Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War - Brossura

Swofford, Anthony

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0743248201 ISBN 13: 9780743248204

Casa editrice: Simon & Schuster Australia, 2003

Riassunto

Anthony Swofford's grandfather fought in WWII; his father fought in Vietnam; and he - a directionless, testosterone-battered teenager - became a scout/sniper in the marines and fought in the Gulf War. His account of that time is also part of a lineage - after Wilfred Owen, Norman Mailer, Michael Herr and Tim O'Brien, it brings the raw and searing tradition of soldiers' stories up to date.
In the West we have become convinced that it is possible to fight a war largely without casualties. Swofford's brutally honest and timely book shows that every human being trained to kill another is a casualty.
Swofford endures six months of sand-ridden hell with his fellow marines (or 'jarheads'), tortured by boredom and fear. He suffers physical abuse from a training officer, is betrayed by his girlfriend at home, puts a loaded gun in his mouth, threatens to kill a fellow soldier and is shot at by both the enemy and another unit of the US military. At the end of the war, Swofford hikes for miles through a landscape of incinerated Iraqi soldiers and is nearly killed in a booby-trapped bunker.
A harrowing yet inspiring portrait of a tormented consciousness struggling for reconciliation and peace, JARHEAD is authentic, revelatory and brilliantly crafted.

Su questo libro

Recensione

'A scathingly honest and bleakly powerful book. A hugely disturbing insight into the minds of the very young men who long to go to war' WILLIAM BOYD
'JARHEAD is not only a work of reportage from a "privileged" observer, it is also a display of genuine talent' MARTIN AMIS
'This is a terrific memoir: intelligently self-aware, moving and considered. Swafford's honesty and front line humour should make "Jarhead" required reading for all teenagers, policy-makers and captains of industry. I would recommend this book to anyone.' A.L.KENNEDY
'By turns profane and lyrical, swaggering and ruminative, "Jarhead" --
referring to the marines' "high-and-tight" haircuts, which make their heads look like jars -- is not only the most powerful memoir to emerge thus far from the last gulf war, but also a searing contribution to the literature of combat, a book that combines the black humor of "Catch-22" with the savagery of "Full Metal Jacket" and the visceral detail of "The Things They Carried." THE NEW YORK TIMES
'Until JARHEAD, nothing I've read has so precisely dissected the psychotic enhancement of being alive that is found in the middle of a war; the way in which the individual is cast adrift from social order, common sense, even a balanced perspective of what's going on, to run mad in fear and fantasy.
JARHEAD would at any time be an incomparable document of military record. Right now it has an additional, vast resonance. People can support the war or not, believe in the need to send troops to Iraq or not, but in order for their opinions to have any value they must be informed about what war involves. With your book at hand they cannot say they didn't know. I believe it will be read by millions.'
JONATHAN KAPLAN, author of THE DRESSING STATION
'This is a book that smokes and screams in your hands. Brash, honest and most unnerving, JARHEAD delivers coruscating and unpleasant truths about war and warriors' Joy Williams - STATE OF GRACE and TAKING CARE
'One of the most compelling accounts of men-at-arms in a generation' Scott Anderson, author of TRIAGE
‘Jarhead is an eloquently and deftly crafted work’
GUARDIAN27/12
‘As you might expect of a sniper, Swofford proves an intuitive observer and his writing is visceral, sharp and engaging’
OBSERVER4/1
'It is hard to imagine a more convincing and unglamorous book about what it is like to be one of the ludicrously young people who fight our wars' SUNDAY TIMES 18/1
'Precise and passionate prose. JARHEAD is an unusual anti-war book Swofford's lament is not for a soldier's death but a soldier's life' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'One of the best 'war reads' since DISPATCHES by Michael Herr' DAILY MAIL
"A raw and uncompromising account of life at the sharp end of war. It's not pretty but it is riveting'
MAIL ON SUNDAY 25/1
"Powerful and bitterly brilliant memoir"
The Times 24/1

L'autore

Anthony Swofford grew up on military bases in the US and Japan, and joined the Marine Corps in 1988, aged eighteen. He was deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield in 1990 with the Second Battalion, 7th Marines. On leaving the Marines Swofford attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Simon & Schuster Australia
• Data di pubblicazione: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0743248201
• ISBN 13: 9780743248204
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 272