Literary Award Winners Fiction Book Club discussion

Please comment here on Redeployment by Phil Klay, pages 129 to end.

I liked "Money As A Weapon" and "Prayer in the Furnace" the best. The former had a bit of the humor of a Catch 22 and the later grappled with some difficult issues.

Here is my review.
Redeployment by Phil Klay
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

This is a solid collection of short stories about the experience of U.S. vets from Iraq or Afghanistan. I found a couple to be quite thought-provoking. I was offended by the misogyny, the violence against civilians, the plea for sympathy by men who volunteered to participate in what I deem to be an immoral war which ran through most of the stories.

Yes, I agree, ‘Money as a Weapons System’ and ‘Prayer in the Furnace’ were two of the strongest stories. I also liked ‘War Stories’ which is mainly an interview between Jenks - the army guy with the badly scared head and Sarah - the beautiful, blunt interviewer.

Overall a good, interesting, thought provoking, memorable collection of short stories.

The only one that I did not understand was OIF (or something like that).

The OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) story has way too many acronyms. The short story is told by an administrative officer, a POG (Person Other than a Grunt). The closest he's got to the action is when the vehicle he was in went over a IED (Improvised Explosive Device). He received an achievement medal. He isn't involved in the fighting but he is at risk when he is transported from place to place, which is part of his administrative duties. He decides to return to Iraq after time back in the USA, probably for the financial reward and the chance of a bit of excitement and maybe by chance he will receive another medal! He is definitely not a hero.

I think all those acronyms is what left me confused by the end of it.