Scan barcode
A review by jdintr
Redeployment by Phil Klay
3.0
This is the fourth book of fiction about a War that was based on fictions--a war I opposed from the very start (seated in a Kurdish restaurant in Nashville amid cheers over the "shock and awe" exploding over the Baghdad skyline, no less). Why do I get myself into these things?
A love of good writing, I guess, and an effort to keep up with my students' interest for another. (Two of the novels I've read target young adults: Patricia McCormick's Purple Heart and Stephen Dau's The Book of Jonas, the other book remains the best book I've read on the subject, even better than Klay's, Kevin Powers's The Yellow Birds.
Klay's collection of short stories won the National Book Award earlier in 2015. War readers will recognized connections with Tim O'Brien's The Things We Carried, but redeployment is focused on a broader understanding of the Iraq War, whereas O'Brien spun most of his stories out of the experiences of one platoon.
Klay covers a lot of ground in these 12 stories: from the bittersweet return of Marines to Camp Lejeune, to the experiences of chaplains, adjutants, artillery personnel, and plenty of on-the-ground guys. He keeps the focus close to the war, with few references to the folks back home or the idiots bungling things at the highest levels of command.
His characters seem to be searching for the nobility of fighting--and (for those who make it to civilian life) confirmation of this nobility from a carefree American public. On the subject of nobility, one character, a Marine chaplain, writes in his journal:
That story, "Prayer in the Furnace," was probably my favorite of the collection. That, and "Ten Kliks South" about a young artilleryman who seeks confirmation of the Iraqis his crew might have killed on a strike six miles away only to be swayed by confirmation of his own flag-draped comrades headed home.
I don't come from a military background, so many of the acronyms were strange to me. I also felt that Klay, by trying to bring to life such a wide array of Marine experiences, may have missed the depth that a more narrow focus (see The Things They Carried and The Yellow Birds) can bring.
A love of good writing, I guess, and an effort to keep up with my students' interest for another. (Two of the novels I've read target young adults: Patricia McCormick's Purple Heart and Stephen Dau's The Book of Jonas, the other book remains the best book I've read on the subject, even better than Klay's, Kevin Powers's The Yellow Birds.
Klay's collection of short stories won the National Book Award earlier in 2015. War readers will recognized connections with Tim O'Brien's The Things We Carried, but redeployment is focused on a broader understanding of the Iraq War, whereas O'Brien spun most of his stories out of the experiences of one platoon.
Klay covers a lot of ground in these 12 stories: from the bittersweet return of Marines to Camp Lejeune, to the experiences of chaplains, adjutants, artillery personnel, and plenty of on-the-ground guys. He keeps the focus close to the war, with few references to the folks back home or the idiots bungling things at the highest levels of command.
His characters seem to be searching for the nobility of fighting--and (for those who make it to civilian life) confirmation of this nobility from a carefree American public. On the subject of nobility, one character, a Marine chaplain, writes in his journal:
I know it exists. There are so many stories, and some of them have to be true....
And yet, I have this sense that this place is holier than back home. Gluttonous, fat, oversexed, overconsuming, materialist home, where we're too lazy to see our own faults. At least here, Rodriguez has the decency to worry about hell.
That story, "Prayer in the Furnace," was probably my favorite of the collection. That, and "Ten Kliks South" about a young artilleryman who seeks confirmation of the Iraqis his crew might have killed on a strike six miles away only to be swayed by confirmation of his own flag-draped comrades headed home.
I don't come from a military background, so many of the acronyms were strange to me. I also felt that Klay, by trying to bring to life such a wide array of Marine experiences, may have missed the depth that a more narrow focus (see The Things They Carried and The Yellow Birds) can bring.