NEW REVIEW OF WSTWB
Book Review
“Who
Shot
the Water
Buffalo?” by Ken Babbs
Having
spent
two
tours in Vietnam with the US Marines as an A4 Skyhawk
air to ground pilot, my
first reaction was, do I want to read about Marine H34
helicopter pilots from
the 1962-63 ear of the Vietnam War? After reading the
bio of the author I said
hell yes! Ken Babbs was a founding father of the Merry
Prankster and a working
partner of Ken Kesey. That gave me more incentive,
in addition when I returned
to the States after my first tour in 1965, my
Commanding Officer was one of
these helicopter pilots. I did not even know
that the Marines has supported the
ARVN’s back then, my CO never said much
of the missions they flew and I never
asked.
This
book
answers a
lot of questions I had of what the Marines did back then.
His story of the
pilots and Marines of HMM188 certainly rings true, to stories
that are told by
todays Old Corps. Why should others read this book? First,
because it is true,
and describes how our fighting men behaved before all of
today’s political
correctness went into effect. Marine pilots and the men who
support them are a
eccentric group, not your typical Marines. You can just
imagine how the author
brings these traits to light in his exciting story of the
members of HMM188.
The questions our
troops are asking today were the same ones that these
Marines asked in this
novel. “Why are we here?” Just as today, this question
never gets answered,
however, the Marines fight: because as we use to say,
“it’s the only war we
have.”
Many
events
reported
in the book remind me of similar things that happened
in my two tours. I would
have to say that the author pulls no punches in telling
it like it was. He even
refers to places that I visited and reading of them brought
back memories of my
younger days. I cannot think of a Marine pilot from that
era who did not visit
the 500 Club and we all knew T Harry.
It is
another era of
Marine history that Ken Babbs has brought to light for
non-Marine aviation
people to experience; I do not think it will ever exist again.
That’s the
reason it needs to be read.
Bob Miecznikowski
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2011
HIGH TIMES REVIEW OF WSTWB
BABBS:
I'm on vacation and haven't seen the issue yet, but this is what I
sent to High Times....
Who Shot the Water Buffalo?
After 45-years, the publishing world is finally ready to release a
Merry Prankster's take on the Vietnam War.
by Steven Hager
In 1958, Ken Babbs arrived at Stanford University, joining Ken Kesey,
Larry McMurtry, Robert Stone and several other soon-to-be-celebrated
authors in Wallace Stegner's creative writing program. Four years
later, however, Babbs was flying missions as a Marine helicopter
pilot in Vietnam, part of the first wave of "advisors" sent into
that country. Immediately upon leaving the service, Babbs wrote a
novel, "Who Shot the Water Buffalo?" Since Babb's buddy, Ken Kesey,
had also written a novel during the same period, "Sometimes a Great
Notion," they expected both would be published around the same time.
But then something truly remarkable happened. Not a single
publishing company accepted "Who Shot the Water Buffalo." It was not
the patriotic portrait of Vietnam any of them wanted. Eventually,
Babbs gave up, tossing the once-cherished manuscript into a
fireplace. Thanks to a reference in Tom Wolfe's "The Electric
Kool-Aid Acid Tests," it became possibly the most famous unpublished
manuscript in counterculture history. And now, thanks to Tsunami
Books, that has changed. "Who Shot the Water Buffalo" has finally
been found and published. And the first thing I wondered after
reading it was: "what the hell took so long?" This book isn't just
well-written, it is superbly written. Most will probably compare it
to M.A.S.H., although that book (about Korea) wasn't written until
after Babbs wrote this. And unlike M.A.S.H., which took place
entirely in the safety of the rear, Babbs flew straight into the
shit-storm on a regular basis. The only way pilots stayed sane
enough to fly those missions was to go completely insane off-duty.
And they did. This book could have helped puncture the absurdities
of Vietnam at a crucial time and maybe even helped save a few lives.
Now it will be read with the reality of similar scenarios being
played out today across Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries. It
also has plenty of cinematic and highly original Vietnam action-
sequences that should help sell the film rights. After reading the
book, I had a couple questions for the Kenmaster.
There's a lot of drinking, but no pot in the book. Did you smoke in Vietnam?
No. There was no pot when we were there in 1962-63. No one in the
squadron smoked pot anyway.
What did you think of Oliver Stone's Platoon? Do you have a favorite
Vietnam book or film?
