I love - repeat LOVE - this book. And not in the overused, flighty sense of the word. What's not to love in a book with nonstop action with blood-boiling gunfights? But that is not Swofford's story. I have read many books that recount the exciting details of war but lack the pure human drama Swofford brings to the page. We go inside the mind of a soldier impatiently waiting for action, yet fearing and dreading when that moment will find him - and we wait with him, knowing he will tell us the truth about The Moment when he lines up his first mark, pulls the trigger, and realizes that he has taken another man's life. It never comes. When I turned the last page and saw the sun rising through my bedroom window, I wondered why I had been so enthralled and unable to put the book down. Somehow I still am not sure why I love Jarhead, but I think it is Swofford's brutal honesty that pours out of the page and forces us to confront the human side of war and look beyond the statistics.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to thebookmistress. I look forward to hearing what you think about Jarhead!

Got the book a few days back, and I am over halfway in. He definitely has a gift for words and descriptions, but I am not sure about the book itself, yet. I think that the things he considers shocking, or assumes will shock readers, are not that shocking to me. Maybe it's because I've studied enough about wars and soldiers and armies, but very few of the revelations come as a surprise.

Young men barely out of their teens *are* sex obsessed. Armies, all armies, *are* about arbitarary but violently enforced rules. Teaching men to kill *does* change them, but not as much as you might think.

I was very touched by the description of Troy's funeral in Michigan and the deep feeling of connection between the men -- this is sonethive every army veteral seems to comment on first.

The book is very well written and opens a fascinating window into the hurry-up-and-wait mentality of modern wars. I guess because I am a bit of a cynic and a history-obsessed one at that, none of the revelations were a shock to me.

I am now a bookray. So far, my members are (in order):
Haywire91 (France)
sunflowergirl (United Kingdom) (skipped. try again later?)
themarina (British Columbia)
michaeljl (Oregon)
squirrel818 (Pennsylvania)
CarynPic (California)
DamonARusst (California)
lilygirl (Oregon) THIS IS A SURPRISE! Don't PM lilygirl directly -- I will provide her address to the last person on the list.

RELEASE NOTES:

I am off to visit Haywire91 in France and to start this bookray! Sorry for the delay.

Swoff has arrived! One week ago I saw the film and I look foreward to the book. Thanks to Nina for posting it from snowy Canada to slightly iced Burgundy. This being Mozart's 250th birthday, rather than Wagner's 'ride of the Valkyries' it's Mozart's Nozze di Figaro and The Countess' 'where have the beautiful moments gone' that plays on the stereo as I go to visit Swoff's hell.

Just finished reading Jarhead and,I must say, this is a striking book. Striking, thanks to the honesty of the author but also because he has found a language to write in which is astonshingly right for his story and maintains a constant tension between crude, violent, four-letter-word surface of this Jarhead's experience and the much less crude, highly intelligent and educated man who has been subsumed by the Jarhead. Not a pretty book, nor a nice one, but one that rings true.
A word about book and film: I saw the film before I received the book. The film was, in my opinion, a deal less impressive than the book is, even though it remains a powerful film. Gyllenhall, though I can't help like his sexy chops, to me was very convncing as the Jarhead but I have trouble imagining him writing this book. Note in the margin: Isn't it curious that the film follows a more or less chronological story-line while the book, on which it is based, can be said to adopt the cinematic technique of jumping backwards and forwards in time. I wonder why Mendes went for a simpler structure. Off to check who's next on the bookray and to mail it on.

The next in line, sunflowergirl, being incommunicado, Swoffie will wing his way a.s.a.p. across the Atlantic and Canada to 'themarina' in B.C. Happy reading!

This came in the mail on Thursday! It's next on my list! The timing was great because I just finished something else! :)

And thank you for the movie insert that came with it. Great pictures.

I'm not a huge fan of war movies, war books or war in general but, I did enjoy this movie and I did enjoy the book.

Gritty, insightful and at times scary, this is one man's tale of a war that "almost" happened for him. Almost because although there was a war raging, it was not his war, he knew it was not his war, fellow soldiers knew it was not their war and yet they waited for action that never came. Instead, they got lots of sand, oil, sand, sand, sand and more sand.

The insight provided by Swafford brings brutality, and emotion of a kid at war to the homefront. An amzing, insigtful read.

Thanks sooooo much for sharing nkwriter.

Enjoyed this book, but I am not sure that I buy into it completely. I did discover that it works a little better if read aloud. PMed the next person on the list about a week ago and haven't heard back so, I will skip and go on to the next person.

Oops, I received this book a while ago, but forgot to journal it. Needless to say, I am almost done and am PMing the next person on the list.

RELEASE NOTES:

On its way to the next reader, DamonARusst!

Just got it today, thanks, looking forward to checking it out. Read the first bit while waiting for a chiropractor and already like his brutal honesty like his description of watching supposed anti-war films with his platoon. "Vietnam war films are all pro-war, no matter what the supposed message, what Kubrick, or Coppola or stone intended. Filmic images of death and carnage are pornography for the military man." And then more stuff I won't reprint in a bookcrossing entry.

Looking forward to reading the rest. Thanks again. And thanks for the Maria Sharapova bookmark/postcard too.

This was a great read. Raw, honest look at first gulf war. I hear that "The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell" is comparable in honesty re: this Iraq war. Great stuff, from admitting he peed himself at the first mortar that blew up nearby to the "wall of shame" reserved for unfaithful wives/girlfriends back home.

I sent this to the next person on the list a while ago. Hope it got there.

Thank you so much for sending the book back to me. It was an amazing surprise!! It now graces my bookshelf having traveled the world. Sorry it took so long to journal this.