This novel has nothing to do with Switzerland, rather it is set in Vietnam during the war. The Matterhorn is a code name for a small hill where several hundred men end up dieing because one officer needs to make an impression so he can keep on getting promoted.
It follows the trials of a Marine platoon over a period of approximately 3 months as they fight in an area just south of the DMZ.
The author was a Marine 2nd Lieutenant in an area just like this during the war and I believe the majority of the novel is totally auto-biographical. One review I read, whose author had done some research found that Marlantes citation for his Navy Cross reads very similarly to an incident in his novel.
In the book there are several threads, particularly 'race' issues between the black Marines and white officers and NCO's, the boredom, the terror and then of course the waste that is always evident in war novels.
The writing is very very good and the cover blurbs compare it to Sasson's writing of the 1st World War and the Naked and the Dead by Mailer, (this author certainly saw a lot more combat than Mailer did ).Its great reading and recommended.
Even though it is set in Vietnam, it has only been published in 2010, so its on all the book shelves now
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