Redeployment - Phil Klay

[easy75]

Redeployment - Phil Klay

2014's U.S. National Book Award Winner is a series of short stories set in and around the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. Each story is told from the perspective of different U.S. soldiers, mostly Marines. These stories feel "authentic". Klay served in Iraq in the Marine Corp and seems to be able to tap the pulse of the people who were (and still are) there. Klay does an excellent job as he embodies each narrator, and they are a widely differing group of people. Each story has it's own distinct voice and flavor; a Chaplain trying to make sense of the depravity of a combat unit that is being ruthlessly pushed into firefights by a psychotic colonel, while at the same time trying to offer comfort to them through faith. An artillery soldier becomes obsessed with discovering the results of an artillery shell he helped fire at a target 6 miles away. The bureaucratic nightmare faced by a foreign services officer assigned to "help the Iraqis improve their lives." A marine, horribly disfigured by an IED blast, is sought out by a liberal arts major who wants to write an anti-war play based on his "experience". And on and on.
All in all an engaging and moving book that illustrates the heights of strength and courage, as well as the depths of grief, despair and the depravity that threatens to consume men at war. These young men truly give more than most people realize.
Highly recommended.

[Pompey Bum]

Sounds interesting, easy. It's always illuminating to get the inside feel of "closed event" (like a war) from someone who has actually been there. And that goes double for these wars, in which there was a considerable attempt to "handle the media" and control public perception about events (anybody remember Jessica Lynch?) It'll be interesting to see who the Tim O'Brian of this generation turns out to be.

[easy75]

Sounds interesting, easy. It's always illuminating to get the inside feel of "closed event" (like a war) from someone who has actually been there. And that goes double for these wars, in which there was a considerable attempt to "handle the media" and control public perception about events (anybody remember Jessica Lynch?) It'll be interesting to see who the Tim O'Brian of this generation turns out to be.

This was a great, quick read. It had a lot of heart, but it didn't move me the way some of O'Brien's stories did. I think this is the author's first book, and in light of that it's quite an accomplishment.

[Sancho]

Hey, I own that book. I'd like to say I've read it, but I've only read some of the stories in it. And I've got to say Phil Klay has a real knack for getting to the heart of the matter. When he tells a story with the voice of a sergeant, a private, a soldier, or a Marine, I get the sense that I know that guy. I spent quite a few years in various branches of the military, you see. At any rate, I laughed out loud when I read the story told almost entirely in acronyms.

I think the comparisons between Klay and O'Brien are inevitable but unfair. Inevitable because they both have an Eastern College, Liberal Arts education, and unfair because that's about as far as the similarities go. There seems to be an infatuation by the literary establishment in this country whenever an Ivy Leaguer goes to war and then writes about it, perhaps because it's kinda rare. That said, I think O'Brien wrote his stuff a lot closer to the bone. He was drafted, and was a rifleman in an infantry platoon. Klay by contrast was commissioned and worked in the Public Affairs office. (O'Brien had his a*ss in the grass while Klay was in the rear with the gear < pure ripoff of Full Metal Jacket there) Anyway I think they are both fabulous writers, but I think Klay's strength is in his ability to crystalize an idea through somebody else, whereas O'Brien writes more from personal experience.

That's probably good luck for Phil Klay. Perhaps he'll have better luck at breaking out of the war-writing genre.

We'll see.

[easy75]

Hey, I own that book. I'd like to say I've read it, but I've only read some of the stories in it. And I've got to say Phil Klay has a real knack for getting to the heart of the matter. When he tells a story with the voice of a sergeant, a private, a soldier, or a Marine, I get the sense that I know that guy. I spent quite a few years in various branches of the military, you see. At any rate, I laughed out loud when I read the story told almost entirely in acronyms.

