The first two short stories reviewed (below) appear in the anthology (above) that is available at Amazon Books. |
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GUEST BLOG / Analysis
compiled by Catherine Sustana, Thought
Co.--There are certain authors who manage to put into words the nearly
unspeakable experience of war.
Ambrose
Bierce is well known for his short stories of the American Civil War,
particularly "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." With stories like
"The Things They Carried" and "How to Tell a True War Story,"
Tim O'Brien became the voice of soldiers who had served in Vietnam, and his
stories are widely anthologized.
The
lengthy war in Iraq has already spawned bountiful memoirs, poems, and short
stories. So far, many of the stories seem to focus on soldiers' difficulty
coming home and readjusting to life in the U.S. Others focus on the challenges
families face when their fathers, mothers, husbands, and wives are deployed.
The
United States withdrew its military personnel from Iraq by the end of 2011. It
is hard to say which stories and authors will come to definitively represent
the Iraq war in years to come, but the three exceptional contemporary war
stories here are certainly some of the finest.
1.
"Redeployment"
by Phil Klay
Phil
Klay's "Redeployment" begins with these chilling lines:
"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."
Author, Phil Klay |
When
I first read the title of the story, I thought I understood what it would be
about. But "Redeployment" is far more complex than I had anticipated.
Its elegant bluntness will leave you pondering for a long time.
Phil
Klay is a former marine who served as a Public Affairs Officer in Iraq from
January 2007 to February 2008. He received his MFA from Hunter College.
"Redeployment"
was originally published in Granta magazine, where the full text is available
online to subscribers. The story is also included in an anthology called Fire
and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War.
But
the best bet might be to read "Redeployment" in Klay's collection by
the same name, which won the prestigious 2014 National Book Award in fiction.
2.
"New Me"
by Andrew Slater
Like
"Redeployment," "New Me" is a story about coming home. The
narrator, struggling to overcome a brain injury, enters civilian life
passively, with the people around him struggling to prop him up in a
"normal" life.
To
get him a job, his girlfriend has been telling everyone they're engaged, which
effectively makes them engaged. The narrator's new boss has clearly created a
fake job for him motivated by some combination of pity and respect. Soon the
girlfriend is planning the wedding and their future children.
Author, Andrew Slater |
"The
Arby's front window was spider-webbed with bullet holes. A shopping cart from
Sears sat by the entrance, filled with artillery shells and sweaters with a
wire running up to the ceiling. There were mannequins at the registers wearing
Arby's uniforms and suicide vests. It smelled like someone was cooking
fries."
The
surreal incongruity of sweaters and artillery shells -- of Belk's and the
Tigris River -- may be the closest that a civilian like me will ever come to
understanding the experience that soldiers must have when coming home. That
alone makes the story worth reading.
Andrew
Slater was an infantry and Special Forces officer in the U.S. Army from 2000 -
2010. He deployed twice to Afghanistan and three times to Iraq. He holds an MFA
from Columbia University, and he currently teaches English at the American
University in Sulaimani, Iraq.
"New
Me" was originally published in Epiphany magazine's war issue. Like
"Redeployment," the story is also included in Fire and Forget: Short
Stories from the Long War.
3.
"Refresh,
Refresh" by Benjamin Percy
Benjamin
Percy's "Refresh, Refresh" isn't about soldiers -- it's about their
families. The story follows two teenage boys in a rural town in Oregon where
nearly all the fathers have enlisted in the reserves for what they call
"beer pay." But when their battalion is sent to Iraq, the town
empties out. Percy writes:
Author, Benjamin Percy |
An
undercurrent of violence and despair runs through the story as the boys get
beaten up by bullies, beat each other up to practice their fighting skills, gut
deer, and take their revenge on those they feel have wronged them.
It
is a brilliant, moving, deeply disturbing story about what happens -- almost
inevitably, it seems -- to these boys in the absence of their fathers.
The
entire text of "Refresh, Refresh" is available for free online at The Paris Review.
The
story has also appeared in Percy's collection by the same name, in Best
American Short Stories 2006, and in The Pushcart Prize XXXI (2007).
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