false 543103 042520040X 9780425200407 1034 223 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175653791m/543103.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/543103.Generation_Kill 89283 Evan Wright 1351 310 1 4 false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jan 29 09:25:45 -0800 2009 Tue Jun 23 11:26:11 -0700 2009 Interestingly, although I posted this review almost a year ago, I haven't heard from a goodreads person ("community manager") until now about it. Possibly because Evan Wright has become a "goodreads author"? Maybe that has nothing to do with it, but possibly goodreads wants to become "Lifetime Books" or literally, "Good Reads" - they don't want critical reviews or anything negative written about their "goodreads authors". In the spirit of placating folks, I am cheerfully revising my review. However, I won't be promoting their website to authors, readers and writers as I have in the past.

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[I was able to get this book from the library, so I didn't feel as though I wasted money on it. The edition I read was a hardcover, and one of the first things that grabbed my attention was the mistake Wright made by noting Camp Lejeune was in South Carolina. For those who are without maps, the Internet, or other fact-checkers, Camp Lejeune is in Jacksonville, North Carolina.:]

I would have had far more respect for this book if it were fiction. The characters that appear are well-described (Doc Bryan is my favorite), the situations are wonderfully tense, the complexities of a bureaucratic system (the military) are woven fairly well. Having lavished such praise, I must now confess that I found certain aspects of the book disappointing. Overall, I doubt Wright could come up with such material; thankfully, the people, places, and times he writes about are fascinating enough on their own: this story could write itself.

Wright gets his feet wet but disappears just before the dawn of this large-scale war. His book was written as a series of articles for Rolling Stone, then packed together with cardboard on either end to make a book. However, Wright seems to think he's as badass as the "cowboy" Marines (those reservists who screw up over and over again and drive the Recon Marines crazy) just because he spent a couple of weeks in a sand-grave, baby-sat by real trained killers who had to risk their lives just a little bit more because this candy-ass was with them.

This is the MTV-news of Iraq-War writing. Wright is clearly beside himself to be near the "men's men" of the military - Marine Recon units, who are the last all-male combat frontier. Wright salivates over his assignment, positing himself as one of the guys, despite the fact that he's as much of a Marine as I am. He reveals the motley crew as surprisingly sensitive, intelligent, and mostly level-headed, not so much through his own writing, but by comparison - in his own mind, he encompasses the bravado, machismo that a Rolling Stone reporter can only do. I couldn't help but think what this series - and book - would have been if written by a better reporter, even one from Rolling Stone - PJ O'Rourke, perhaps?

Wright does make an interesting choice: while thoroughly identifying the enlisted Marines, he choses to give code-names to certain officers who "show their asses" as the operation unfolds - Encino Man, Casey Kasem, and Captain America (an offensively inept individual who should have been identified so the public could scream for his dischargement). Of course, Wright couldn't come up with such clever names - he borrows the ones designed by the Marines. But his choice to use the code-names rather than the real names of these officers smacks of cowardice. Was he afraid of legal action against himself? Was Rolling Stone?

Perhaps because Wright was one of the early writers of the war, this book got a ton of press, won magazine awards (I have to insert this joke here: "Awards are like hemorrhoids; sooner or later, every asshole gets some."), and HBO bought the rights to make "the movie" - somewhat like "The Hills" in Iraq. Thankfully, better books have since been written, and if you want to spend your time and money wisely, invest in Dexter Filkins' The Forever War, a far superior book in every way.]]>