Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors

For those of you who don’t know what it stands for, MASH stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. For anyone who has seen the movie or the Television show, there are familiar characters that we have already come to love. Radar O’Reilly hears everything and seemingly knows what’s coming before it ever gets there. Hawkeye Pierce from Crabapple Cove Maine and Duke Forest from Georgia. Trapper John and Ugly John isn’t far behind, and of course Colonel Henry Blake and Hot Lips Margaret Houlihan are the same as we remember them trying to keep Hawkeye and Trapper out of trouble. It’s the wonderful and colorful characters that made MASH the hit Movie, TV show and book that it has always been and trust me, the book was just as fun, funny, touching and sometimes heart wrenching as the live action, although I don’t think it took itself as serious as the television show did. It was an easy five star hit. It’s a short read, and I liked it so much I did it in one sitting.

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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 STORY The 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 SERIES The 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 REPARTEE The 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 HELP I 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.

As many of the reviewers have done, I've seen the movie classic and I've followed the adventures for many years of M*A*S*H on TV and I've found the legend to enrich itself with its way of showing the futility and senselessness of war. Richard Hooker's original book is the basis for all of this. The classic stories based on Trapper John and Hawkeye Pierce along with Colonel Blake and the ever-present Radar O'Reilly live on in war-protest infamy. The very mention of M*A*S*H conjures up rebellious images of anti-war attacks. The book was written in the 60's and was meant to show the insanity of what it was to work in the front lines of combat medical facilities. How people were able to deal with the constant trauma and death of young people is dealt with. On both the serious level but also on a comic plain to alleviate mental anguish of dealing with constant fear, death, fatigue and the feeling of helplessness which ages all young people in war. In combat zones one always looks at the combat branches such as the infantry, artillery and armor to be the most exposed to trauma and death. While very true, we often overlook our medical personnel who are involved with trauma, death and fatigue just as much as if you were a ground-pounder in the combat fields. Hooker's stories such as the football game and the epileptic whore are all gut busting funny. Many of the stories from the book transferred very well to the movie. In fact even though M*A*S*H tells the stories of a frontline medical unit in Korea when the book was turned into the movie in the early 70s, it did in fact become the firm basis of protest to the Vietnam War. In fact when it came out I was on active duty and many of the EM and yes officers related very well to the movie. This is the second time I've read the book. It still remains a classic in my mind and serves to one and all that man must think very seriously before committing people to fighting wars.

I love the show so much so I was very interested in this book. I was definitely not disappointed!

Als MASH-Fan kannte ich nur den Originalspielfilm und die Serienteile und bin von dem Buch positiv überrascht, da man doch viele Szenen wiedererkennt, die dann im Spielfilm oder der Serie wieder auftauchen. Man sollte gut des Englischen mächtig sein, da das Buch doch gewöhnungsbedürftig zu lesen ist. Trotzdem kann ich immer wieder herzhaft lachen. Einfach eine tolle Serie mit viel Menschlichkeit. Werde weiter Raritäten sammeln.

Love the show? You’ll love the movie. Love the movie? You will definitely love the book! This is the original source material and while you’ll recognize much most of it from the Altman classic movie - there’s so much more here. And even fans of the series will appreciate this source material and come away with new insights into the characters and setting of Korea … “a hundred years ago “

le livre est arrivé en temps voulu et en très bon état. Lecture très intéressante en elle-même, vivante, amusante, émouvante, et intéressante aussi puisque c'est le roman qui a inspiré ensuite le film et la série Mash, cultissimes. Parfois un peu difficile parce qu'il y a de l'argot américain mais très accessible dans l'ensemble.

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.

MASH is a cultural phenomenon which is fitting for our war torn world to read, watch and understand