For immediate release: January 14, 2002
Press contact: Bonnie Willdorf at 415.586.1350 or
bsw@agauchepress.com

BRING THE WAR HOME!

A stirring novel of a nation and a generation in high-stakes conflict
“Bring the War Home!” tells the dramatic story of a student activist couple testing their relationship and their beliefs as they attempt to organize antiwar Marines in Southern California during the Vietnam War

Courtroom drama abounds as an idealistic young attorney helps GIs take on the brass

SAN FRANCISCO (Jan. 14) A new novel, Bring the War Home!, recalls another time when American forces were deployed in overseas conflict. Written by San Francisco trial lawyer Barry Willdorf, the book portrays the adventures of a young couple who put their beliefs and relationship to the test defending Marines opposed to the Vietnam War.

Set at Camp Pendleton in Southern California and the Columbia University campus in New York, the couple struggles poignantly, often comically, through a maelstrom of the gender, racial, drug, and political debates of the era. A fictional insight into the turbulent times of the late 60s and early 70s, the novel is a precursor of the interpersonal and group conflicts of today.

The plot culminates in a tense courtroom drama where attorney Eric Wolf, the embattled protagonist, takes on the military justice system in defense of protesting Marines.

According to Peter Wiley, author of Yankees in the Land of the Gods, “Willdorf knows the story well because he lived it, he tells it with sympathy and honesty. A fine descriptive writer, Willdorf gets it down; the headquarters that became a virtual bunkerÉ the conflicted personalities of the Marine resisters, the quirks of the radicals who chose this dangerous siteÉ”

Margaret Speaker Yuan of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association comments: “Skillfully written, well-plotted, unique in its characters and its setting, this book is a welcome addition to the literature of peace that includes such classics as All Quiet on the Western Front.” Coincidentally, Yuan lived on the Camp Pendleton base as a girl in the 1960s.

Jonah Raskin, author of For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman, calls Bring the War Home! “A compelling love storyÉ in the thick of the GI MovementÉwhen radicals quoted Mao and the Beatles provided the sound-track for the real-life movie of a generation. This first novel is a winner.”

Vietnam vet and GI Movement activist Steve Morse, now on the staff of the Central Committee of Conscientious Objectors, praises the novel’s ability to “bring together so many themes in a natural way around the unsung centerpiece of the GI Movement. It goes deep into the hard stuff around racial issues in a literate and accessible manner.”

“Willdorf captures the enthusiasm and idealism of the era, despite the constancy of war,” writes reviewer Sara Peyton in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. “More important he tells the near forgotten story of the growing disillusionment of many soldiers.”

Bring the War Home! has been endorsed by VVAW (Vietnam Veterans Against the War).

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About Barry Willdorf

Barry Willdorf grew up in Malden, Massachusetts believing that one day he would be in the military just like his neighborhood friends.

In 1965, he participated in his first demonstrations against the Vietnam War. He entered Columbia Law School in 1966 and graduated in 1969. During those years he joined Students for a Democratic Society and was an organizer for “Vietnam Summer.”

After he was thrown out of his pre-induction physical, he decided to use his legal training to defend GIs who were war resisters and victims of racial discrimination. In 1970 and 1971 he worked full-time for a civil rights organization defending Marines at Camp Pendleton. Between 1970 and the end of the Vietnam War, he represented more than 100 enlisted men from every branch of the armed services at every level of court-martial. For his efforts, he was described by the government as “armed and dangerous.”

Today he and his wife Bonnie live in San Francisco where he is a trial lawyer. They have three grown daughters, Megan, Nina, and Julia.

BRING THE WAR HOME!
By Barry S. Willdorf
A Gauche Press
Publication Date: Nov. 1, 2001
Price: $14.95 (paper/original)
Pages: 275
ISBN: 0-9713026-0-X

For more information on the book, visit A Gauche Press