War will tear you apart
581413
War destroys so many lives. Charlotte is a young Russian nurse working in the makeshift hospitals during 1917 war, she has been here for a while now and she is just getting by most days but she is making such a difference.
She is about to meet the one man that will shape her life, he will show her what love is and he will destroy her heart without even realizing it. Robert is a officer in the army, this isn't where he wanted to be but his father is important man who gets what he wants.
They both find companionship and love during the war and they are hoping for a good future together after the war. But fate is about to step in a destroy them both, Robert is very ill and he gets sent back home and no one tells Charlotte until it is too late.
Charlotte knows that she has to go on and she carries on nursing until the camp is closed and then she is off to London to help her old matron.
Unfortunately her old friend is dying and Charlotte nurses her until the end and then something happens that makes up her mind, she needs to go back to Russia to find her family.
Robert doesn't remember her even when he sees her again and it upsets him and that is when he finds out the truth about their relationship but it is too late she is feared dead and he can't go on without her so he begs his best friend to send him away.
No matter when the war takes place it is bloody, sad and never ending. This book had me in tears for the couple as they could have been so happy together and now we don't know if they will get another chance. I hope so as it would have been all for nothing.
Alice what a bitch did not like her at all and now hate her. Matron a really mother figure that I am sure shaped many a fine woman. There were so many great characters that added to the story and it was never too much. A really well written book that I could not put down not what I was expecting it was a real treat to read. Can't wait to read part 2 as Charlotte & Robert have to find each other again???
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.
3647712
Interesting period in time. Wars in themselves are very interesting. Neccesarry? The variety of emotions that a soldier experiences is like looking through a kaleidoscope. To see death in that compacity will change the brain in a human for the rest of thier life. Go into war one person and come out a completely different entity. Sad world.
2861488
Every  adult should read this book.  We all need to know what really goes on in the war torn countries that we send our military men and women to.  I can definitely see where this kind of situation  would affect one's mind.  The language is a bit harsh but probably exactly as it is when you are in the situation.  It will bring tears to your eyes as well as make you laugh once in awhile.  Our men and women should never have to go through the ravages of war as stated in this book.
3484602
Reading about the war, the horrible things mankind can do to each other made me shudder. Reading about the courage of every day people and their love for one another I wondered if I could survive a war. This book is not for the faint hearted but it will bless with clarity everyone who reads it.
1899061
It's very simple.  You have to read this book.  As a citizen of the world, there are just some things we all need to be aware of.  The historical conditions for war and violence are not understood well enough, and the solutions we are presented with leave much to be desired.
You will not be disappointed!
peace
173764
Every male should be forced to read this before he is 18 years old to understand the extent of the horrors, the agony, the senselessness and the brutality of war. It shook my soul. It illustrates that there were no angles; no good guys fighting for 'liberty and freedom' in WWII.  The attention only goes to the looser, the German people, and the crimes of the Russians and the allies - who were many times worse, went unrewarded. It also reveals for anyone who had read Mien Kampf an any of the speeches of Goebbels, etc., that their fear of Russian Marxism and communism, anchored by the accurate term "Jews", was indeed justified. It describes the callous disregard for human life expressed by the Morganthau Plan, and takes genocide to new level. It certainly makes one re-evaluate the water that IKE walked on, and develops a healthy respect for Gen. Patton - who seemed to be one of few sane leaders left after the politicians and policy makers got involved at the end of hostilities. Its a book about the absolute horrors of war, and that the end of the war is just the begging of the suffering and misjustice.
3389907
Looking for bombs and all sorts of IEDs, the gunner sergeants live by the fives and twenty-fives rule for inspecting their vehicle during a halt. The constant hell of being on alert, so that youll be ready for that one time you need to be ready, crushes the psyches of our three principals, Lieutenant Donovan, medic Lester Pleasant, and Iraqi translator Kateb.

