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priyastoric 's review for:
American War
by Omar El Akkad
"They didn’t understand, they just didn’t understand. You fight the war with guns, you fight the peace with stories."
American War is a book that punches you in the gut and essentially spits you out again. It's a raw story about war and radicalization in a United States that is very much unlike our own (though seeds of present day conversations exist it's downfall and destruction).
I appreciated the way the author pulled in primary source documents to set up the contextualize portions of the story but by the time we got to the end I had to flip back to the front few pages of the book to make sure I understood the overarching timeline.
The tragedy of our central character, Sarat is that in some ways, we can see how she becomes a martyr - it's terrifyingly real - and sympathize, while also being opposed to her ultimate choices.
Well worth reading, even though you will need a palate cleanser at the end.
American War is a book that punches you in the gut and essentially spits you out again. It's a raw story about war and radicalization in a United States that is very much unlike our own (though seeds of present day conversations exist it's downfall and destruction).
I appreciated the way the author pulled in primary source documents to set up the contextualize portions of the story but by the time we got to the end I had to flip back to the front few pages of the book to make sure I understood the overarching timeline.
The tragedy of our central character, Sarat is that in some ways, we can see how she becomes a martyr - it's terrifyingly real - and sympathize, while also being opposed to her ultimate choices.
Well worth reading, even though you will need a palate cleanser at the end.