Elizabeth☮ 's Reviews > Fives and Twenty-Fives

This book follows three men that are part of the same platoon. Two men (Pete and Lester) are soldiers. Pete is a lieutenant that has to prove himself, as much to his men as to himself, that he is worthy of his rank. Doc (Lester) is only nineteen years old and knows saving people is his calling; he is a natural. The last man is Dodge. He is an Iraqi national and he is the interpreter.


Dodge, before the war occurs, is an English student. He carries with him a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. His chapters contain quotes from Finn that are brilliantly tied into the action of the novel. It is a clever use of quotes. Pitre uses Dodge's character to help us to understand the politics of Iraq, of religion and of family. And even now I'm not sure I fully understand, but I have a clearer understanding of how fractured it all has become.

We come to understand how all of these men are affected by the war. We get all of the back story of how these men came to be where they are today and how they are fairing (not so well it seems). This book brought me to tears more than once because the men and women it portrays are not brought to emotion so easily. My heart broke each time a character had a cathartic moment (thus the tears).