A novel about the Vietnam War combat experience and post-war adjustment. Order at your own risk -- it is not an easy read. See my website to find professional reviews, literary analyses, an author interview and blog. The Second Tour was adopted for Behavioral Sciences classes at the US Air Force Academy, for a course titled Military & Society. It has also been adopted at the Academy and at Tulsa University for future War Literature courses. Choose one of the "commercial" buttons above to purchase this book. This is a contemporary novel about a former Marine trying to comprehend his Vietnam War experience and the effects it had on him. It is very near and dear to my heart for two reasons: 1) because it's almost non-fiction, thus what I often think of as fiction-memoir; and 2) because even though it's my first published novel, it's the one piece I've written that I think will stand the test of time. I have read many Vietnam War novels and seen most of the films. Most of the novels are written in the traditional linear-time sequence. This one is not, for it attempts to more closely represent the confusion of actual combat, and represent the post-traumatic re-experiencing of those events in the form of flashbacks. With the exception of Platoon and The Deer Hunter, both of which this novel pre-dates, most films don't do the experience justice. The most popular film, We Were Soldiers Once, is perhaps reflective of the very first year of the war, 1965, but certainly not the subsequent nine years, and I believe it further reflects an attempt by the media and historians to return to more traditional (i.e., publicly acceptable) war films matching those of WWII. In other words, the Vietnam War is undergoing historical revision. My novel will take you back to the "truth," to a real sense of the Vietnam War experience. I welcome all feedback. This novel is written to the best of my ability. There's even a reader's guide provided at the back of the novel.  Hit one of the "commercial" buttons above to purchase this book.                                                                                                                                                                                                         Excerpt Hill 602 took three lives the first time. Took Tommy Baker's lower jaw too. I couldn't look him in the eyes that saw so clearly through all of us to the horror we saw in his mangled face. No teeth bestowed upon him the look of a man made wizened with age.

Professional Reviews
What was it like in Vietnam -- How in the hell do you describe it
This is clearly a question about which the author of The Second Tour, Terry P. Rizzuti, has thought long and hard. The results of his deliberation are found within the pages of his stunning debut novel, a work in which readers discover an intriguing and compellingly fresh answer.

The Second Tour tells the story of Vietnam in fragmented, non-sequential visions from the perspective of Rootie, a low-level marine. He describes how he and his friends survived, how they lived, and how they died—although not necessarily in that order. By also giving readers brief glimpses of his life after Vietnam, he allows them to see the tremendous impact that serving in Vietnam for just thirteen months has had on his life.

Despite his descriptions of the hardships of war, Rizzuti does not make any moral judgements about the men who fought in Vietnam. Rizzuti tells his story in a frank and subtle manner that prevents him from using the clichés to which so many authors of his genre resort. His matter-of-fact, conversational style often makes readers feel as if they have wandered into a bar where a Vietnam veteran is telling his story by recalling bits and pieces of what he remembers—maybe showing them the odd letter that he wrote home while Bob Dylan songs play on the jukebox.

Rizzuti’s style of writing completely captivates and intrigues his audience. As his story jumps decades, often within the span of several paragraphs, readers are frequently uncertain from which location or year the narrator is speaking as they read the initial line of any section. Although this may sound confusing or complicated to some potential readers, at no time do readers become overwhelmed, or does the novel become overly convoluted. Because Rootie’s flawlessly flowing narrative links all the events together, it is of no consequence that the events are narrated out of sequence; in fact, such a style of narration only adds to the enjoyment of this refreshing take on a subject that has been often explored.

In short, The Second Tour’s honesty, sincerity, and authenticity makes it clear from the beginning that this novel could only have been written by someone who was actually in Vietnam. Although a work of fiction, The Second Tour is based on events few have experienced, providing a fascinating insight into war and the boys who eventually become men when they are sent to fight it.

The Second Tour is not only an electrifying read for fans of the genre, but also a fitting epitaph for those who lost their lives far away from home.

Reviewed by: Nolene P. Dougan,
Spinetinglers.net



The Second Tour
As we remember the history of our lives there is a tendency to forget the individual as we consider the scope of the events, even those through which we have lived. The fictionalized story of Terry Rizzuti’s service in Vietnam vividly brings to mind the idea that history is written and perceptions of it shaped by the observers of history rather than the participants. March along with Terry Rizzuti as he and his brethren in arms go through and experiences the horrors of war as only the foot soldier can. It is he who truly knows war.

