Soldiers of Misfortune

 

 

cover artist for both issues is Rudolph Belarski. 

For the last two weeks, I've been reviewing stories that appeared in a particular issue of Astounding. I've had a PDF of that issue saved on my tablet for sometime with the intention of reviewing a specific story in it. I'd actually forgotten about it for a time, but finally got around to reviewing not one, but two tales waiting between its covers.

This reminded me that I had several other pulp magazines saved on my tablet for the exact same reason--there's a story in each one I want to review. But the trouble with electronic copies of either books or magazines is that its easy to forget you have them. Well, by golly, I won't forget again! Too much is at stake!

Actually, not much of anything is at stake. But I want to get those stories reviewed before I forget about them once again. So, I'll be catching up on story reviews from the Golden days of the pulp magazines over the course of the next month or so, mixing in occasional other subjects as well.

"Soldiers of Misfortune," by J.D. Newsom, first appeared in the June 1, 1935 issue of Argosy. In fact, it was the cover story. It was reprinted in the October 1940 issue of Foreign Legion Adventures with the same interior illustrations. I've reviewed Newsom's excellent Foreign Legion tales several times before. They are uniformily excellent, but this time Newsom really hits it out of the park.

Kirby Norton is an American sailor on a merchant ship who, during a stopover at Marseille, got really drunk and enlisted in the Legion. He ends up in North Africa. Norton doesn't want to be in the Legion. He wants to go home to New York City. But his enlistement is for five years.

The first half of the novella is a sort of dark comedy, as Norton comes up with a plan to get kicked out of the Legion by pretending not to understand French at all. He actually does, but that's beside the point. He acts as if he can't learn a single word of French, no matter how often that word is screamed at him or how obviously the intent of the order is acted out for him. He ends up getting punished, but he figures he can endure this if the end result is being discharged.

But the Legion refuses to give up on him. He befriends a clerk named Cordelier, who promises to hook him up with a man that can provide him with a false passport and arrangements to get back to the U.S.  This, of course, will cost money. Cordelier takes Norton for every cent the American has, then forgets about him.

This leads to a wonderfully described, knock-down, drag-em-out fist fight. That, in turn, leads to Norton spending 18 months in prison before being assigned to a unit helping put down a rebellion in Southeast Asia. 

At this point, the story shifts in tone. The heat, the leaches, the fear, the bloody death of fellow soldiers, the exhausting effort to carve through even a few yards of foliage... all of this is brought to life by Newsom in just a few paragraphs. 

During the confusion of a battle, with a large part of Norton's unit accidentally cut down by one of its own machine guns, Norton once again meets Cordelier. He's tempted to shoot, but can't bring himself to do so. Cordelier doesn't feel the same way. Now a sergeant, he sends Norton out into no-man's-land to deliver a message to another unit. Then Cordelier tries to pot his old enemy with a rifle.

All this leads to Norton finally deserting, befriending the leader of the resistance and joining that cause. Here, Newsom deals with the evils of colonialism in very straightforward terms. But he also gives us a very cynical take on freedom fighters, the politics of resistance and human nature in general. As the story builds to a climax, Newsom learns that he can't trust anyone and that even the people he's been fighting for--the "good guys"--might be willing to sell him out if they can benefit from doing so.

Newsom, of course, wasn't trying to predict the future of Southeast Asia. But it fits in well with the theme of this story that, in real life, resistance against colonialism eventually led to the establishment of a ruthless dictatorship by people who started as freedom fighters. I'm writing this post on the day before July 4 and I have to say that reading "Soldiers of Misfortune" really makes me appreciate our Founding Fathers. Flawed as they were, they really strived to create a free society. That doesn't happen very often. 

You can read "Soldiers of Misfortune" online HERE.