REDEPLOYMENT: PHIL KLAY

I would put this piece of fiction right up there with two other great books about the Iraq war, THE YELLOW BIRDS AND BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALF TIME WALK. Perhaps it ought to be a notch above because Klay's novel won the National Book Award for 2014.  Not sure why I haven't been aware of it before now. This work differs in that it's a series of short stories, with a myriad of narrators, of points of view, from that of the grunt, a chaplain, a member of Mortuary Affairs, a Public Affairs Officer, a Contractor, to returning vets, to those vets in college and law school.  All illuminate the effects that their experiences in Iraq had on their lives, both in Iraq and when they come home, with family, friends, and other veterans.

I was not surprised by the book, only by the multiple points of view, the differences and similarities. There's little happiness in this book, obviously, just young boys/men mostly, thrust into the terrible reality of war, of hate, killing and inevitably death of hajis(the enemies) or friends.  They are irreverent, coarse, racist, and sexist, the way guys often are without women.  But here, in Iraq, there's the absurdity of war, too, the constant fear, and death waiting around the next corner.  They tough it out, mostly because of their buddies, their sense of being a Marine who does his job.

They look with dismay at the rest of us,  the “Gluttonous, fat, oversexed, overconsuming, materialist home, where we’re too lazy to see our own faults." And when they return to the States, one of the narrators comments: “The weird thing with being a veteran, at least for me, is that you do feel better than most people. You risked your life for something bigger than yourself. How many people can say that? You chose to serve. Maybe you didn’t understand American foreign policy or why we were at war. Maybe you never will. But it doesn’t matter. You held up your hand and said, ‘I’m willing to die for these worthless civilians."

The stories are not filled with the typical heroes, the kind we see in WW II movies.  Instead we get kicked in the face by the reality of war, and what its done to our young men while most of us sat around, rarely keeping up with news, forgetting about their sacrifices, their families,  and complaining about our lives.  It should be read by all of us.