A review by annevoi
Redeployment by Phil Klay

5.0

A killer book of twelve short stories, each one spot on. All are told in the first person, but the narrator is different in each, ranging from Marines newly home after a seven-month deployment to men on the ground in the war zone—but not always in the thick of the action. There's a chaplain, an adjutant (desk jockey), a Foreign Service Officer who ends up getting tasked with teaching Iraqi kids baseball thanks to political machinations back home. There's a Coptic Arab vet trying to explain what it was like to be a Marine in Iraq to a newly converted African-American Muslim at Swarthmore College. There is plenty of anger, confusion, and helplessness, as well as striving to connect, to understand.

I flagged so many passages for their vividness or wisdom or grit or vulnerability, for their ability to explain situations or states of mind or the sheer insanity of war so very well, and I could have flagged many more. Much of what makes the book so compelling is the dialogue. The writing is exceptional.