The Unnatural Act: Rock, Rhythm, and Blues in the Nam

Robert Wehrman

Jan 2009 · iUniverse

About this eBook

The Unnatural Act is a satire about a 19 year old, abstemious, bumbling, virgin, Presbyterian tuba player, David Warren, who comes of age under the tutelage of a warlock, and a master junky-musician. Warren, aka, Skeet, is found wondering across the Mojave Desert in August 1971. He tells the tale of his outrageous adventures in the war.

The story is set in Moebius, the First Airmoble Division Band. These guys are seasoned professional musicians who pride themselves in getting away with playing insufferably bad. Their code-no practicing, never read the music, always play out of tune, and play as many wrong notes as you can get away with-is strictly followed by the cruel band as it flies into extremely hostile areas to play putrid versions of tunes like The Girl from Ipanema. The guys risk their lives daily to play this dreadful music for grunts that hate it.

Skeet forms an electric band that has adventures ranging from smuggling and whoring to practicing witchcraft and rescuing foot soldiers from the true enemy. Sometimes they perform knee-deep in mud. They're often attacked during their performances! One by one, Skeet's comrades leave for home, one way or another. Eventually, he finds himself alone in Vietnam so he goes to Bangkok where he falls in love with a pregnant prostitute. He returns home for the biggest surprise of all!

Ratings and reviews

The Unnatural Act is destined to become a cult classic! It is the most truthful and funniest novel about the nonsensical Vietnam War I have read thus far. It is on par with O'Brien's The Things They Carried. We were assigned to read this book in our college class and as soon as we started reading it the class realized this was a great book. It is a real page-turner. The author, Dr. Wehrman, was invited to speak with us. When he did, we learned that the America we were raised to believe in was gone. It doesn't exist any more. And worse, we discovered that the mistakes made in Vietnam are being repeated in the current wars. This is the story of a young virginal patriotic tuba-player who is sent to the war. He quickly finds out that the values he was brought up to believe in were false and worse, they were the values the nation still thought existed and sent people to die for. It is a story of growing up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, the young men in the story should, by old standards, be the bad guys. After all, they participate in drugs, whoring, the black market, subversion, witchcraft, and fraternizing with the enemy. But they are indeed the heros and on the side of good. The so-called patriots, the lifers and career military, whose values are supposed to take the moral high road, are actually the bad guys. It is in this inverted world that Skeet grows up. I could say so much more. I'll stop and just urge you to read it. You will not be disappointed. It is the best book to come along in a very long time. Even if you don't like war stories, you should read this one, for you will come to understand our country as it continues to decline and fall apart from within. The Unnatural Act shows the beginnings of the unravelling.

About the author

World reknowned composer, Robert Wehrman, Ph.D., is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran. He served as a member of an army band in The Nam where he risked his life daily by flying into hostile jungles to play horrible music for American GIs. After reading An Unnatural Act, a retired Marine Colonel thought that the author probably ended up as another homeless Vietnam Vet. Instead, Dr. Wehrman is a professor of music at a major university. He hosts a popular radio show in Hawaii where he lives with his family

World reknowned composer, Robert Wehrman, Ph.D., is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran. He served as a member of an army band in The Nam where he risked his life daily by flying into hostile jungles to play horrible music for American GIs. After reading An Unnatural Act, a retired Marine Colonel thought that the author probably ended up as another homeless Vietnam Vet. Instead, Dr. Wehrman is a professor of music at a major university. He hosts a popular radio show in Hawaii where he lives with his family