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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
informative
challenging
dark
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
funny
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Excrement, Islamophobia
dark
so as everyone knows, i like reading the most depressing, downer-y non-fiction on the face of the earth. i don't know WHY this is true about me, only that it is. i picked this up after it was mentioned in an interview by david simon, because by the time the miniseries was on hbo i didn't have it anymore and missed it - now it's of course #1 on my netflix queue.
there are 2 things to me that make this an excellent account of the beginnings of the iraq war in 2003. the first is a point made by someone else, and it's that this story is not about being a journalist embedded within a marine battalion, it's the story of the men in the marine battalion. the way in which wright tells their stories involves so much shared experience, it becomes addicting to read. it isn't about him. it's about them. and they're not writers, so bless the fact that their story gets told anyway.
the second thing about it is that even though some pages made my stomach turn, some things i had to read twice to even BELIEVE, there were other instances where i laughed. there are legitimately funny things that happen. it doesn't mean war is a joke, nor that the men involved in this story do not question or take seriously what they are doing, or that they are immune to the events that occur. they retain their sense of humor through all of that, because as it goes - if you don't laugh, you'll cry.
i found myself unable to put it down - i had to know what was going to happen next. i just finished it, and i still feel like i'm coming down from reading the last few chapters. this one will stick with me for a long time. i'm interested to see how the miniseries matches up.
there are 2 things to me that make this an excellent account of the beginnings of the iraq war in 2003. the first is a point made by someone else, and it's that this story is not about being a journalist embedded within a marine battalion, it's the story of the men in the marine battalion. the way in which wright tells their stories involves so much shared experience, it becomes addicting to read. it isn't about him. it's about them. and they're not writers, so bless the fact that their story gets told anyway.
the second thing about it is that even though some pages made my stomach turn, some things i had to read twice to even BELIEVE, there were other instances where i laughed. there are legitimately funny things that happen. it doesn't mean war is a joke, nor that the men involved in this story do not question or take seriously what they are doing, or that they are immune to the events that occur. they retain their sense of humor through all of that, because as it goes - if you don't laugh, you'll cry.
i found myself unable to put it down - i had to know what was going to happen next. i just finished it, and i still feel like i'm coming down from reading the last few chapters. this one will stick with me for a long time. i'm interested to see how the miniseries matches up.
informative
fast-paced
challenging
dark
informative
fast-paced
medium-paced