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eelsmac's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.0
There are parts of this book that are very raw and real. The prose throughout has really wonderful thick description which adds to the overall richness of the story, however there are parts of the book that really just do not feel fully integrated with the general arch that the author is focused on portraying. Some of the detail about the use and operation of drones just seemed a bit indulgent for no real purpose.
The author, and many Americans in general, lacks a certain amount of critical introspection insofar as the globalized and complex nature of postmodern warfare and how a myriad of US policy choices help to provide anti-American ideological framework for all of the worse pathologies of violence in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's particularly frustrating in this work because Castner does in some parts of the book show a deeper understanding of how ongoing occupation breeds insurgency, as well as the role of poverty and social inequality in providing human fuel to the military industrial complex machine. So then the lack of ability to fully look into the mirror regarding a critical understanding of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan feels a bit like pulling punches.
And while the edition I read had the subtitle of "An Elegy for a Fallen Comrade, and the Hunt for His Killer," apparently there are other editions that have the subtitle "A Portrait of Modern War," and that kind of subtitle I find rage inducing to the point of automatic docking of points.
I will give Castner this - there is a tendency in the writing community to not give strong, workable feedback when it involves someone's personal experience of a particular traumatic nature. More so when the writer is associated with the military. So I would argue that some of the editing process work that could have really taken this book from alright to downright fantastic was lacking; my guess is that Castner's editors and pre-publication readers suffered from that culturally obligatory deference and the finished product suffered as a result. 3/5.
The author, and many Americans in general, lacks a certain amount of critical introspection insofar as the globalized and complex nature of postmodern warfare and how a myriad of US policy choices help to provide anti-American ideological framework for all of the worse pathologies of violence in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's particularly frustrating in this work because Castner does in some parts of the book show a deeper understanding of how ongoing occupation breeds insurgency, as well as the role of poverty and social inequality in providing human fuel to the military industrial complex machine. So then the lack of ability to fully look into the mirror regarding a critical understanding of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan feels a bit like pulling punches.
And while the edition I read had the subtitle of "An Elegy for a Fallen Comrade, and the Hunt for His Killer," apparently there are other editions that have the subtitle "A Portrait of Modern War," and that kind of subtitle I find rage inducing to the point of automatic docking of points.
I will give Castner this - there is a tendency in the writing community to not give strong, workable feedback when it involves someone's personal experience of a particular traumatic nature. More so when the writer is associated with the military. So I would argue that some of the editing process work that could have really taken this book from alright to downright fantastic was lacking; my guess is that Castner's editors and pre-publication readers suffered from that culturally obligatory deference and the finished product suffered as a result. 3/5.
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