Fields of Fire. Este artículo no está disponible.Fields of Fire

Hailed as the most important novel to emerge from the Vietnam War when first published in 1978, this book launched a spectacular writing career for James Webb that now includes four bestselling novels. A much-decorated former Marine who fought and was wounded in Vietnam, Webb tells the story of a platoon of tough, young Marines enduring the tropical hell of Southeast Asian jungles while facing an invisible enemy--in a war no one understands. Filled with the sounds and smells of combat, it is nevertheless a book about people, an amazing variety of closely observed characters caught up in circumstances beyond their control. It is a powerful work that brilliantly expresses the basic ambiguity of war: the repulsion of war's destruction contrasted with the grisly attraction of war as the ultimate test of survival. Critics have compared this bestselling first novel to All Quiet on the Western Front and The Naked and the Dead, among other masterpieces, for authentically capturing the fury and agony of combat.

This is the real war in Vietnam, told without histrionics or self pity. For many years the novel has been a part of the recommended reading list of the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

James Henry ‘Jim’ Webb, Jr. (b. 1946) is the senior United States Senator from Virginia. He is also an author and a former Secretary of the Navy. He is a member of the Democratic Party. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Webb served as a Marine Corps infantry officer and is a highly decorated Vietnam War combat veteran. During his four years with the Reagan administration, he served as the first Assistant Secretary of Defence for Reserve Affairs, then as Secretary of the Navy.

In 2006 he was elected the Democratic Senator for Virginia. In 2012 he retired from the senate to return to the private sector. He is also an author of many books, stating that ""I've written for a living all my life, so writing is as much a part of me as working out.