The Song Behind Today’s Review Title

Today’s review title comes from David Bowie’s 1971 song Changes. You can hear the tune and see the official lyric video on YouTube.

Picture this - its 1971 and the military services “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is fifteen years in the future. It is officially illegal to be gay while serving in any of the military branches, and in much of America for that matter, even though the Stonewall “riot” is two years in the past.

You are an insecure, gay 19-year-old whose best friend Dale — who is straight and comes from a military family — has just told you he is joining the Marines and heading off to boot camp for the entire summer. But all you hear is “summer” and “camp” and you impetuously decide to sign up with him.

So begins Greg Cope White’s 2016 book The Pink Marine. It’s the quintessential coming-of-age tale, but with a “closeted teenager at boot camp” twist. A gentle humor carries the book and likely masks the terror of being found gay that Cope must have felt while going through training at Parris Island. The result is a great read with appeal to anyone who remembers what it was like to be a timid kid unsure of how you’d ever fit into this world.

What Cope does have is obstinance, and an overwhelming desire not to let his best friend down. His first challenge is putting on some weight - he learns at the Marine recruiter’s office that he is fourteen pounds below the minimum weight to enter the Marines. With Dale’s help he crosses this first hurdle in the eight days before Dale goes to boot camp, ensuring they can both go together on the “buddy system”, which will keep them together through boot camp.

The rest of the book is a boots-on-the-ground memoir of Cope’s 13 weeklong basic training experience. As the weeks go by and the difficult challenges of boot camp somehow get met, Cope’s confidence begins to build. He starts to realize that he will come out of boot camp an entirely different person than he was when he went in. But still gay, of course, and unfortunately still having to remain closeted.

If you’ve seen last fall’s Netflix miniseries Boots, based on Cope’s book, then many of the scenes here will be familiar to you. But I would say the Netflix version, which I have seen, is a “loose” adaptation, and one that changes some significant parts of the story line. I found the book to have a more authentic feel, and to better reflect the times of the early 1970s, when men were men, and no one would ever think that a gay man could make it as a Marine.

RATING: Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

OVERALL COMMENTS: A gentle humor carries this quintessential coming-of-age tale with a “closeted teenager at boot camp” twist.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I read this book on my ereader through Kobo Plus.