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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
This is an up-close and personal account of the first days of the Iraq invasion in 2003. Wright, a journalist at Rolling Stone Magazine, gets a spot aka "embedded" with the First Recon Marine Battalion. He bargains his satellite phone and ends up with Bravo Company Second Platoon instead of the supply platoon. We get a slice of what the lives of these Marines was like. Used as bait and diversion, these highly trained, elite platoon mostly composed by late teenagers and mid twenty young men with some but not most schooling.
This one view of life in the trenches in this case in a Humvee. Not very different I guess from accounts of young men in past wars but always fascinating to me. These young men are conditioned and trained to react a certain way, to leave their brains at the door but the human brain is a wicked thing it doesn't always do what it's told. Like under past wars, far away leaders play with these young men like pieces of a chess game. Most are not unaware of this but all believe in the Corp, in the ties that bind these men into one unit.
Wright succeeded in making these young men human not killing machines. Of course, he has the privilege of insight now and can insert some commentary and view points for the reader about what was really going on but for these young men and this journalist living through the beginning of the invasion in late March, early April 2003, nothing made sense but still they carried on.
I liked it. More a 3 1/2 stars then 3 stars. Not sure I want to watch the mini-series based on the book, I don't think it would live up the film I made up for myself as I read the book. In the same frame of mind, I have Tim Cook's At the Sharp End : Canadians Fighting The Great War 1914-1916 volume 1 in my to read pile for 2009.
This one view of life in the trenches in this case in a Humvee. Not very different I guess from accounts of young men in past wars but always fascinating to me. These young men are conditioned and trained to react a certain way, to leave their brains at the door but the human brain is a wicked thing it doesn't always do what it's told. Like under past wars, far away leaders play with these young men like pieces of a chess game. Most are not unaware of this but all believe in the Corp, in the ties that bind these men into one unit.
Wright succeeded in making these young men human not killing machines. Of course, he has the privilege of insight now and can insert some commentary and view points for the reader about what was really going on but for these young men and this journalist living through the beginning of the invasion in late March, early April 2003, nothing made sense but still they carried on.
I liked it. More a 3 1/2 stars then 3 stars. Not sure I want to watch the mini-series based on the book, I don't think it would live up the film I made up for myself as I read the book. In the same frame of mind, I have Tim Cook's At the Sharp End : Canadians Fighting The Great War 1914-1916 volume 1 in my to read pile for 2009.
dark
informative
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence
dark
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Violence
Moderate: Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Blood
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Excrement
One of the first books I read on a kindle, which was neat. One of the few good pieces of Iraq War art, because it doesn't try to square the circle of the fact that the war was a crime and a monumental disaster but also Americans love the troops who did it. The dark humour is good.
it's really amazing how faithful the miniseries was to the book, right down to the dialogue
As someone who knows next to nothing about the Iraq war, I have no idea how this book would bear on an overall impression of the war. All I know is that, from a ground-up level, this book is fantastic. So often in the media (of all kinds) soldiers are presented en-masse, coming to represent the grander designs of war. Often they're presented as terrifying and invading oppressors, prone to regular and unnecessary violence. Or instead, they're battered from the perils of war, going slowly mad with the guilt and stress of their situations. Whilst these narrow judgements are based in truth (some people will, unfortunately, go mad or commit atrocities), they are by no means reflective of the soldiers in general. Wright drives this point home effectively and passionately throughout his recollections, informing the reader about each Marine he worked with, adding some much needed humanity and depth to an extremely fraught subject.
Memoirs and recollections of any kind will obviously be swayed by personal interpretation, but Generation Kill feels fairly objective. As I said, I've no idea how accurate this account can actually be, and for things like tactics that hardly matters. In the afterword, Wright comments that he has omitted most of the swearing that he heard whilst with First Recon. There is no mention of what else has been left out, but the impression upon finishing is one of realistic and accurate portrayal.
Fairly dense, this has been a longer read than I expected, though completely worth it. The book has served as a wake-up call for me in terms of understanding war and the role of any soldier in a new light - something that is hard to do when many representations of soldiers are as expendable, dehumanised followers.
Memoirs and recollections of any kind will obviously be swayed by personal interpretation, but Generation Kill feels fairly objective. As I said, I've no idea how accurate this account can actually be, and for things like tactics that hardly matters. In the afterword, Wright comments that he has omitted most of the swearing that he heard whilst with First Recon. There is no mention of what else has been left out, but the impression upon finishing is one of realistic and accurate portrayal.
Fairly dense, this has been a longer read than I expected, though completely worth it. The book has served as a wake-up call for me in terms of understanding war and the role of any soldier in a new light - something that is hard to do when many representations of soldiers are as expendable, dehumanised followers.
I would highly recommend this book and the HBO series based on it. The book is more inclusive, and certain characters make more sense within the larger framework the benefit of hindsight provides. The series is more like what must have been to actually be there--no information, things constantly flying at your head, and mind-blowing incompetence of superior officers without context.
Overall, I liked this book. It offers an interesting window into Operation: Iraqi Freedom. The author does a very good job of capturing the personalities of the men and describes the breakneck pace of the invasion with great skill. This is not a military book that assumes its readers are already familiar with the acronyms. The authors does enough hand-holding without talking down to his audience.
I didn't like how the authors would wax philosophical about his experiences and start painting with very broad strokes. At times he seemed to suggest that his experience with one platoon (out of the thousands deployed) were universal. His is a very unique and interesting look into military life, but I would hesitate to say that his experience can speak for all soldiers everywhere.
I didn't like how the authors would wax philosophical about his experiences and start painting with very broad strokes. At times he seemed to suggest that his experience with one platoon (out of the thousands deployed) were universal. His is a very unique and interesting look into military life, but I would hesitate to say that his experience can speak for all soldiers everywhere.