Horn of Africa

by Philip Caputo

The hero, or anti-hero, is a character called Nordstrand who is a descendant of pioneers who committed a massacre of Indians in America. He embodies this American pioneer spirit and takes it out to the current frontier, a frontier that could have equally been Vietnam, where the author himself fought and was court-marshalled. It’s the heart of darkness, it’s the evil of going to another place when you’re 1,000 times more powerful, where you can do harm and you do do harm.