I never saw Platoon nor Full Metal Jacket because I didn't want to
watch anything about Vietnam and I can't stand seeing movies where
asshole Marine drill sergeants scream and yell, but Apocalyspe Now,
that is a great movie, totally psychedelic, just like Vietnam. There
have been a lot of good novels: The Things They Carried by Tim
O'Brien, also his hallucinatory, Looking For Cacciato; Philip
Caputo's books; Sympathy For The Devil by Kent Anderson; Chickenhawk
by Robert Mason is an excellent book about an Army helicopter pilot.
What's your best memory on the recently-departed Owsley?
One time at a Dead gig I had put together a wheeled contraption that
had speakers and a microhone and a light and a polaroid camera and I
wheeled it around in the audience while the Dead was getting ready to
play. I rapped and took polaroid pictures and passed them out. I got
near the stage and took a picure of Owsley while he was setting up
equipment. "There's old Bear up there, jiggling and giggling wires
and poking and probing connectors trying to find
the right wholesome meeting of psychedelic minds." Continued on
around through the audience and my power went out. I was on a long
extension cord plugged into a socket in the wall. I traced
everything down, couldn't find the problem, pulled out the plug and
looked at it, pulled off the insulator protecting the screwed in
wires, everything looked okay but I went in deeper and unscrewed the
wires and found one of them had been cut, way inside where a cursory
look wouldn't see them. I looked up on the stage. Owsley was still
busy but I knew it was him. He didn't like anyone pointing him out
in those days, tried to stay incognito. Ha ha. I fixed the plug and
went back to my ditzing around but I was
bummed, what the hell was I doing at Grateful Dead concerts making a
fool out of myself when I could just as easily be doing it on my own
without anyone cutting me off. Owlsley grudgingly gave me credit
later on for finding the cut wire. He never thought I had it in me.
Ha. An ex-marine, we built everything from scratch and knew what it
took to make things work.
MY ANSWER TO STEVE:
I'm on vacation and haven't seen the issue yet, but this is what I
sent to High Times....
Who Shot the Water Buffalo?
After 45-years, the publishing world is finally ready to release a
Merry Prankster's take on the Vietnam War.
by Steven Hager
In 1958, Ken Babbs arrived at Stanford University, joining Ken Kesey,
Larry McMurtry, Robert Stone and several other soon-to-be-celebrated
authors in Wallace Stegner's creative writing program. Four years
later, however, Babbs was flying missions as a Marine helicopter
pilot in Vietnam, part of the first wave of "advisors" sent into
that country. Immediately upon leaving the service, Babbs wrote a
novel, "Who Shot the Water Buffalo?" Since Babb's buddy, Ken Kesey,
had also written a novel during the same period, "Sometimes a Great
Notion," they expected both would be published around the same time.
But then something truly remarkable happened. Not a single
publishing company accepted "Who Shot the Water Buffalo." It was not
the patriotic portrait of Vietnam any of them wanted. Eventually,
Babbs gave up, tossing the once-cherished manuscript into a
fireplace. Thanks to a reference in Tom Wolfe's "The Electric
Kool-Aid Acid Tests," it became possibly the most famous unpublished
manuscript in counterculture history. And now, thanks to Tsunami
Books, that has changed. "Who Shot the Water Buffalo" has finally
been found and published. And the first thing I wondered after
reading it was: "what the hell took so long?" This book isn't just
well-written, it is superbly written. Most will probably compare it
to M.A.S.H., although that book (about Korea) wasn't written until
after Babbs wrote this. And unlike M.A.S.H., which took place
entirely in the safety of the rear, Babbs flew straight into the
shit-storm on a regular basis. The only way pilots stayed sane
enough to fly those missions was to go completely insane off-duty.
And they did. This book could have helped puncture the absurdities
of Vietnam at a crucial time and maybe even helped save a few lives.
Now it will be read with the reality of similar scenarios being
played out today across Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries. It
also has plenty of cinematic and highly original Vietnam action-
sequences that should help sell the film rights. After reading the
book, I had a couple questions for the Kenmaster.
There's a lot of drinking, but no pot in the book. Did you smoke in Vietnam?
No. There was no pot when we were there in 1962-63. No one in the
squadron smoked pot anyway.
What did you think of Oliver Stone's Platoon? Do you have a favorite
Vietnam book or film?
I never saw Platoon nor Full Metal Jacket because I didn't want to
watch anything about Vietnam and I can't stand seeing movies where
asshole Marine drill sergeants scream and yell, but Apocalyspe Now,
that is a great movie, totally psychedelic, just like Vietnam. There
have been a lot of good novels: The Things They Carried by Tim
O'Brien, also his hallucinatory, Looking For Cacciato; Philip
Caputo's books; Sympathy For The Devil by Kent Anderson; Chickenhawk
by Robert Mason is an excellent book about an Army helicopter pilot.