The main characters share a type of insanity born from the trauma of war: They must survive by fastidious control of everything they do, but over time they become controlled by their need to control, which is a way of saying they have lost control. The novel is about their attempt to regain some kind of equilibrium, through connection with civilian life, loved ones, friends, and self. This journey is told with vivid power and verisimilitude. Highly recommended.
3445952
I have just finished your book and felt like I lived with you every step of this very difficult, heart wrenching story of survival.  Your descriptions amaze me, they are so real in my mind.  When one becomes subjected to the abuse cycle, the outside world just thinks you can walk away, but, it's a downward cycle where the person you are becomes lost.  Battering, removal from communication with others, shame, concern for your children, all bring you down to a level few could understand.
1975823
We have met the enemy and he is us.
  Pogo, by Walt Kelly (1912-1973)

Sebastian Jungers central theme is the epidemic of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) suffered by returning American war fighters that is exponentially higher than any previous conflict in world history.

The root cause, according to Sebastian Junger, is not war, violence, death and destruction overseas. It is not the VA back home. It is us.

Junger opens with a brilliant narrativefootnote free and wonderfully informativeof how primitive tribes, societies and communes through history waged wars and successfully dealt with the aftermath.

Then he cuts to the chase. A quick sampling:

The vast majority of traumatized vets are not faking their symptoms, however. They return from wars that are safer than those their fathers and grandfathers fought, and yet far greater numbers of them wind up alienated and depressed. This is true even for people who didn't experience combat. In other words, the problem doesnt seem to be the trauma on the battlefield so much as reentry into society.

Todays veterans often come home to find that although they're willing to die for their country, they're not sure how to live for it. Its hard to know how to live for a country that regularly tears itself apart along every possible ethnic and demographic boundary. The income gap between rich and poor continues to widen, many people live in racially segregated communities, the elderly are mostly sequestered from public life, and rampage shootings happen so regularly that they only remain in the news cycle for a day or two. To make matters worse, politicians occasionally accuse rivals of deliberately trying to harm their own countrya charge so destructive to group unity that most past societies would probably have just punished it as a form of treason. Its complete madness, and the veterans know this.

Before casting a vote November 8, 2016, I urge you to read TRIBE: On Homecoming and Belonging. And give it as a gift to everyone you care about.

Denny Hatch
dennyhatch@yahoo.com
688796
You have to be prepared for this one. It will really affect you.
3694393
Each story is told by a marine or a soldier, mostly marines, one is by a priest.  Some are told by veterans about their time in Iraq, others by marines while on tours of duty.  War isn't pretty.  Mr Klay doesn't attempt to make it so, but tells it as it is.  No heroism.  The book contains twelve stories about men at war in places so far from home.  Men coming home to wives who have deserted them.  Dear John letters being sent.  Best friends being killed or maimed.  Military wondering why they are in Iraq.  Is there a reason for the war?  It seems the answer is no. Picking up dead bodies from the ground.  Killing people who have nothing against Americans.  Families, children, young men who have barely begun to live.  Why!

I could only read these stories slowly one at a time.  They are so bleak, so brutal, so strong.  This book is a shot of truth as to what is going on in this war.  Mr Klay writes of PTSD, of veterans committing suicide, going crazy after getting out of the service.  Of being homeless, of beating wives, of divorce.  Soldiers and marines killing just to be killing.  Kill them before they kill us.  It is an honor to kill hadjjis.  Much writing about prejudice, of hating those different than we are.  The book is hard to read, it leaves much to think about.  This is a rough, tough, gruff way of writing.

Vets talk about coming home badly wounded, but grateful to all the medical people who kept them alive.  More thankful to be alive.  Why am I alive when men better than I am are dead?  He died to save me, to save others.  Questions with no answer.  These stories travel back and forth from the war zones back to New York City.  This book is so timely with the trial of the marine who killed the sniper and his friend in cold.  blood.  There is much to say about the war, yet so much that can't be said.  This is another sad book, but stories of war and killing always are.  The book is a painful read.
4535547
This book should be required for every adult to read.  It depicts the horrors of wars and the senseless deaths of mostly young/poor people for reasons that are absolutely pointless.  Paul states his enemy could  have been his brother, and that the real enemy should be the drill sergeant or the politician.  The hopelessness and sadness expressed in this book seems to capture the essence of war as I imagine only veterans have seen and know.  How can one be the same after war?
4952282
A vicious gut-punch of a book, Gabriel Chevallier's autobiographical World War I novel transports the reader to as close as they'd ever want to come to the hellish front lines of the bitterly-ironic "War to End All Wars."