The episodes described in this book are honest and told with little judgment. The reader can feel the heat of the jungle and the dread of encountering a foe that is greatly unlike the enemy faced by the fathers of the men who fought in Vietnam. Only by reading this book can a person hope to share in the experiences of a Marine Rifleman and those who fought with him through patrols, booby traps, conflicts with superiors, and the loves and hates of men who are thrown together from all parts of the country and expected to accomplish a given mission.

This book is written in a style that some might find to be disconcerting. This should not discourage a reader. This is one of those rare books that only by completing it and contemplating it can the reader internalize it and make it one’s own. If someone lived in or grew up through these turbulent times then the style might be strikingly reminiscent of Procul Harum’s undeclared anthem of the 60’s, ‘A whiter shade of Pale.’ The parts of this story which encompass a year in the war and hints of the struggles to ‘fit in’ after the return home bombard the reader with fragments of a quilt. And as a person minutely examines a quilt, then backs up and looks at the whole, the feel and aim of this book can only be appreciated with the perspective of reflection after closing the back cover after reading the words of that most American of all bugle calls, ‘Taps’ which is which is the reassuring lullaby that means a soldier is at peace.

This book comes highly recommended from an author who has a degree in English Literature and has won several awards for writing and analysis of literature. It is well worth the time to read and savor and remember.

Reviewer: John Helman,
Allbooks Reviews


The Psychological Wounds & Spiritual Scars of War
The Second Tour – press release
M. Mesco, Book-Promotions.com


The Psychological Wounds & Spiritual Scars of War

In The Second Tour, Terry P. Rizzuti questions the concept of war and the strength of civilized humanity in a book where Vietnam echoes current international warfare.

Imagine Hell as depicted by Hieronymus Bosch: torture, pain, suffering, debauchery and blazing fire. To look at it, this image is not far removed from the war-torn Vietnam as described in Terry P. Rizzuti’s semi-autobiographical novel, The Second Tour.

The book consists, largely, of a collection of harrowing events as remembered by Rizzuti from his 13-month stint as a front-line Marine. The images of suffering and pain that are depicted bring home the horrors of this war, and the pain the soldiers underwent while being reviled by many back home. The experiences are recalled and told through the book’s narrator 27 years after the events, during which time he has not been able to come to terms with how this seemingly short, but excruciatingly intense, chapter of his life has affected him.

Rizzuti narrates the story in a modernist style with disjointed time and place frames. This technique has two advantages. Firstly, it underlines the immediacy of experience in a war zone. Nothing can be predicted or planned. Only the here and now exists. Secondly, it recalls the high period of modernism, around the time of that other futile conflict of the 20th Century, the First World War, when this artistic device was equally used to offer insights into the psychological wounds and spiritual scars of war experience.

Rizzuti was born in Oklahoma in 1946, grew up in New York and joined the Marine Corps in 1966. In May 1967 he was awarded a Purple Heart for shrapnel wounds received. He now lives in Colorado and keeps contact with his military past through various service associations. The Second Tour took him more than twelve years to complete. It is his first novel.

Despite its undisputed literary value, The Second Tour cannot be read as a mere fictional work. In a time when the whole world balance seems to be ready to change face, it serves as a reminder how easily human morality and rationality can be suspended when put under exceptional pressure. Its message goes far beyond the facts described and it builds a natural yet clear link with the current events concerning Iraq and Afghanistan, becoming an important lesson about all wars and their consequences, both on mankind and single human beings.


The Second Tour
Spinetinglers Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-906755-01-0

Reader Reviews for "The Second Tour"

Reviewed by Gerald Tate	7/16/2008
I have had the pleasure of having a full sneak review of this manuscript, and I'm totally convinced its up there with Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, and any other great Nam stories. I am not in the least surprised to find Second Tour has been given a five star rating with Spinetinglers, and I look forward to its release. Mr Rizzuti looks to have pulled something off here that most people can only dream about, and I can only wish him good luck for the future. WELL DONE. Gerald J Tate

Want to review or comment on this book?
Click here to login!

Need a FREE Reader Membership?
Click here for your Membership!