I think the comparisons between Klay and O'Brien are inevitable but unfair. Inevitable because they both have an Eastern College, Liberal Arts education, and unfair because that's about as far as the similarities go. There seems to be an infatuation by the literary establishment in this country whenever an Ivy Leaguer goes to war and then writes about it, perhaps because it's kinda rare. That said, I think O'Brien wrote his stuff a lot closer to the bone. He was drafted, and was a rifleman in an infantry platoon. Klay by contrast was commissioned and worked in the Public Affairs office. (O'Brien had his a*ss in the grass while Klay was in the rear with the gear < pure ripoff of Full Metal Jacket there) Anyway I think they are both fabulous writers, but I think Klay's strength is in his ability to crystalize an idea through somebody else, whereas O'Brien writes more from personal experience.


You said all that much better than I could. Especially the comparison between the two writers. I definitely got the feeling that Klay was "creating" something, whereas with O'Brien, you feel like it's just a guy telling you how it was over there. Nothing wrong with either one. The Things They Carried really moved me. The last chapter actually made my eyes get a little misty, which is something that I don't think ever happened to me while reading. Funny, because that was the chapter that had almost nothing to do with war....
Anyway I liked Redeployment and I will be looking out for anything new from Phil Klay.
Sancho, I am curious if you read "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" and if so, what you thought of it?
Take care,

[Sancho]

I did read Billy Lynn and I liked it. I thought it should have done better in book stores, and may have if they'd've come up with a less cumbersome title - bah, what do I know? Anyway, I thought Ben Fountain did a superb job showing the disconnect between the collective public perception of the war in Iraq and the realities faced by the "boots on the ground".

Here's what I thought of it right after I read it: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?69403-Billy-Lynn’s-Long-Halftime-Walk-by-Ben-Fountain&referrerid=2227 (a kinda wordy, poorly written review, eh?)

If Ben Fountain got at that idea with a novel, David Finkel nailed it with his nonfiction book - Thank You for Your Service. He follows several soldiers trying to reintegrate into American society and dealing with PTSD after their experiences in OIF and OEF. Most of the guys were in his earlier book, The Good Soldiers, in which he followed the 2-16 Infantry battalion in eastern Baghdad during the surge in '07.

So does fiction or nonfiction get at the truth better?

What I remember best about O'Brien's The Things They Carried was him trying to answer that exact question. He wrote about the story that everybody passed around about a soldier who threw himself on a live grenade to save the other soldiers in his platoon. Everybody'd heard the story, but nobody had any specifics. So, is it true? Or does it get at a truth that somehow transcends factuality? When I read that I finally got what my English teacher back in school was trying to 'splain to us about fiction.

So, things get weird. A few years ago I found myself in Infantry Hall at Fort Benning. As soon as you walk in the main entrance of Infantry Hall they have a pretty nice library. And right inside the library, on a pedestal, they have a big book of Medal of Honor recipients. During one of our breaks I'm flipping through the book, reading the citations, and there it was - a citation for a soldier who received the Medal of Honor (posthumously) for throwing himself on a live grenade to save the other soldiers in his platoon.

I don't remember all of the details.

[easy75]

I really liked Billy Lynn. For me it was the best book I read last year. Loved the humor and the ridiculousness of the civilian's behavior toward the soldiers. A lot of subtle, and not so subtle themes and ideas at work in that book.
I liked your review, thanks for the link. Also that's interesting about the Medal of Honor book... That story is one that I have heard in many books, several movies and on television. I have heard it mentioned in conjunction with all the wars of the 20th century. I always just assumed it was true and maybe it had happened multiple times.
I will have to check out Finkel since I haven't read anything from him. I am going to have to take a break from war themed reading. I inadvertently read a whole lot of it this year. Luckily most of it was good, and some of it was pretty great. I am finishing another one today and I'll put up a short review. I am not much of a review writer but I like to put my thoughts down for others, in case they are looking for opinions.

[Sancho]

I know what you mean, easy. I have to take a break from that kind of reading too. It's addictive, like crack. And probably almost as mind altering.