Olivermagnus's Reviews > Fives and Twenty-Fives

Fives and Twenty-Fives follows three men, two U.S. marines and one Iraqi, back and forth between their fighting days in 2006, one of the bloodiest years of the war, and their post-combat days in 2011.

Lieutenant Pete Donovan is from Alabama. He's a Tulane MBA candidate, and leader of the unit. Corpsman Lester 'Doc' Pleasant is a 19 year-old medic from the Louisiana bayou, who seems very overwhelmed by his responsibilities. Kateb, better known as "Dodge", and is the most interesting and complicated character. He was an Iraqi university student who was a fan of American hair bands and Huckleberry Finn, He was essentially conscripted as an interpreter for the unit.

Their job in Iraq is to repair the roads but it's not as simple as it sounds. Every pothole potentially contains a bomb. The team hops out of their vehicle and searches the area 5 meters around the vehicle for IEDs and then continue a visual scan out to 25 meters to ensure there were no IEDs behind or in front of the vehicle. The name and process establishes a routine that enables Marines to execute in high stress situations.

Once the men leave Iraq they try to cope with postwar life. Donovan is an emotionally detached MBA candidate in New Orleans. Doc is a recovering addict who lives with his father and hangs out at heavy-metal shows. Dodge has the misfortune of landing in Tunisia, where he witnesses the beginning of the Arab Spring, the Middle Eastern revolutionary wave that began in 2010.

War fiction can be hit for miss for me but this was really raw and honest. The reader clearly sees the soldiers coping with inner struggles as the go about their duties. It's not about acts of violent warfare and destruction of the enemy. The main characters have a pretty humdrum support mission, filling in bombed-out holes on Iraq military highways.

The author has obviously spent some time in the Middle East himself and his respect and sympathy with the people and the culture is apparent. The characters are interesting and the story moves along nicely. I thought the technical language might be overly complex but it was very understandable. I was definitely not disappointed by this book and hope you won't be either if you decide to read it.