Succeeds where many books about war have failed, particularly those written by ex-servicemen about conflict in the Middle East as this one is. Bravo Two Zero and Jarhead were too much about military jargon and all the other associated bullshit with military. This book is a powerful and compelling story about three men in the Iraq war. Gung-ho Nihilist Sergeant Sterling, childish and detached Private Murphy and the narrator Private John Bartle who tells of his experiences before, during and after the war. This could be a book stuffed full with cliches and horrible genre tropes, but instead this is a brilliant, hallucinatory, sad and daring novel that succeeds to my mind in portraying realistic experiences, thoughts and emotions of those involved in conflict. Written with a poetic verve and with scenes that could so easily have been mishandled by a lesser writer this book is the best I have read in an age. What a first novel! I look forward to his next output. Like a young Cormac McCarthy!
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