Literary Award Winners Fiction Book Club discussion

Please comment here on Redeployment by Phil Klay, pages 1 to 128.

I found this book a memorable, interesting, vivid, realistic, disturbing collection of short stories, all told in the first person by a number of different characters about their Iraq war experiences.

It would have helped if there was a list of what the acronyms were for. Here is a list of the acronyms I needed to look up to fully understand what was being communicated:

IED. Improvised Explosive Device - eg roadside bomb
MSR. Main Supply Route
MOS. Military Occupational Speciality
OIF. Operation Iraqi Freedom
TBI. Traumatic Brain Injury
IVAW. Iraq Veterans Against the War
PTSD. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
PRT. Physical Readiness Test
TCP. Traffic Control Point
MRAP. Mine Resistant Ambush Protected
TQ. Transient Quarters. Also - Thank you, don’t thank us
POG. Person Other than Grunt. Grunts are combat arms soldiers
COP. Close Observation Patrol
FOB. Forward Operating Base
USMC. US Military Corps

I found the use of jargon a bit distracting. I realize that it gave a tone of authenticity to the stories, but as a non-combatant, actually a pacifist,, these terms put me even farther outside the stories.

I am not going to finish this book. I read about 25% and don't wish to continue. Am mainly put off by the vile language. As General Sherman said many years ago "War is Hell."

I googled the author and see that he did serve as a Marine Corps officer and was stationed in Iraq.

Many, many years ago I served in the US Army and so did not find the jargon off-putting. in fact, I remembered many of the acronyms. I was fortunate to read this book as a ebook and so could easily prompt for terms I didn't know.

Good to hear from you Mary. At least you gave it a go.

There are many unpleasant, sad moments in this book. I have no army / war experience so I found it interesting, but some of the scenes are just appalling. What the Iraq war experience does to some of these people is horrific. That the situation exists is sad enough. Bullets that can rip a person apart, young Iraqi boys shooting at marines, the killing mentality with little thought of the consequences, marines goading al-Qaeda with taunts...