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Burninglemur's Reviews > Fives and Twenty-Fives
Fives and Twenty-Fives
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I read an early copy of this.
Thomas Barnett seemed to relish saying, in his “two armies” talks, that he likes his fighting force “young, male, unmarried, and slightly pissed off.” This is a book about what happens to the young and pissed off when they are at war, and how they return.
Each of the characters’ frustrations erupt from their struggle to understand the world and how it works, and each, in their own way, decides to do something. That’s what the young and pissed off do - they see things that they don’t like, and they do something. And they get rolled. Hard.
There are two main timelines in play, roughly anchored to when each of the characters first gets the slap in the face that comes with “doing something,” and when they each return to “normal” and do some serious reckoning about the other cheek.
Despite their push and talent, each character learns that they are ultimately powerless to shape the world around them to their expectations. One learns how little his officer’s rank has to do with his capabilities. One learns that no matter how fast and talented he is at fixing people, his work happens after the fact. One learns that the world doesn’t run on intellect and empathy. Slap. Slap. Slap. And then, each is left in something different than the world they left - something perhaps further from their ideal - and they have to decide what to do with their impotence, if not their lives.
Read this. Read it and laugh, and cry, and throw it across the room. Read parts of it aloud to curious people in the bar. Read it and wonder what happened to who you used to be.
Read it and think about sending the young and pissed off to war.
Thomas Barnett seemed to relish saying, in his “two armies” talks, that he likes his fighting force “young, male, unmarried, and slightly pissed off.” This is a book about what happens to the young and pissed off when they are at war, and how they return.
Each of the characters’ frustrations erupt from their struggle to understand the world and how it works, and each, in their own way, decides to do something. That’s what the young and pissed off do - they see things that they don’t like, and they do something. And they get rolled. Hard.
There are two main timelines in play, roughly anchored to when each of the characters first gets the slap in the face that comes with “doing something,” and when they each return to “normal” and do some serious reckoning about the other cheek.
Despite their push and talent, each character learns that they are ultimately powerless to shape the world around them to their expectations. One learns how little his officer’s rank has to do with his capabilities. One learns that no matter how fast and talented he is at fixing people, his work happens after the fact. One learns that the world doesn’t run on intellect and empathy. Slap. Slap. Slap. And then, each is left in something different than the world they left - something perhaps further from their ideal - and they have to decide what to do with their impotence, if not their lives.
Read this. Read it and laugh, and cry, and throw it across the room. Read parts of it aloud to curious people in the bar. Read it and wonder what happened to who you used to be.
Read it and think about sending the young and pissed off to war.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
July 3, 2014
– Shelved
