Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors

MASH, the novel, endures as a classic comedy and military satire. It outshines the 1970 movie and complements the TV series (or vise-versa).AN ICONIC BABY BOOMER STORYThe premise for MASH should be familiar to Baby Boomers. For younger audiences: MASH is set in South Korea during the Korean War (1950-1953). It follows the efforts of three irreverent, maverick army doctors (note the subtitle) to survive the war with their sanity intact. Those efforts, however, often call their sanity into question by the more militarily rigid types around them.EXECUTED AS A TRADITIONAL TV SERIESThe novel is structured much like a traditional TV series. It presents a premise (maverick army doctors during the Korean War) with a basic plotline (the doctors trying to stay sane until their discharge). On this premise, a number of short stories (episodes) are told, each over the space of a chapter or two. This storytelling is supported with a cast of memorable characters, many of whom have become fiction icons.The big theme of MASH seems to be that normally respectable types (like doctors) will act-out in order to cope when put under duress. In Mr. Hooker’s view, such acting out features the frequent use of nicknames, lack of concern for uniforms and military procedure, and the indulgence of various vices (drinking, smoking, brothels, gambling, con schemes, etc). Most of these questionable activities are presented with humor, but there is a low morals slant to it that always marred my liking for the story. Maybe that was Mr. Hooker’s point (he died in 1997), but his three doctors are not just mavericks, they are bad-boys.I can appreciate flaunting military strictures and being hostile toward cruelty and hypocrisy, but the three doctors carry it too far. They are hostile towards religion to the point of ridicule (in the cases of Major Hobson and Shaking Sammy) or bare tolerance (in the case of Father Mulcahy). You can say this aspect was Mr. Hooker ridiculing religious hypocrisy, but he seems to have no use for religion at all. But would not some people genuinely seek comfort from their religion while in a war zone?I started the novel with curiosity as to how Mr. Hooker handled the characters I knew from the TV series (I never cared for the movie). I found that most of them are there but not developed. Some, like Frank Burns and Hot-Lips, have only short, secondary roles. Even Radar, though presented engagingly in the novel, is not developed. And Frank Burns is not the foil for Hawkeye that he is in the movie and TV series. He is presented in the novel more like Major Winchester is in the TV series. These character differences were not a problem for me, however, as I don’t think they impacted the novel’s execution.POETIC REPARTEEThe novel’s dramatic construction is interesting. Maintaining an omnipotent Point-Of-View, the narrative has a cadence about it that is almost poetic. It especially lyrical in the dialogue repartee from Hawkeye and Trapper John. These poetics make the reading compelling where it would otherwise risk falling flat. And so there are nice sections of dialogue like:“Frank,” Hawkeye said, “you stink. I haven’t decided what to do about you, but sooner or later I’ll come to some sort of decision. Now I suggest that you go to bed and lull yourself to sleep counting your annuities or something, before you precipitate my decision, to the sorrow of us both.”That’s clever dialogue and nice to read, though it makes Hawkeye sound like more of an a-hole than he claims Frank to be. Still, the characters are sympathetic, even when they misbehave. At times, though, the bad people the three doctors rail against are straw dogs. Like the officer-doctors who abuse children, or the Protestant chaplain who writes families their sons were well when they are bad-off or dead. In such cases, Mr. Hooker is a bit too black-and-white. That aspect often carried over to the TV series.That lack of nuance is my chief criticism of this novel, but it is mitigated by solid prose and interesting characters. I will concede that Mr. Hooker brings in some character nuance at the end, when even Hawkeye mellows a bit.CLASSIC MASH BUT NUANCE WOULD HELPI do like MASH, the novel. Mostly, I like the lyrical nature of much of the prose and dialogue. And I like the screwball situations and allusions (”mermaid traps” and the “epileptic whore”). It is compelling enough to hold my attention even when the action is a long account of a sporting event. But the protagonist doctors as misbehaving, maverick, and technically brilliant, doesn’t ring believable with me. Mostly, I do not like their personalities. Mr. Hooker does makes his point with all this, but I think it is a shallow point. Greater nuance of theme and character would have taken the novel to a higher level. Even so, I can recommend this book as an entertaining, nostalgic read.

Having seen the movie MASH years ago and being a frequent watcher of the TV series, I had no idea what the tone of this book would be like, although I was familiar with the story; it is a good bit different from the series.This story is based on Mr. Hooker’s actual experience’s in Korea in a MASH unit in the 50’s and depicts things he and others got up to during that period of insanity.

I have always wanted to read the source material for a number of movies, TV shows, etc. One of the hardest to find was the original book that lead to the classic movie and the TV series. This is the book that spun the move "M*A*S*H" which also then spun the long running TV series "M*A*S*H". If you read the reviews here at goodreads and even over at Amazon you find a number of folks who find that the Movie or the TV show were better or that the favorite characters were missing. Ignore the naysayers, this is a really good book. Good in the sense that you have to know the black humor which comes from high stress environments such as combat. This book is a series of scenes built around Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce, John "Trapper" McIntyer and Augustus "Duke" Forrest being behind the humor.We get almost all the classic scenes from the 1970's Robert Altman Film. From the arrival scene, to the Painless Pole death scene to the Tokyo scene. As well there are a scenes where they combine Frank Burns with another character and you see two characters from Boston near the end of the book that have the same mannerisms as Charles Winchester III. What we don't get is the overt sexual connections with the nurses since all of the main characters are married. We don't get all of the pathos that was common on the TV Show. It is hard to understand or grasp, but if you don't think about either the movie or the TV show and read this book it will make total sense, if you read this and then watch the movie there will be some scenes that are better in the book and some scenes will make better sense (like the whole Tokyo Hospital scene) with some better exposition. As well there some events in the book which are missing in the movie that would have been funny as hell if given a chance for them to be directed. I would say this is a great book if only because it is a roughly shaved version of life by some folks dealing with high stress environment looking for a way to blow off steam. All of which has let it become fictionalized because it was roughly shaved.

Having been a fan of the film and the TV series back in the day, a recent re-run of the film on TV prompted me to seek a copy of the book on which it was all based. That was Richard Hooker's "MASH". It was soon apparent that the film in particular followed most of the antics as described in the book, hence for me it was a very enjoyable read. The written word was also able to bring out the pathos of the parting when Hawkeye and Trapper returned home much better than in the film. Highly recommended if you enjoyed the film and/or TV show.

The book the film was about. Many scenes are straight from the book but there is a load more besides. Not enough pages for my liking so a quick read but worth the time.

another must readbrilliant

It was too much like the series and film and they always referred to Radar as Corporal O'Reilly, Radar is better than Corporal O'Reilly

A++