M*A*S*H (Hooker, Richard)

Rating: 4/5
Year: 1968
Genre: Comedy
Read again? Eventually

Welcome to the Double Natural, the 4077th M*A*S*H (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital), right on the 38th Parallel in Vietna--er Korea. C'mon, folks, we all know it's really about Vietnam, though Hooker's take isn't an anti-war or social commentary so much as a set of days in the life. The characters are all here--Captains Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John, Colonel Henry Blake, Hotlips Houlihan, Radar O'Reilly, Frank Burns, Father Mulcahy. For the most part, they're the same folks we remember from the TV series, though Burns is only a bit player who lasts a few chapters. The biggest difference is in Radar, who is a lot more savvy than the childishly innocent Iowa farmboy of the show. No transvestite trying for a Section 8--but I'm guessing Klinger was added by the TV people to play to the British demographic, given the success of Monty Python drag gags.

It's hard to imagine someone not knowing about M*A*S*H, since it was such a major part of American pop culture in the '70s and '80s. Captains Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce and Augustus Bedford "Duke" Forrest are Army surgeons doing time in Korea, 1951. They're transferred to the 4077th, on the line between North and South Korea. In short order they prove to be the best surgeons in camp, get rid of a pair of self-righteous pricks (one holy roller and Frank Burns), scandalize Margaret "Hotlips" Houlihan, save a congressman's son, play some golf, go mermaid hunting, and form up a football team. They pick up a pair of conspirators in "Trapper" John McIntyre and Oliver Wendell "Spearchucker" Jones (yeah, he's black).

This being the Army, almost everyone has a descriptive nickname:
Radar can hear a chopper coming miles away, and can listen in on conversations.
Hotlips is supposedly hot--hopefully hotter than Loretta Switt.
Hawkeye? "The only book my father ever read was 'The Last of the Mohicans.' "
Duke: Don't know.
Trapper? A woman claimed he 'trapped' her when they were caught rutting in a women's restroom.
Spearchucker used to throw javelin.
Father Mulcahy: "Dago Red"--he's got red hair, and he's Catholic.
Knocko, a nurse who'll kick your ass.
Ugly John, the best-looking man in the camp.
The Painless Pole: Because a dentist needs a cool name.

This book reads like a string of TV episodes or sketches. The chapters are joined together by the characters and setting, but there's no real sense of time going by, but that's not really an issue. Hooker's style is loose and free, entertaining, a little over the top. It's a goofball comedy with nothing deep or complicated, but it drags in places. One point off.

The book is short, and so's this review.