What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes (NF)

[parthianbow]

I'm a sucker for books about war, or the effect that war has on people. Until I saw this book, I had never heard of Karl Marlantes. I mentioned this on Twitter soon after starting it, and was deluged with people recommending that I read his book, Matterhorn - called by many 'the best novel written about Vietnam'. Reel back to when I picked up What It Is Like To Go To War. I was hooked within a page. Good enough reason to buy, so I bought it, and read it all in about 24 hours.

This is a great piece of writing. Marlantes survived the hell of Vietnam, where he served as a Marine Corps officer, fighting in the most awful conditions, killing Viet Cong, losing his own men, and winning a large number of medals for bravery. When he came back to the USA, it's not surprising that he had been deeply, permanently scarred by his experiences. It took him several decades, but he worked his way out of the hell of PTSD. This book is about his journey from that hell, and his opinions on how modern armies could better equip the soldiers of today to face what will happen to them when they are thrown into the white hot, unforgiving cauldron of war. In a world where men can kill their enemies by sitting at a computer screen and clicking a mouse, before going home to their wives/girlfriends and families, there is no space for contemplation, no room for the mind and psyche to process what has been done.

As Marlantes says, this is not a good thing. War has been brought so close to 'ordinary' life, and yet the average person in the street still wants to know nothing about its terrible reality. Marlantes offers humane and sane alternatives in his book, which I believe would greatly help those who otherwise often come back to the real world as damaged individuals. He should be applauded for this magnificent effort, but I fear that it will be many years before any government implements these kind of processes. Sadly, and despite the trite words offered by politicians, soldiers are all too often expendable units to be used in poorly thought out wars that have no clearly laid out endgame. In this, nothing has changed in more than 2,000 years.

[Ludmilla]

I highly recommend following up with Matterhorn if you haven't already picked it up. The book is obviously inspired by the author's war experiences and served as a therapeutic outlet. Marlantes spent over thirty years writing and revising it before it was ever published. I was quite blown away by it. It also deals with racial tension within the troops during that time as well as the issues you've touched on above. I also thought it made an interesting study of leadership under extreme conditions. I definitely plan on reading it again some day. It's an unforgettable book that I think should be on the must-read list for anyone interested in war fiction.

[parthianbow]

Yes, Matterhorn is now at the top of my reading list. I'm glad to know that you also rate it very highly. I'm currently waiting for my first Kindle to arrive, so I will buy it as soon as that arrives. (I wonder how Matterhorn will compare to The Forgotten Soldier, which is NF, but written almost like a novel, and which I rate in my top 3 books of all time.)