Jarhead - Anthony Swofford

Jarhead

By Anthony Swofford

  • Release Date: 2005-11-11
  • Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
4.5 Score: 4.5 (From 111 Ratings)

Description

Anthony Swofford's Jarhead is the first Gulf War memoir by a frontline infantry marine, and it is a searing, unforgettable narrative.
When the marines -- or "jarheads," as they call themselves -- were sent in 1990 to Saudi Arabia to fight the Iraqis, Swofford was there, with a hundred-pound pack on his shoulders and a sniper's rifle in his hands. It was one misery upon another. He lived in sand for six months, his girlfriend back home betrayed him for a scrawny hotel clerk, he was punished by boredom and fear, he considered suicide, he pulled a gun on one of his fellow marines, and he was shot at by both Iraqis and Americans. At the end of the war, Swofford hiked for miles through a landscape of incinerated Iraqi soldiers and later was nearly killed in a booby-trapped Iraqi bunker.
Swofford weaves this experience of war with vivid accounts of boot camp (which included physical abuse by his drill instructor), reflections on the mythos of the marines, and remembrances of battles with lovers and family. As engagement with the Iraqis draws closer, he is forced to consider what it is to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man.
Unlike the real-time print and television coverage of the Gulf War, which was highly scripted by the Pentagon, Swofford's account subverts the conventional wisdom that U.S. military interventions are now merely surgical insertions of superior forces that result in few American casualties. Jarhead insists we remember the Americans who are in fact wounded or killed, the fields of smoking enemy corpses left behind, and the continuing difficulty that American soldiers have reentering civilian life.
A harrowing yet inspiring portrait of a tormented consciousness struggling for inner peace, Jarhead will elbow for room on that short shelf of American war classics that includes Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War and Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and be admired not only for the raw beauty of its prose but also for the depth of its pained heart.

Reviews

  • Love it

    5
    By Bebster51
    fantastic book
  • Love, love, love.

    5
    By Glass smith
    I can never stop thinking about this book. It's always there.
  • Jarhead

    5
    By Sodium Equine
    I enjoyed reading this book. I never served in the military so I appreciate an honest recounting of Mr. Swoffords experiences.
  • So good

    5
    By Matty B ya
    Liv it! Some bad words but very inspirational
  • XLR

    5
    By XLRIZONA
    Honesty, integrity, Honor... Brought back feelings and memories I had all but forgotten. Good, bad and not important any longer but still mine. Glad you moved forward Marine. XLR
  • Jarhead

    5
    By Phoenixrm1
    This book is amazing and frustrating at the same time. I had decided to join the marines long ago when in high school, and now I am sure it's decided 100%.
  • Best book EVER!!!

    5
    By Pyfufufcuf
    I saw the movie a thousand times I loved it as much as I want to join the marines when I discovered this as a book originally I think of this book as better than any book and couldn't stop reading.you won't regret your spent 12$
  • Possibly the best war novel ever written

    5
    By the ITd
    Through profound story telling, the author brings you one step closer to his war both eternally and externally on every page.

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