The essays in the first half of the book kept my interest and attention and opened my eyes to new perspectives about the ongoing war in the Middle East. Many were a mix of hard-to-take grittiness and honesty and seen-it-before soldier life. I especially liked Prayer in the Furnace, which showed the meaningful and meaningless sides of being a chaplain under such brutal conditions.

The latter half of the book was populated with stories that were more about the issues facing returned vets. I know there are real issues here that need to be addressed, but maybe my patience for the stories had just worn out. I skimmed through these with little interest in them.

All-in-all a three star book. Four stars for the good stories in the first half. Two stars for the rest. ( )

A collection of well written angry vet stories. My favorite story "Money as a weapons system" reminded me of Catch-22 and was the only story that I saw my own life and civilian job in. ( )

A great book. Sent me into a rage at several points thinking about American hubris ( )

It took me a few chapters to figure this out but it turns out this a series of short fictional stories by people who are in Iraq or were posted there, each a first person account. Given the truly awful things that have happened there, a lot of this is deeply shocking. The anger and confusion of the Marines who have to go through this appalling experience will stay with me for a long time. Not a pleasant read but deserves its top recommendation. ( )

Beautifully crafted stories, deceptively straight-forward, giving an important and illuminating picture of the contemporary military experience. ( )