“Mellas stood beneath the gray monsoon clouds on the narrow strip of cleared ground between the edge of the jungle and the relative safety of the perimeter wire.”
With these words Karl Marlantes began his amazingly powerful novel about the Vietnam War, Matterhorn. The first step to becoming, as Sebastian Junger says, “the preeminent literary voice on war of our generation“, and in no way were we left unsatisfied. Matterhorn quickly became a bestseller, hundreds – many of them vets themselves – commented on our blog about Matterhorn (here) and we had a wonderful evening with Karl at Lemuria books. Then, back in the winter, we discovered that there was more – Karl has written his non-fiction/extended essay – with the title that says it all – What Its Is Like to Got to War.
There have been many reviews of What It Is Like to Go to War, but none of them do the book any justice. LISTEN: this book is so good, so well balanced, so exactly what we need to understand about war. The reviews haven’t done justice because a review never could. This book is about what it was like for Karl – as an individual – to go to war and what it has been like for him to have been someone who went to war.
As Karl says, “All conscientious citizens and especially those with the power to make policy will be better prepared to make decisions about committing young people to combat if they know what they are about to ask them.”
Please don’t miss this chance to meet Karl Marlantes on Wednesday, October 5th for a signing and reading from What It Is Like to Got to War at 5:00 and 5:30.
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