From Library Journal
This first novel by a former U.S. Army captain offers a unique perspective on the Vietnam War as experienced by a gay man. Capt. Matthew Fairchild is a desk officer in Saigon who, despite his constant struggle with hiding his sexuality, does superior work and is admired by his superiors. His affair with a young Vietnamese busboy named Nham gives him insight into the people he is fighting and himself as well. When Fairchild discovers secret information of misconduct involving the massacre of a Vietnamese village, his personal ethics as well as the inevitable disclosure of his homosexuality bring the novel to a tense and ultimately satisfying conclusion. Despite some weighty passages involving religion, Vietnamese history, etc., the author moves the story at a brisk pace and is exceptionally good at dialog. Readers will care about the characters, and this fictional account of a timely topic should be of interest. Recommended for all fiction collections.?Phillip Oliver, Univ. of North Alabama Lib., FlorenceCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ellsworth American, January 15, 1998
"Fairchild, no longer a puppet of his past, metamorphoses into a person fully aware of each moment. His mind, once numbed by culture, religion, and tradition, begins with startling alacrity to follow his conscience regardless of the consequences. The Innocent is an enjoyable and easy read, clear and colorful, peppered with elements of suspense, violence and sex fitting for a story of a gay man in the military in the midst of the Vietnam war. The story is a page-turner, engaging to the very last, satisfying line."

Gay & Lesbian Resource Center Bulletin; February, 1998
"Mr. Taylor has crafted a very thoughtful novel that takes the time to examine several issues around the Vietnam War, such as the Vietnamese view of hundreds of years of foreign invasion and our own military's code of unconditional obedience.... I was enthralled by how Taylor wove into his story the rich tapestry of the Vietnamese people--from its earliest poets, philosophers, and political leaders to the invasion by China, Japan, Portugal, France and the U.S. The Innocent is a compelling and provocative first novel. I guarantee it will make you think."

Maine Sunday Telegram, November 16, 1997
"Taylor is an immensely talented writer and The Innocent launches him auspiciously into fiction.... Few first novels exhibit the force and control Taylor brings to The Innocent , a title that appears to apply equally to Fairchild, his Vietnamese lover Nhan and to Vietnam itself.... Robert Taylor is a novelist to whom readers will eagerly look for more."

Publishers Weekly, October 6, 1997
"Readers will root for Fairchild in the midst of his moral dilemma."

Book Description
Captain Matthew Fairchild has his eyes opened to his own sexuality as well as to the people and country of Vietnam and U.S. military involvement there, during his tour of duty as a desk officer in the 1970s--especially when he observes a Calley-like village massacre and learns that the Army has tortured his Vietnamese boyfriend into telling of their affair.

From the Publisher
DARING FIRST NOVEL EXPLORES THE WOUNDS OF WAR
The Vietnam experience of a gay American officer:
"If there is another fiction quite like it in subject matter and straightforward, unembellished manner of telling, I do not know of it." --Doris Grumbach, from the Foreword So much has already been written about the Vietnam War--both fiction and nonfiction, by authors ranging from former grunts to former Cabinet members--that it comes as a surprise that the subject hasn't already been covered from every possible angle. It comes as another surprise to realize, with all the attention currently being spent on the issue of gays in the military, how little fiction has dealt with gays in the American forces in Vietnam. The Innocent, by first novelist Robert Taylor, deals exactly with this issue. It is a significant contribution to the literature of the Vietnam War and to the more general field of gay literary history. It is a bold book, an American-Vietnamese homosexual love story that challenges the notions most Americans (including the novel's protagonist) hold dear about what's fair in love and war. Captain Matthew Fairchild is a desk officer in Saigon. A good soldier and a loyal American, he believes he is protecting the world from the threat of Communism. During the course of this tense, tender novel, Matthew has his eyes opened to his homosexuality, the dark side of America's presence in Southeast Asia, and the horrors of war, which climax with the massacre of an entire Vietnamese village. The Innocent is about a young man finding out for sure exactly who he is and what that entails in terms of pleasure and responsibility, crime and conscience.

From the Back Cover
I had a moment of panic. He was Vietnamese, so there was no way I could trust him. Everyone said so... They were sophisticated and very, very smart. Smart enough to know that an intelligence officer named Matthew Fairchild, who worked in a sealed-off room and ate at the Golden Dragon, would be unable to resist a beautiful young Vietnamese busboy, would go with him wherever he wanted to go... "Romantic illusions are here artfully tilted into vivid disarray as the young hero learns that secrets and lies prevail, war is a series of terrible betrayals, and that love comes in the embrace of a man. The innocent of the title matures into a man of profound understanding and conscience, illustrated in the book's satisfying conclusion. Told in prose as clear as running water, this a a work that wins the full attention, affection, and admiration of the reader." --Helen Yglesias

About the Author
Robert Taylor was a Captain in the U.S. Army assigned to the Pentagon from 1963-1966 and to Vietnam at Army Headquarters in 1967. He has been the editor of Transportation U.S.A., assistant editor of Music Educators Journal, and deputy editor of America Illustrated, a Russian-language magazine distributed in Russia. He lives in Blue Hill, Maine. This is his first novel.