View from a Low Bough

`From the front row of the group of kids, a little boy of about eight gave us the V sign as his older friends had taught him to do. A big fat RP on our truck heaved himself up off his arse and hurled a green apple at the boy's head. It atomised on impact, tracing a silver aura about his small, cheeky face. It struck so fast and hard it didn't stagger the child. He looked wide-eyed at us, stunned, frozen. Some of the soldiers on the truck thought it humorous, but not many. As the truck ground off again, I saw the boy begin to cry quietly. Not as a child would but as a person who had encountered a great shock in life. Or perhaps it is my own emotions I am describing; it is now many years past.' View from a Low Bough is a story of poignancy, of horror and of devastatingly funny happenings amongst a group of Australian soldiers in Vietnam. Dave is one of them; so is Pete, the medic. Lenny, the superb forward scout, is another. There's Peaches and Fuzz. There's Woofer, who got his nickname from the habit of calling 'woof woof' to the enemy before shooting them. And there's quite a few more. All real people. Barrie Crowley knows them well - he was one of their number. This is a compelling account of the Vietnam War as it really was, in language as it really was, by someone who shared the tensions and tragedies of jungle action and pulled his weight in the wild goings on at other times. It is a book whose images will remain in the mind for a very long time.