Review: MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors

MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 4-star review.

I was a big fan of the TV show as a kid. At least, I really liked the early seasons. I didn't see the movie for many more years but liked it as well.

The book was a different experience. It attempts to be a "year in the life" sort of book with what are effectively a series of vignettes that follow our heroes over their tour in Korea during the Korean War*. There isn't really an overarching story being told across the various chapters.

Most of those stories end up in either the movie or the TV series. At least, all of the better stories end up in some sort of video format - and sometimes both!

The primary problem with the book is that the number of hijinks that our heroes experience over the course of a year seems to be far too great for only two US Army doctors to achieve over such a short period of time. The author indicates in the preface that Hawkeye and Trapper John are really amalgamations of a larger number of doctors.

But as a single narrative, it's hard to believe that two doctors drink that much, conduct extended surgery sessions that much, and make side trips to so many other places within a single year.

It would be interesting to encounter this book without having had prior exposure via the TV series or the movie.

People that enjoyed the early years of the series but not the later years should enjoy this book. People that didn't enjoy the early years but liked the later years probably will not enjoy this book.

*I know. "conflict" - "police action" - nonsense. Men and women died in huge numbers fighting against enemy armies. It was a war.

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