Point of View

The point of view of MASH the Novel is that of its author, Richard Hooker, who was himself a surgeon in a MASH unit during the Korean War. Hooker was born in 1924 and died in 1997 and wrote a variety of novels after MASH with W.C. Heinz. The book would later become a well-known movie and even more well-known television series. Hooker's experiences in the 8055th MASH laid the background for his work.

Readers of the guide are mostly likely to be familiar with MASH the television series, but it is important for you to know that the general left-wing politics of the show are reflections of the political views of the writers and directors and especially the actor who played Hawkeye, Alan Alda. Hooker is widely known to have opposed the direction Alan Alda took Hawkeye. In the book, Hooker modeled Hawkeye after himself and...