Dog Soldiers (novel)

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Dog Soldiers is a 1974 novel by American novelist Robert Stone. The story revolves around journalist John Converse and his involvement in a heroin deal gone bad.

Dog Soldiers deals, among other things, with the fall of the counterculture in America. Former Communist volunteers from the Spanish civil war now write for tabloid papers run by non-union printers. Converse seeks inspiration for his next big play in Vietnam, but only finds the decline of morals in himself as well as the world. Symbolic of this moral corruption is his decision to become a trafficker/dealer in heroin, which, unlike LSD, was never embraced by the 1960s counterculture.

Stone also touches upon the theme of nothingness or void much as Hemingway did. Characters coming to the realization that the world consists largely of nothing and how said characters act upon this knowledge.

Very few characters in the novel show any moral fiber, all denouncing previous ideals and conviction.

The book was adapted into the 1978 film Who'll Stop the Rain, starring Nick Nolte.

[edit] See also

• Stephenson, Gregory. Understanding Robert Stone. University of South Carolina Press, 2002. ISBN 1-57003-462-1