What's your best memory on the recently-departed Owsley?
One time at a Dead gig I had put together a wheeled contraption that
had speakers and a microhone and a light and a polaroid camera and I
wheeled it around in the audience while the Dead was getting ready to
play. I rapped and took polaroid pictures and passed them out. I got
near the stage and took a picure of Owsley while he was setting up
equipment. "There's old Bear up there, jiggling and giggling wires
and poking and probing connectors trying to find
the right wholesome meeting of psychedelic minds." Continued on
around through the audience and my power went out. I was on a long
extension cord plugged into a socket in the wall. I traced
everything down, couldn't find the problem, pulled out the plug and
looked at it, pulled off the insulator protecting the screwed in
wires, everything looked okay but I went in deeper and unscrewed the
wires and found one of them had been cut, way inside where a cursory
look wouldn't see them. I looked up on the stage. Owsley was still
busy but I knew it was him. He didn't like anyone pointing him out
in those days, tried to stay incognito. Ha ha. I fixed the plug and
went back to my ditzing around but I was
bummed, what the hell was I doing at Grateful Dead concerts making a
fool out of myself when I could just as easily be doing it on my own
without anyone cutting me off. Owlsley grudgingly gave me credit
later on for finding the cut wire. He never thought I had it in me.
Ha. An ex-marine, we built everything from scratch and knew what it
took to make things work.
MY ANSWER TO STEVE:
Steve,
Haven't seen High Times with the article. I'll try to get a copy.
Nice writeup. Thanks. Too late to correct a couple of minor points.
One, I wasn't at Stanford for four years, just one. Two, I didn't
throw the manuscript into the fireplace, I threw it in a box where it
sat for 45 years. Three, Tsunami Books didn't publish WSTWB.
Published by Overlook Press in NYC.
Picky picky picky. Doesn't matter no how.
Many thanks.
DISSIDENT VOICE
REVIEW OF WHO SHOT THE WATER BUFFALO?
Yes,
it
is
a
war novel, but it is also a war novel that has aged like good
moonshine forgotten
in a jug out in grandpa’s barn. Not necessarily smooth, but much easier to swallow now than
when it first came out of the still. Much of this could be related to the stretch of time between
the distillation fifty years ago and its consumption now. After all, perspective often takes away
those sharp, biting edges that framed our perception back then. Yet, like good moonshine no
matter how ancient, Babbs’ story still occasionally bites and stings as it's going down.
in a jug out in grandpa’s barn. Not necessarily smooth, but much easier to swallow now than
when it first came out of the still. Much of this could be related to the stretch of time between
the distillation fifty years ago and its consumption now. After all, perspective often takes away
those sharp, biting edges that framed our perception back then. Yet, like good moonshine no
matter how ancient, Babbs’ story still occasionally bites and stings as it's going down.
FOR THE REST OF THE STORY
CLICK ON
DISSIDENTVOICE REVIEW
NEW
WHO
SHOT
THE
WATER BUFFALO REVIEW
THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2011
ARTICLE IN THE DAILY ASTORIAN
Merry
Prankster
gets
serious
about
sharing
his
stories
By ERICK BENGELThe Daily Astorian July 19, 2011
Ken Babbs, one of the lead Merry Pranksters and a major figure of the psychedelic
counter-culture phenomenon, read from his recently published novel, “Who Shot the
Water Buffalo?” at 14 Street Coffee House in Astoria Saturday. He followed this with
a book-signing at Godfathers’s Books Sunday.
“If you like to read books, you’ll like this book,” laughed Babbs, whose delivery was
one part manic preacher and three parts stand-up comedian.
Babbs’s novel, which grew from his experiences as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, is a
kinetic and unrelenting adventure laced with the horrors of warfare and the morbid
humor required to cope with it. If “A Confederacy of Dunces” was set in a Southeast
Asian war zone and written in breathlessly free-form prose, it would read rather like
Babbs’s creation.
By ERICK BENGELThe Daily Astorian July 19, 2011
Ken Babbs, one of the lead Merry Pranksters and a major figure of the psychedelic
counter-culture phenomenon, read from his recently published novel, “Who Shot the
Water Buffalo?” at 14 Street Coffee House in Astoria Saturday. He followed this with
a book-signing at Godfathers’s Books Sunday.
“If you like to read books, you’ll like this book,” laughed Babbs, whose delivery was
one part manic preacher and three parts stand-up comedian.
