海角大神

If you have not fought in Iraq, nothing will ever allow you to know what it was like 鈥� but Redeployment by Phil Klay will get you agonizingly close.聽 His short stories show the unbridgeable gulf between those who鈥檝e been there, and those who haven鈥檛.聽 One wonders 鈥� will it ever be possible for a veteran who has been redeployed two or three or more times to relate to a civilian... or the reverse. The veterans in his brief chapters often lie, apparently thinking:聽 鈥淲hy bother to tell it as it was;聽 they鈥檒l never never understand.鈥� In "Fire in the Furnace," an outstanding vignette (but they all are)聽 a priest sees on a soldier鈥檚 face 鈥渢he space where rage ends and violence begins.鈥� The priest is trapped in a Catch-22 of morality ... and listens to soldiers who wonder if he and they will be forgiven 鈥� and by whom. This is a brilliant evocation of war and leaves you wondering if聽 we will be forgiven for entering into it.