to date is my memoir, Father's Touch [Author web site: www.fatherstouch.com] Do check out Rebecca's Interview with me.

I have been freelance writing since 1988. My short stories can be found in The Good Life (2000) & Memories of Elgin and Middlesex(2000). I am also an actor with Armstrong Talent in Toronto, Canada.

I live in London, Ontario, with my partner, Maurice, my mother, & our three Siamese cats, Kyle, Bach-Pierre, Maxine & a cockatiel, Jay.