Kit's Reviews > Fives and Twenty-Fives

Disclosure - Knows author, read advance copy

Don't shy away from this book if you're put off by war stories. The writing is open wide yet tender, and unflinching in the up close and visceral. It makes the day to day happenings of being a modern soldier necessarily tangible, especially for those of us who have no idea just how specific that is. But it then transcends so far beyond the experience that you're left gaping at how good intent, failed leadership, undue guilt, integrity and inertia can possibly exist at such war within a person without utterly destroying them. It's everything you always wanted to ask a soldier but knew you never could.

Each character goes to Iraq bolstered on an ideal and a need for acting on it that in turn undoes them. It's all basically the answer to Frodo's question at the end of The Return of the King “How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart, you begin to understand, there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep...that have taken hold.” Some hope does take hold. But so does damage. This novel is wise, heartbreaking, full of unexpected chuckles, and there's a sweet nudge of romance that reminds us of the glimmering threads that are worth fighting to pick up again. To wit, I love the character of Dodge so much, and everything that made him who and what he is. He is the link between east and west, past and future, wartime and civilian return. And he's charming as hell.

Read it for him to start, and then think about everyone else we're sending into these impossible lives.