This is what it was like to fight in the Gulf.
Anthony Swofford's grandfather fought in WWII, his father fought in Vietnam, and he - a directionless, testosterone-battered teenager - went to the Gulf. His account of that war is also part of a lineage: after Wilfred Owen, Norman Mailer, Michael Herr and Tim O'Brien, it bringing the great, raw and searing tradition of soldier's stories up to date.
When the marines (or "jarheads") are sent to Saudi Arabia to fight the Iraqis, 19-year-old Swofford is among them, shouldering a hundred-pound pack and carrying a sniper rifle. This is the beginning of six months of sand-ridden hell, tortured by boredom and fear.
He suffers physical abuse from a training officer, is betrayed by his girlfriend at home, aims a rifle at a fellow soldier and later at himself, 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 burning oil.
In this unflinching and unforgettable memoir, Swofford weaves his war experience with vivid accounts of boot camp, reflections on the myth of the Marines, and remembrances of battles with lovers and family. Swofford is forced to consider what it is to be a soldier, the son of a soldier, and a man. A harrowing yet inspiring portrait of a tormented consciousness struggling for reconciliation and peace, 'Jarhead' is authentic, revelatory and brilliantly crafted.
