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A review by pattydsf
Redeployment by Phil Klay
4.0
"Success was a matter of perspective. In Iraq it had to be. There was no Omaha Beach, no Vicksburg Campaign, not even an Alamo to signal a clear defeat." p.77
Klay's collection of short stories has been compared to The Things They Carried. It won the National Book Award. Klay has success and it is not just a matter of perspective. However, his characters stick with me because they have not always succeeded. They are not failures, but winning does not appear to be part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
I would not have read this book without The Tournament of Books (ToB). I know that I should read books that are written well, but are about hard subjects. However, I often want escape from my reading and Klay's book puts me in the heart of real life. I was avoiding these short stories.
That would have been a bad move on my part. I and many other readers need to hear the voices of Klay's narrators. We need to know what happened to the men and women who served in Iraq. I know that the people in this book are not real, but their stories are true. Truth does not depend on fact. It depends on how well the story is told. Klay tells these stories very well.
I recommend this book to readers of short stories, to bleeding heart liberals like myself who have distanced themselves from W's war, to hawks who think war is necessary and actually want to consider the answers the hard questions and to any reader who wants to read exceptional writing.
"...Marines, sailors and soldiers and airmen would have stood at attention as it traveled to the family of the fallen, where the silence, the stillness, would end." p. 288
Klay's writing will haunt me for awhile. And that is a good thing.
Klay's collection of short stories has been compared to The Things They Carried. It won the National Book Award. Klay has success and it is not just a matter of perspective. However, his characters stick with me because they have not always succeeded. They are not failures, but winning does not appear to be part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
I would not have read this book without The Tournament of Books (ToB). I know that I should read books that are written well, but are about hard subjects. However, I often want escape from my reading and Klay's book puts me in the heart of real life. I was avoiding these short stories.
That would have been a bad move on my part. I and many other readers need to hear the voices of Klay's narrators. We need to know what happened to the men and women who served in Iraq. I know that the people in this book are not real, but their stories are true. Truth does not depend on fact. It depends on how well the story is told. Klay tells these stories very well.
I recommend this book to readers of short stories, to bleeding heart liberals like myself who have distanced themselves from W's war, to hawks who think war is necessary and actually want to consider the answers the hard questions and to any reader who wants to read exceptional writing.
"...Marines, sailors and soldiers and airmen would have stood at attention as it traveled to the family of the fallen, where the silence, the stillness, would end." p. 288
Klay's writing will haunt me for awhile. And that is a good thing.