JENNINGS, Phillip E.

PERSONAL: Has children.

ADDRESSES: Home—Kirkland, WA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Forge, 175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Writer and businessperson. Mayfair Capital Partners, CEO. Also worked for Central Intelligence Agency, flying for Air America in Laos. Military service: U.S. Marine Corps; served two tours of duty in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot; became captain.

AWARDS, HONORS: Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Award for short fiction, 1998.

WRITINGS:

Nam-a-Rama (fiction), Forge Books (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Former U.S. Marine Phillip E. Jennings, a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, lampoons the war in his first novel Nam-a-Rama. Gerard Finnigan Gearheardt is a marine helicopter pilot who happens to overhear U.S. President Larry Bob Jones discussing the idea of changing the status of U.S. soldiers in the war between South and North Vietnam, from an advisory force to a full-fledged participating force. The unpopular president thinks this plan will help him gain votes in the next election. Gearheardt and fellow pilot Jack Armstrong are recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency, under direction of the president, for a secret mission to assassinate North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, but the mission does not go as planned due to interference from other agents and various other problems. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that in Nam-a-Rama "the battle scenes … are tough, fast, and frightening," adding that "episodes of wackiness predominate." David Pitt, writing in Booklist, felt that "Jennings generally approaches this broad satire with a surprising amount of delicacy and subtlety," while a Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded: "In this wonderfully irreverent novel … hearty belly laughs contrast with chilling insights into high level political machinations."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2005, David Pitt, review of Nam-a-Rama, p. 941.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2004, review of Nam-a-Rama, p. 1157.

Publishers Weekly, February 21, 2005, review of Nam-a-Rama, p. 159.