From the terror of being on the receiving end of an artillery barrage:

"Everything is roaring, flashing, shuddering. The sky has disappeared. We are in the middle of a monstrous maelstrom, pieces of sky come crashing down and cover us with rubble, comets collide and crumble, sparking like a short circuit. We are caught in the end of the world. The earth is a burning building and all the exits have been bricked up...Bodies whimper, dribble, soil themselves is shame...We are worms, writing to escape the spade."

To the numbing, soul-shriveling effects such an attack has on the survivors:

"Those who are less severely wounded drag themselves along on their broken limbs with desperate energy...In a shell-hole one of them manages to use his knife to cut off the last strips of flesh holding his foot, which is hampering his progress by getting caught in the rough terrain...Others lie stretched out and still, calmed, of no importance: dead, just identity tags that we removed from their wrists to add to the lists. We also find scattered limbs, an arm, a leg, inert objects. A grimacing head had rolled off on it own. Mechanically, we look around for a body with which to join it in our thoughts."

The horrors of war have no expiry date, and while the "Great War" was bathing Europe in blood a hundred years ago, Chevallier pours these horrors into our head in a modern voice, sounding very much like our own.

We're a long way from peace on earth - barring the unexpected return of an itinerant Galilean preacher - but if every young man and woman, eager to righteously defend flag, faith, and fatherland, paused long enough to absorb Chevallier's nightmare dispatch from the trenches before so eagerly reaching for the gun, we'd all be a step or two further from the abyss.
3393419
This book is a must read in this election year.  Put all else aside, pick up this book and struggle through the reality of what is going on and few of us bother to realize.  This is not a pleasant read, this is not a feel good story.  This is the truth of what happens when politicians make decisions based on their own legacy in mind.  This is how those decisions affect you, me and our neighbors.  These kids are in a horrible situation in Iraq.  If the evidence to enter the war was real, OK, this is duty.  In retrospect, this is a sin.  No one should face 10 minutes of what these husbands, boyfirends, sons and daughters are going through.  Martha Raddatz did an incredible job of piecing this story together.  If 10 % of this is accurate, no one should be subjected to this kind of horror. I can tell you, having had a brother serve in Vietnam in the late 60s, there is nothing you hope to avoid than a taxi, your parish priest or minister, and a stranger dressed in a military uniform in the middle of the night.  Soldiers,, families are all suffering, the problem is, they are in the minority.  The majority of us simply bitch about high gas prices.  We don't have a clue what is going on. Read this book and become informed.  When you vote in November, consider what you are doing, seriously.  Is this war in the middle east worth it?  Is it winnable?  Is there an honorable way out.  Don't just assume there is, understand what these soldiers are going through and make sure the way you vote is not going to prolong this disaster.
2634266
Heart wrenching. My Dad Was a WWII vet. He was in Africa, and Iranian, Irac border. You must read this book.
3938660
The war to end all wars ... great warning.
1542760
I have a vague recollection of the Vietnam war as I was very young. I remember the protests in America. I remember watching the film The Killing Fields. There was a song in the charts "19" about this war, the average age of a soldier back then. In a quiet English town, there was no conversation other than disgraceful war, unjust war. Then the Rambo movies started. There we saw a broken vet rejected by his own country.
I started reading this book with its every word carved out in pain, to takes to the very heart of the Vietnamese War. A man so broken and so dark, one wonders how he ever, stood up and returned to the war. He takes you through actual skirmishes without jargon, simply telling you how it is. The enemy sending out children with guns who killed you if you did not kill them first. To see a man beginning to scratch his way back into civilisation. The book ends with a letter left to him by Stella. The contents seem to be ominous. I look forward to Book 2 to see what the letter says.