A review by connie_rea
A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti

3.0

This is a story about those left behind by war. It just so happens to be that instead of the family left behind it is about the man that was at war who one days finds himself left behind. How he attempts to pick up the pieces after his combat days are over. A story where the young man finds out that although he might have left the war, he now finds himself in a different type of combat...now with enemy soldiers, but with his own personal demons and his feelings about himself. Novels like this do much to show how the image some see of people are never the images that they see of themselves.

Was this the best book I've read this year? No, sorry to say it's not even close. However, it is an important book and I'm glad I invested the time to read it. Does it change my views on war and the destruction it causes? Not on the enemy, lands, or even countries. or on the men and women themselves. But it does reinforce my belief that not everyone can be judged by the outside image they display. Nor can they be defined by the labels that have been placed upon them. We should all give just a moments more time to really try to see and to help the people before us. Lest the masks they wear for us truly hide them until they are suddenly gone as is the person that wore them...

ARC provided by Edelweiss for an honest review