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What Members Thought
"Prayer in the Furnace" is the best of the collection. "Money as a Weapons System" is my second favorite because I love a cynical comedy about bureaucracy. "After Action Report", "Bodies", and "War Stories" are all strong. "Redeployment" and "Frago" had heartbreaking and nauseating images that made it difficult to move on to the next story, but I haven't thought about them after moving on the way I did with the stories already listed. The others tried very hard to be deep and thoughtful, but did
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This is a nice example of how a short story collection can be cohesive without trying to be a novel. Everything takes place with some connection to military service in Iraq, and all of the characters are men managing their roles and experiences in it. The details are vivid, the characters feel realized, the themes are rarely heavy-handed, and tropes are often upended. I really enjoyed it and thought it earned its praise, though I can’t say with any certainty the degree to which it illuminated th
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Obviously, I have never been a Marine or to Iraq, but through reading these powerful stories I feel like I understand a little better what Marines faced in Iraq and once they returned home. This is a book written for adults, but I think there's a lot of high school crossover appeal. Many of the protagonists are only 19 or 20 years old. I'd hand this to high schoolers with an interest in the military, especially fans of books like Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers or The Things They Carr
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These stories are wonderful -- brutal and hard and full of pain, and also vivid and powerful. A few too many acronyms, but otherwise so very good!
SO GOOD. I'm glad it's part of the ToB shortlist, as I was avoiding it because I was sure it would be The Things They Carried 2.0. Which is a dumb reason because how good is The Things They Carried?!?!? And this may even be... dare I say it? Better!
Anyway, I was an ass, and I'm glad this won the National Book Award. ...more
Anyway, I was an ass, and I'm glad this won the National Book Award. ...more
Nov 20, 2014
anne
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Nov 22, 2014
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Dec 19, 2014
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Jan 06, 2015
Sarah
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Jan 06, 2015
Erin
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Jan 16, 2015
Terri FL
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Feb 23, 2015
Laura
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Feb 19, 2018
Colleen
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