Babbs’s novel, which grew from his experiences as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, is a
kinetic and unrelenting adventure laced with the horrors of warfare and the morbid
humor required to cope with it. If “A Confederacy of Dunces” was set in a Southeast
Asian war zone and written in breathlessly free-form prose, it would read rather like
Babbs’s creation.
REVIEW IN BARNES AND NOBLE
Given this vast corpus of Vietnam novels, can Babbs offer anything fresh?
You can count cadence on it!
First off, we have a truly comic novel here, a shaggy buffalo of a tale,
incident-rich but generally shapeless, more M*A*S*H than Dog Soldiers.
THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011
INTERVIEW IN THE PORTLAND TRIBUNE
Babbs
lets
sparks
fly
in
‘Buffalo’
10 Questions for Ken Babbs
By Stephen Alexander
The Portland Tribune, May 12, 2011
A Merry Pranksters founding father, Ken Babbs finished his Vietnam War
novel, “Who Shot the Water Buffalo?”, after nearly 50 years of working on
it.
Though he is considered a giant in the world of literature, Ken Kesey
wasn’t the originator of one of his most famous sentences. It came from
his best friend Ken Babbs.
While Babbs was in the Vietnam War, he and Kesey were exchanging letters
with pages from the books they were working on. While reading a page in
“Sometimes a Great Notion,” Babbs read Kesey describing the new frontier
as a place “for a man to be as big and important as he feels it is in him
to be!”
“I wrote back and I said ‘Hey, that’s my line,’ ” Babbs says. “But, I was
just kidding. I didn’t care.”
When “Notion” was published there was as an asterisk at the bottom of the
page that said “Courtesy of Ken Babbs.”
“I went, ‘Oh no, he didn’t have to do that,’ ” Babbs says. “You don’t
break up the narrative of a novel to stick something like that in there. I
was kind of miffed at him. But, later I realized it was a real brotherly
thing.”
Though Babbs was a founding father of the Merry Pranksters and co-wrote
“Last Go Round” with Kesey, it seemed Babbs would forever be remembered as
a footnote.
That changed this spring, when after more than 40 years of working on it,
Babbs published “Who Shot the Water Buffalo?”, a comical and heartbreaking
novel of the friendship between two helicopter pilots in the Vietnam War.
While Babbs, who lives in the Eugene area, wants readers to find out for
themselves whether the famous line shared by Kesey is in the novel, he
grooved to the Tribune about war, writing and why sparks fly up.
Dig it.
Portland Tribune: Ernest Hemingway said that war is a good subject for a
book because it packs the maximum amount of human experience into a short
period of time. Did you find that was true?
10 Questions for Ken Babbs
By Stephen Alexander
The Portland Tribune, May 12, 2011
A Merry Pranksters founding father, Ken Babbs finished his Vietnam War
novel, “Who Shot the Water Buffalo?”, after nearly 50 years of working on
it.
Though he is considered a giant in the world of literature, Ken Kesey
wasn’t the originator of one of his most famous sentences. It came from
his best friend Ken Babbs.
While Babbs was in the Vietnam War, he and Kesey were exchanging letters
with pages from the books they were working on. While reading a page in
“Sometimes a Great Notion,” Babbs read Kesey describing the new frontier
as a place “for a man to be as big and important as he feels it is in him
to be!”
“I wrote back and I said ‘Hey, that’s my line,’ ” Babbs says. “But, I was
just kidding. I didn’t care.”
When “Notion” was published there was as an asterisk at the bottom of the
page that said “Courtesy of Ken Babbs.”
“I went, ‘Oh no, he didn’t have to do that,’ ” Babbs says. “You don’t
break up the narrative of a novel to stick something like that in there. I
was kind of miffed at him. But, later I realized it was a real brotherly
thing.”
Though Babbs was a founding father of the Merry Pranksters and co-wrote
“Last Go Round” with Kesey, it seemed Babbs would forever be remembered as
a footnote.
That changed this spring, when after more than 40 years of working on it,
Babbs published “Who Shot the Water Buffalo?”, a comical and heartbreaking
novel of the friendship between two helicopter pilots in the Vietnam War.
While Babbs, who lives in the Eugene area, wants readers to find out for
themselves whether the famous line shared by Kesey is in the novel, he
grooved to the Tribune about war, writing and why sparks fly up.
Dig it.
Portland Tribune: Ernest Hemingway said that war is a good subject for a
book because it packs the maximum amount of human experience into a short
period of time. Did you find that was true?
