At the recommendation of a friend I acquired Kevin Powers' critically acclaimed 2012 book based on his experiences as a soldier in Iraq. I'm halfway through and this is what I can tell so far: the book offers one of those feelings for which I love literature. You just don't feel like putting it down. You want to linger in its world a little longer. You just want it to go on, and are already afraid that it will eventually end. You fear for the characters.
This book is well written, it has a good tempo, a healthy mixture of action-scenes, introspective-scenes, descriptions of characters and settings.
Also, what I just realized is that to be a soldier today for a Western person must be a terribly sad thing. A stupefying experience, except maybe if you are very rough. But as the reactions of most soldiers show they have lots of inner bruises to hide.
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