Phil Klay

A collection of short stories by a former Marine captain and Iraq veteran focuses on the complexities of life for soldiers on the front lines and after, exploring themes ranging from brutality and faith to guilt and survival in such stories as "After Action Report" and "Money as Weapons System."

Redeployment

Colleen

This was a bookclub selection. From the way it was described, I expected a non-fiction memoir. So I was disappointed to find it was fiction and a collection of short stories. There is nothing wrong with that, but when you are hoping for something specific and the reality is quite different, it is unsatisfactory. Even being fiction, I expected someone who personally went through much of what he was writing about to convey a stronger message.

This book was billed as a means to "[take] readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, [ask] us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned." Having finished the book, I am still unclear whether the author failed to meet that goal, or whether the published wrongly marketed this book entirely. The major flaw in that goal was that this book is not civilian friendly. By that I mean that it is crammed full of military jargon and acronyms. Coming from a military family, I was able to shift through most of it. But even so, I felt that it often detracted from the overall writing particularly if this book really was geared towards helping civilians understand what happened during that time. The story "OIF" was apparently meant to ironically display how found the military is of acronyms. I got that. But beyond that I couldn't tell you anything that particular story was about.

I also question the selection of starting with the story they did. It is about shooting dogs (not a spoiler since that is literally the first sentence!), and people are more likely to get upset about that than hearing about soldiers in a war zone dying - many are desensitized towards. So even though that is the title story, starting with "Redeployment" felt like a provocation. And if you are trying to get the average person to see your way of things, that is a risky (and in my opinion, unsuccessful) strategy.

The only story I liked was "Money as a Weapons System" which was an interesting look at bureaucracy. The part that held me the most was the story of a girl who was gang raped and the best was they could help her was to have her arrested, because that was better than being killed or made a prostitute. But that was only a couple of sentences and not even the main message of the story. Beyond that, the stories had a sameness to them. They were all told in first person. Each one was a different character with a different rank and different MOS, but they all blended together. They lacked a poignancy or emotional connection. There wasn't anything bad I can pick on in Klay's writing, but overall it lacked a clear, cohesive message. 

It's tough to knock this one down, because I do think there should be recognition for veterans and more awareness about topics such as PTSD. But I don't think Redeployment sufficiently achieved its goal of creating awareness or understanding. I don't hate it; but I am disappointed.

This review fulfills the "Book of Short Stories" category of the Popsugar reading challenge.
http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-...

"Taking readers to the front lines of the war in Iraq and back, Redeployment asks us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned"--Back cover.

Intense and dark but impossible to put down. The details are amazing but there's a solid emotional underpinning beneath all of the stories. They all revolve around war and veterans, but there's a lot of nuance within the different characters.

Steven Ovadia

Ben Radford

Raw, visceral language carries Klay's collection of fictional anecdotes. I enjoyed how he wrote from inside the minds of individuals with different perspectives and experiences of the conflict.

Dana Kraft

I like that there wasn't much black and white in these stories. Very thought-provoking. 'Psychological Operations' was my favorite story.

Winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction · Winner of the John Leonard First Book Prize · Selected as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post Book World, Amazon, and more Phil Klay's Redeployment takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Interwoven with themes of brutality and faith, guilt and fear, helplessness and survival, the characters in these stories struggle to make meaning out of chaos. In "Redeployment", a soldier who has had to shoot dogs because they were eating human corpses must learn what it is like to return to domestic life in suburbia, surrounded by people "who have no idea where Fallujah is, where three members of your platoon died." In "After Action Report", a Lance Corporal seeks expiation for a killing he didn't commit, in order that his best friend will be unburdened. A Morturary Affairs Marine tells about his experiences collecting remains—of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers both. A chaplain sees his understanding of Christianity, and his ability to provide solace through religion, tested by the actions of a ferocious Colonel. And in the darkly comic "Money as a Weapons System", a young Foreign Service Officer is given the absurd task of helping Iraqis improve their lives by teaching them to play baseball. These stories reveal the intricate combination of monotony, bureaucracy, comradeship and violence that make up a soldier's daily life at war, and the isolation, remorse, and despair that can accompany a soldier's homecoming. Redeployment is poised to become a classic in the tradition of war writing. Across nations and continents, Klay sets in devastating relief the two worlds a soldier inhabits: one of extremes and one of loss. Written with a hard-eyed realism and stunning emotional depth, this work marks Phil Klay as one of the most talented new voices of his generation.

Gigi V

Sonia Grgas

azliana aziz

Lisa

Kevin Murphy

Jordan Peet

Rafael Garcia

Matt Boegner

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE FRANK O'CONNOR PRIZE'We shot dogs. Not by accident. We did it on purpose and we called it "Operation Scooby". I'm a dog person, so I thought about that a lot'So begins this unprecedented book about the human cost of war by former marine captain and Iraq veteran, Phil Klay.REDEPLOYMENT takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Interwoven with themes of brutality and faith, guilt and fear, helplessness and survival, the characters in these stories struggle to make meaning out of chaos. Written with a hard-eyed realism andstunning emotional depth, REDEPLOYMENT marks Phil Klay as one of the most talented new voices of his generation.

Redeployment

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