FOR
THE
ANSWER
AND
MORE
CLICK ON
CLICK ON
PORTLAND TRIB INTERVIEW
SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW IN THE PORTLAND TRIBUNE
THIS DOVETAILS WITH THE TRIBUNE INTERVIEW
TRIBUNE REVIEW
TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2011
BOOK REVIEW IN PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Reviewed on: 05/09/2011
ANOTHER GREAT REVIEW
FROM DIANE PROKOP
FROM DIANE PROKOP
Who Shot the Water
Buffalo?: A Novel
by Ken Babbs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve read several books about the Vietnam War. All of them were
serious accounts of the screwed up military conflict that left the
United States humbled. I loved Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War,
Larry Heinemann’s Black Virgin Mountain, and more recently Karl
Marlantes‘ Matterhorn.
Not surprisingly, Merry Prankster Ken Babbs’ new book, Who Shot the
Water Buffalo?, has an entirely different take on the war. WSTWB is
what you would hope for from someone who was best friends with Ken
Kesey and became famous for his LSD antics, the Further bus trip
and Grateful Dead associations. Of course it’s irreverent, but it’s
also smart, insightful and poignant. Of all the books I’ve read,
none so expertly captures the absurdity of the Vietnam War as does
WSTWB. And since Babbs served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam in
the early sixties, he’s writing what he knows. He wrote this novel
while he served then shelved it for 45 years. It’s been reworked
and refreshed and is his debut novel.
It chronicles two Marine Corps officers who meet in helicopter
flight school and become best buddies. Lieutenant Tom Huckelbee, a
“wiry” guy from Texas, and Lieutenant Mike Cochran, a “loquacious
son of an Ohio gangster,” are training to fly helicopters because
“helly chopters don’ carry no Fat Man” referring to the fact that
they don’t carry A-bombs or any bombs at all. They soon find
themselves in the middle of a hot, humid mud-fest in South Vietnam
where VC are trying to kill them, dysentery is wreaking havoc with
their bowels and the mind-blowing rules and regulations of the
military are trying to break their spirit.
by Ken Babbs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve read several books about the Vietnam War. All of them were
serious accounts of the screwed up military conflict that left the
United States humbled. I loved Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War,
Larry Heinemann’s Black Virgin Mountain, and more recently Karl
Marlantes‘ Matterhorn.
Not surprisingly, Merry Prankster Ken Babbs’ new book, Who Shot the
Water Buffalo?, has an entirely different take on the war. WSTWB is
what you would hope for from someone who was best friends with Ken
Kesey and became famous for his LSD antics, the Further bus trip
and Grateful Dead associations. Of course it’s irreverent, but it’s
also smart, insightful and poignant. Of all the books I’ve read,
none so expertly captures the absurdity of the Vietnam War as does
WSTWB. And since Babbs served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam in
the early sixties, he’s writing what he knows. He wrote this novel
while he served then shelved it for 45 years. It’s been reworked
and refreshed and is his debut novel.
It chronicles two Marine Corps officers who meet in helicopter
flight school and become best buddies. Lieutenant Tom Huckelbee, a
“wiry” guy from Texas, and Lieutenant Mike Cochran, a “loquacious
son of an Ohio gangster,” are training to fly helicopters because
“helly chopters don’ carry no Fat Man” referring to the fact that
they don’t carry A-bombs or any bombs at all. They soon find
themselves in the middle of a hot, humid mud-fest in South Vietnam
where VC are trying to kill them, dysentery is wreaking havoc with
their bowels and the mind-blowing rules and regulations of the
military are trying to break their spirit.
CLICK ON:
DIANE PROKOP REVIEW
Ken Babbs Brings
Down the House at Powell’s
By Diane Prokop
Legendary
Ken
Babbs
of
Merry
Prankster
fame
was
at
Powell’s
last
night
to
read
from
his
newly
published
novel
“Who
Shot
the
Water
Buffalo?”
Written
while
he
served
as
a
Marine
helicopter
pilot
in
Vietnam
but
then
shelved
for
decades,
the
book
was
reworked
and
refreshed
and
released
to
much
anticipation.
Hundreds
of
young
hipsters,
aging
boomers,
veterans,
and
at
least
one
Hollywood
celeb
turned
out
for
the
standing-room
only
reading
or
should
I
say
performance.
For
the
rest
of
the
story
go
to
Diane
Prokop's
blog
Powells was huge success, standing room crowd digging it all, great
responses, laughs, tears, spontaneous applause and the guy who ran
the place said first time they ever sold out all the books when an
author spoke, so there were thirty or forty who got rain checks in
the form of stickers I signed that they can glom to the books when the
store gets more. Worth all the work and preparation.
--Kapken