About this title: Combining the action of Mark Bowden's "Black Hawk Down" with the literary tone of Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers" takes an unforgettable look at the heroes and the ruined soldiers fighting in the Iraq War.
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780374165734ISBN:0374165734
Description: New in new dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 287 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. brand new read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780374165734ISBN:0374165734
Description: New in new dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 287 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. BRAND NEW read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date Published: 2009-09-15
ISBN-13:9780374165734ISBN:0374165734
Description: New. This is a paperback with same cover and publisher stickers. This book is the same isbn, but is a paperback. New, unread, unused & in perfect condition with no damaged or missing pages. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
Description: New. Please note that deliveries to addresses in the UK and Europe will be in 4-14 business days. Other countries should refer to Alibris standard times. ISBN10: 1921640065. read more
Description: New. PLEASE NOTE that we do not offer expedited shipping. Orders placed with the priority shipping option will automatically be canceled. ISBN10: 1921640065. read more
"Up close and personal, The Good Soldiers is a brutal, bloody, real portrait of contemporary war, complete with excrement-filled trenches, good intentions, too many severed human parts, and some questionable leadership. It is as disturbing as it is informative.
What did the surge in Iraq look like from the inside? How to you get the locals to trust you? How do you patrol an area when your vehicles are constantly being blown up by IEDs and other deadly devices? How do you sustain an optimistic outlook when there is so much cause for despair? David Finkel follows the exploits of the 2-16 Battalion through one year of the so-called "surge." From their first days in country through the travails of trying to keep the peace in their section of the city, to coping with the deaths of battalion soldiers to their return home. He looks primarily at the experience of the soldiers. We get a sense of what it must be like to be deployed in this war zone. The book is filled with the many details that show the reality of the soldiers' lives. Finkel leaves the battlefield long enough to show us the soldiers at home on leave, and what their families at home experience during their absence. He also takes us to a Texas hospital where the worst injured are tended. That may be the most horrific part of the book. Bring your hankies.
One small quibble is that I wished the book had a glossary. I did become a bit lost with all the acronyms.
The book's flap copy claims that this is reminiscent of Mark Bowden's BlackHawk Down and Tim O'Brien's The Things they Carried. Both references are apt. I would add Dexter Filkins' The Forever War to that list. The Good Soldiers is top-notch reportage by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist about the reality on the ground and the human cost of the Iraq War."
"I thought that this was a pretty good book, but the storytelling is so detached that it gets hard to connect with the characters. Kauzlarich is depicted in such two-dimensional fashion that he seems to be more comic book character than real person. The other soldiers are depicted as such minor characters that you hardly know them before they are gone. I would refer anyone interested in the Iraq war instead to books like The Forever War or Generation Kill.
The book hits it's stride when Col K visits the wounded soldiers and sees firsthand the results of the decisions that had been made in the war effort. The stories of the Iraqi interpreters are also very interesting as they show us an angle that has been largely ignored.
The most interesting thing in this book is the juxtaposition between President Bush's talking points at the header of each chapter with what actually happens to the soldiers. It really shows the disconnect between the messages from our leaders and what the men with boots on the ground were experiencing.
Good book, but far from (in my opinion) the best journalistic effort to come from the war in Iraq."
"Some books you should finish at home. I should've finished this one as I lay on my couch last night. Instead, I knocked off the last 5 pages on my way to work. This is the book I would force a good many of my fellow countrymen to read. A reminder: two wars going on and a few men and women have been called on to lay down their lives for the lot of us. At home, we squawk and bray at each other over the rightness or wrongness of the wars. Meanwhile, in the war zones, folks have to live close to death at every moment. Are you for the wars? Are you against them? Read this book and see how you feel afterward."
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