Who Shot the Water Buffalo?

Starred review from May 9, 2011
Notorious Merry Prankster Babbs finally delivers a first novel, the vividly wild story of an unlikely friendship between two Vietnam war helicopter pilots-in-training. Huckelbee and Cochran are primarily concerned with partying and women. "I'm getting my first full bore look at a naked feminine body in way too many days to be the slightest bit cool. She catches my shit eating grin, gives me a wan smile and shakes her head, "Too big..." But before long the pair find themselves entwined in a vicious war with nothing but alcohol for a reprieve. Babbs's witty characters turn otherwise grim situations into humorous events. Though his depictions of Huckelbee's fast-paced thoughts and language are particularly entertaining, it's Cochran who does most of the talking, and he's the rough and tough friend that brings trouble with his mean mug and harsh tongue. Babbs's characters are crass and outspoken and buzz to life on the page. Most of Babbs's fellow Merry Pranksters, like Ken Kesey and Robert Stone, published first novels decades ago. Though Babbs co-wrote Last Go Round with Kesey, a full-length solo effort has been a long time coming. It's an impeccable, humorous heirloom, a shock of napalm that smells like...victory.

March 15, 2011
Babbs sings us an ode to a marine helicopter squadron serving in Vietnam prior to the outbreak of war, when the U.S. was acting as an advisor. With pop-cultural quotes and allusions liberally sprinkled amid staccato prose, this first novel may feel to some a cross between Joseph Heller and Hunter S. Thompson. Part buddy movie, part simple observation, and part existential musing, the novel lets readers see and feel the world it creates as it follows Texan Tom Huckelbee and Ohioan Mike Cochran from flight school through their time in Vietnam. Huckelbee strives to remain sane through Cochrans unpredictable actions, a grinding schedule of sorties, R and R breaks, base politics, and the loss of flight-school friends. The strain of their circumstances builds to the final, most dangerous mission they fly. Babbs, a U.S. Marine whose service included piloting helicopters in Vietnam, brings eyewitness truth to the table as he pays homage to his fellow marines while showing how valor and duty can be embodied quite differently among one company of men.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)