Scan barcode
Reviews
Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War by Rita Nakashima Brock, Gabriella Lettini
megatsunami's review
4.0
3.5 stars. I liked how the book brought together the voices of veterans and their experiences of "moral injury" - struggling with conscience around the experience of war. The authors did a great job of articulating issues and concerns, and brought attention to some really powerful stories.
However, I had two criticisms. One: the veterans profiled here are mostly folks who have already strongly spoken out against war (either a particular war, or war in general). It would be interesting to include a wider range of voices of people with more mixed or complex views on what they went through. Two: the book fell short about what to do and how to address it. I was expecting more on this from the book. There are some stories about individuals' experiences, but no overall guidelines or ideas about how to guide someone toward healing the crimes they've been part of. The book seemed a little slanted toward anti-war activism as a path to soul repair. Activism is extremely important, but let's be real - not everyone is going to take that road. What can others do? How can we help them to discern what is just a token effort and what is genuinely reparative?
However, I had two criticisms. One: the veterans profiled here are mostly folks who have already strongly spoken out against war (either a particular war, or war in general). It would be interesting to include a wider range of voices of people with more mixed or complex views on what they went through. Two: the book fell short about what to do and how to address it. I was expecting more on this from the book. There are some stories about individuals' experiences, but no overall guidelines or ideas about how to guide someone toward healing the crimes they've been part of. The book seemed a little slanted toward anti-war activism as a path to soul repair. Activism is extremely important, but let's be real - not everyone is going to take that road. What can others do? How can we help them to discern what is just a token effort and what is genuinely reparative?
More...