Public Information

CANDIDE meets MASH

Freshly minted infantryman, twenty-year-old Wylie Cypher, arrives in war torn Korea in 1952. Every indication is that he has limited chances for survival. As an enemy bomber looms overhead, he prays that he can survive a sixteen-month tour of duty without, as his sergeant says, getting his ass shot off.

Wylie is recruited to join the staff of a Division Public Information Office (PIO) where he reports on many aspects of the conflict. He uses his infantry training in bloody combat, makes many colorful new friends, learns how to maneuver through the military system, finds love and loss, and grows up in the turmoil of combat and the war’s aftermath.
Veterans have hailed the story as accurate, believable, touching, funny, and “the way it really was.” The story is based on the author’s experiences, careful historical research, and the 300 letters he sent his future wife from Korea. He touches on prisoner of war experiences on both sides of the DMZ, the armistice, realistic scenes of combat, the many United Nations forces engaged in the war, and poignant and funny aspects of military service.

The second edition of the book includes recently disclosed information, and scenes and observations drawn from the comments of many veteran readers. The book is dedicated to the dwindling number of men and women who risked their lives to preserve democracy in South Korea.

as other editions available & price) This is the second edition of this war novel. Rolf Margenau has had a varied career. He was a soldier in the Korean War, a correspondent for the Pacific Stars and Stripes, a professional photographer, an attorney specializing in international corporate law, a volunteer executive running a not-for-profit housing the homeless, a business manage, and, lately, an author and Master Gardener. As an English Major in college, he published short stories but found the pay insufficient to support a wife and one and a half children. Being an attorney paid better. Later in life, he returned to writing when he discovered that his wife had kept the 300 plus letters he wrote her from Korea. They became the basis for a novel about the Korean War published in 2011. Public Information tells the story of a hapless young soldier who comes of age in Korea in the midst of bloody combat. His story recounts in gory, ribald, poignant and accurate detail how he manages to survive his sixteen-month tour of duty. Public Information became an Amazon best seller. Pistils and PoeAtry, the author’s second book, is a compilation of Elizabethan poems (Shakespeare, Marlowe, Donne, and numerous others) juxtaposed with the author’s photographs of flowers. It is a rich and engaging poetry book, enhanced by luscious photos of flowers. In March 2013, Margenau published Master Gardener, a satirical novel that explores conflicts between the benefits of engineered crops and their potential for ecological disaster. Wylie Cypher, the hero of Public Information, now seventy-five years old, battles malevolent BIG AG, and senior citizens band together as eco-terrorists to save the monarch butterfly. Any similarity between the hero and author is purely coincidental. High Andes, published in August 2014, is a thriller involving a middle-aged Wylie Cypher and his daughter, Mercy, trying to elude numerous villains chasing them across the White Mountains of Peru. Set in 1980, the story deals with armed insurrection by Maoist guerillas, smuggling ancient artifacts, “disappearances” of troublemakers, a five hundred year old child mummy, and the CIA. The Commode Companion is an adult humor book featuring more than 100 photographs of various creatures speaking their minds about numerous subjects. It exposes the innermost thoughts of animals, birds, bugs, butterflies, and frogs, and guarantees to cure constipation through laughter. His 2016 satirical novel, National Parks, recounts what happens, in the near future, when Congress, having bankrupted the country through gridlock and inaction, decides to solve America’s economic problems by privatizing our national parks. Rolf Margenau lives in rural New Jersey with his first wife of 60 years and both wild and domestic animals. He keeps fit by splitting wood, chasing his Cairn terrier, swimming, hiking, and drinking single malt scotch.

"Modern Candide. Warm and funny. Veterans and adult readers love it." The New York Review of Books

The Korean War is often forgotten in the overlay of conflict in the twentieth century. "Public Information" is a novel from Rolf Margenau writing of Wylie Cypher, a man whose entry into the military in 1952 finds him ending up in the Korean conflict. As he travels the region, he learns much about the world, the army's brotherhood, and life.
"Public Information" is a fine read well worth considering for historical fiction collections. John Burroughs, Reviewer - Midwest Book Review

"The sense of place he (Margenau) creates is strong and true. He also ably fleshes out his supporting characters and brings the disparate elements of his plot to a satisfactory conclusion." Publishers Weekly

Blog tours begin in February, 2017
Mid February Kindle discount price blast
Various book signings at Northern NJ independent book stores