Author of Private suggests:
A friend of mine who was a Marine officer in the very area where Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War takes place said that it's the most tone-perfect story about the war he's ever read. The subtitle might suggest a book that will languish on a coffee table or bookshelf, but it shouldn't languish anyplace; it should be picked up and read cover to cover. Its scenes and characters are so real that you feel as if you're watching actual combat footage. I wouldn't be surprised if Matterhorn becomes for the Vietnam War what All Quiet on the Western Front was to World War I.