Review of Robert Flanagan's Maggot

Robert Flanagan's 1971 novel Maggot was a little strange reading. It is the story of a sadistic Drill Sergeant and a few of his recruits at Paris Island in the Marine Corps Boot Camp. Recruits Waite and Adamczyk were there to become men, and found out that it was harder than they thought.

The book interested me because of its description of early military life in that period. The description was fairly accurate. It very much resembled "Full Metal Jacket" and my own experience in the Army.

Unfortunately the book was not really that well written. I did not think that it was that interesting, and the plot was fairly thin. Ultimately the end revolved the Drill Instructor kicking someone and the question of whether anyone would tell on him.

The moral issues were not all that interesting either, and the psychological angle did not really play out well in the novel either. The book could have been far better written, and it would have had a chance.