Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
penkid says:
I was in Iraq at the same time as Billy Lynn - not as a soldier but as a civilian contractor. Sitting in the TOC and listening to the Battle Update Briefs was a surreal experience. On one screen narrated by the various Brigade leaders, were all the reports of the day. On another screen - CNN. I spent a lot of time looking from one to the other in puzzlement. How could the press be so off base? And the entertainment news! Michael Jackson, Brittany Spears, etc etc. And commercial after... commercial. It was a mind-bender that here were all these troops over here trying to carry out a mission. They had to go outside the wire and patrol. And they build schools, they gave out soccer balls, they cleaned out the canals, they cobbled the electric grid back together. The bad guys would then use the schools to store weapons, and cut the electric wires and blow up the substations. The regular people would see the nice clean canal, and immediately start dumping their garbage in it again. The squalor was unbelievable and the "plumbing" was atrocious. There were dead animals and rusting cars and heaps of rags everywhere. It was overwhelming to come home to the mind-numbing emptiness of what we Americans think of as important, or what we complain about.As far as I am concerned, Ben Fountain got that shock and confusion exactly right in Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk. "I support the troops" is moral signalling - you are letting other people know that you are thinking correctly about the war. That's all. Then you go back to your regularly scheduled Thanksgiving Day Football game. I appreciate how difficult it is to maintain a focus on what is most important - it's been 10 years and I have fallen back into my comfortable and comforting life, and our men and women are still over there in the heat and dust and fear, the spiders and IEDs, and insurgents.
Yuva says:
I normally read nonfiction. I bought this book in 2013 mainly based on the acclaim. I am going to start applying my movie rule to books: if it wins festival awards such as Sundance then I will probably hate it. I get its a satire. I read and enjoyed "Catch 22". I can appreciate a good anti war satire. But the author shows his political leanings repeatedly and often. I guess I need to stick to non fiction. Ben Fountain doesn't even belong in the same library with Tim O Brien or other great novelists. MoreLess
I was in Iraq at the same time as Billy Lynn - not as a soldier but as a civilian contractor. Sitting in the TOC and listening to the Battle Update Briefs was a surreal experience. On one screen narrated by the various Brigade leaders, were all the reports of the day. On another screen - CNN. I spent a lot of time looking from one to the other in puzzlement. How could the press be so off base? And the entertainment news! Michael Jackson, Brittany Spears, etc etc. And commercial after... commercial. It was a mind-bender that here were all these troops over here trying to carry out a mission. They had to go outside the wire and patrol. And they build schools, they gave out soccer balls, they cleaned out the canals, they cobbled the electric grid back together. The bad guys would then use the schools to store weapons, and cut the electric wires and blow up the substations. The regular people would see the nice clean canal, and immediately start dumping their garbage in it again. The squalor was unbelievable and the "plumbing" was atrocious. There were dead animals and rusting cars and heaps of rags everywhere. It was overwhelming to come home to the mind-numbing emptiness of what we Americans think of as important, or what we complain about.As far as I am concerned, Ben Fountain got that shock and confusion exactly right in Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk. "I support the troops" is moral signalling - you are letting other people know that you are thinking correctly about the war. That's all. Then you go back to your regularly scheduled Thanksgiving Day Football game. I appreciate how difficult it is to maintain a focus on what is most important - it's been 10 years and I have fallen back into my comfortable and comforting life, and our men and women are still over there in the heat and dust and fear, the spiders and IEDs, and insurgents.
Yuva says:
I normally read nonfiction. I bought this book in 2013 mainly based on the acclaim. I am going to start applying my movie rule to books: if it wins festival awards such as Sundance then I will probably hate it. I get its a satire. I read and enjoyed "Catch 22". I can appreciate a good anti war satire. But the author shows his political leanings repeatedly and often. I guess I need to stick to non fiction. Ben Fountain doesn't even belong in the same library with Tim O Brien or other great novelists. MoreLess
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Guest 7 years ago
???????
Guest 7 years ago
SebReads Ur retarded
Guest 7 years ago
Ummm it is a book and it is ummm has words and um i watched the game with um sponge umm it was a good bo ummm book ummm hi ummm hi ummm
Guest 7 years ago
its cool but its 5)10
SebReads 7 years ago
A little boring, but good storyline. 7/10
Guest 7 years ago
super stard
Guest 8 years ago
No I don't like it I love itWrite Review:
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