Recommend to me by Shakespeare and Co. Books:
I actually just finished this book today, on Midsummer's Eve, in Helsinki. I recently read a New Yorker story by Malcolm Gladwell about late bloomers that highlighted the author, Ben Fountain. This is his first novel, it's highly acclaimed, and he was 54 years old when it was published.
I already liked the guy, and then I read the book. It's a great novel, and it's insights about America and Americans, especially during the early Iraq War period, are keen. It reminds me quite a bit of the Frank Bascombe books by Richard Ford (which are so damn good!), in the sense that the narrator, Billy Lynn, is also the main character and is a man who sees things more deeply than those around him. But whereas Frank Bascombe is aloof, detached, wizened, and in the midst of the wreckage of bad decisions and middle-age, at 19 years old Billy has his whole life ahead of him, is inexperienced, naive, and yet is an Iraq war hero, who's seen things that almost noone else has, and whos tour of duty is not yet done. The knowledge that he may yet die after returning to Iraq permeats his thoughts throughout the book.
Lynn and his company are touring the U.S. after making themselves heros in a battle that was recorded on Fox News. They are back for two weeks as poster boys for the war, after wich they will return to fight. The everpresent conflict in the book is the disconnect between Billy's experience of the war (killing the enemy and losing friends) and of the interactions he has with the Americans that seek him out, who are largely war supporters eager to meet him, thank him, and express their support for (and opinion about) the war.
But Billy is also a charmed figure. People are attracted to him, his family loves him dearly, and good things come his way. This gives the book a lightness. It's an all around great read. Highly recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment