Marine Phil Klay served in Iraq, and in these in twelve short stories, captures twelve different soldiers' experiences. Klay's book not only received the National Book Award for Fiction in 2014, but also was named among top fiction books of the year by the New York Times, Time magazine, and many other publications.
Perhaps because so few of us Americans were directly affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I feel somehow obligated to share the experiences as much as I can through books and films. And this is one terrific book!
In different stories, we see the perspective of a soldier back home, trying to walk through streets and stores to go shopping with his wife. We see a chaplain who uses the candy sent by folks in the States to give soldiers an excuse to visit with him. We see a contractor who is trying to supply water networks to rebuild Iraq, but gets pressure from the "office" only to pass baseball uniforms out to Iraqi kids for a photo op. We see a mortuary soldier whose job is to save personal belongings and get the final remains of soldiers treated respectfully as they are transported back to their families.
You see that each story stands alone, and each covers a unique experience. One review says that this book is the "best thing written so far on what the war did to people’s souls." And by reading about a wide variety of these souls, we maybe come as close as we can to understanding what these soldiers are experiencing in our stead.
I think it was good for my soul and for my level of empathy to read this book---and I enjoyed it, besides.
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