I’ll give you a guess whose experience I trust (hint: it’s not the pretentious jarhead). And yet there have been the numerous encounters with poignant, eerie tableaux of dead Iraqi soldiers who'd been killed so quickly where they sat so as to appear to have been deliberately posed, like store-display mannequins, in their final moments of life. The church I attend serves the local military base, and over the last two years, I’ve known at least two dozen or more marines who’ve been fighting in Iraq, including my own brother-in-law. Reviews were generally positive. Having seen the film years ago, I'd always wanted to read the book. Either the marines I know are aberrations, or Swofford is the aberration. That doesn't mean it isn't well-written, which it is, or that it lacks action, because it doesn't. An added bonus for me was listening to the Recorded Books, LLC version with Swofford himself narrating. Other reviewers have complained that Jarhead offers the reader little more than clichés.
This is by no means an explicitly anti-war novel. felt cheated, in the end, because instead of the death, danger, and glory they were promised, the Gulf War didn't end up being an infantry war at all — it was an air-and-armor turkey-shoot, and ended in far less time th. Overall this text gives the reader an insight into a Marine’s preparation for war, and more specifically into their preparation for Operation Desert Storm. anyone in love with a Marine, or planning to marry one, Although it's possible that the Marine Corps is "different" now, and of course I know that this book does not represent the experience of, This book and the movie it inspired will always be at the top of my list.
One explanation for the extensive critical attention is the timeliness of the book. About The Book. 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. November 11th 2005
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We get it, Swofford. Several have criticized Swofford’s apparent tendency toward self-pity and self-flagellation. Anthony Swofford's memoir of being a Marine grunt/sniper in the Gulf War is a tedious read. As the reader learns, these films, although purportedly antiwar, exploit public fascination with war even as they condemn it. If you go into this book expecting fire fights, skirmishes, battles and sorties, then you are coming at this book from the wrong direction, or you have the wrong book. Anthony Swofford's memoir of being a Marine grunt/sniper in the Gulf War is a tedious read. I don't mean they are all coming home crazy, but it just can't be good for the mind or soul of anyone! I still find it pretty stunning. Gone, or at least greatly altered, are pictures of the upright and driven soldier, fighting selflessly for the greater good. 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. Instead, it is an often uncomfortable book. And the description of the joy and relief and rage that finally gets to be released in this moment of testosterone and war is spot-on. Not all reviewers have been so positive. It’s more an honest account and because the honest truth is that war is vicious and atrocious, an anti-war message cannot be hidden except through lies. This book really opened my eyes when I first read it. Even if read as an account of how combat feels to the average “jarhead” (the marine “high-and-tight” haircut makes the head look like a jar), Swofford’s work is inadequate because it is based solely on point of view of a presumably atypical marine: a very perceptive, bookish marine nicknamed “Swoffie.”. I read and listened to this on CD. Welcome back. It was one misery upon an. Gripping. Swofford and his fellow marines (did I almost write "machines"?) Already a member? Overall this text gives the reader an insight into a Marine’s preparation for war, and more specifically into their preparation for Operation Desert Storm. Reviews of the book have been generally positive, with most reviewers praising Swofford’s ability to construct a gripping and powerful narrative without bogging down in too much detail. The acclaimed memoir from a Marine who served in Operation Desert Storm. Mind you in this book and in the movie the author and his unit get mortared and shot at a couple of times but nothing major.
Swofford's narrative focuses on the physical, mental and emotional struggles of the young Marines.[1]. Hey, look at me. The memoir begins in 2003, with the narrator rooting through his mementos of the Gulf War, which he keeps in his Marine Corps rucksack in his basement. You join the military thinking I'm gonna go kick doors in, blow stuff up, and end human lives when in all actuality most service members never see combat of any type.