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From Publishers Weekly
Wright rode into Iraq on March 20, 2003, with a platoon of First Reconnaissance Battalion Marines—the Marine Corps' special operations unit whose motto is "Swift, Silent, Deadly." These highly trained and highly motivated First Recon Marines were the leading unit of the American-led invasion force. Wright wrote about that experience in a three-part series in Rolling Stone that was hailed for its evocative, accurate war reporting. This book, a greatly expanded version of that series, matches its accomplishment. Wright is a perceptive reporter and a facile writer. His account is a personality-driven, readable and insightful look at the Iraq War's first month from the Marine grunt's point of view. It jibes with other firsthand reports of the first phase of the Iraqi invasion (including David Zucchino's Thunder Run), showing the unsettling combination of feeble and vicious resistance put up by the Iraqi army, the Fedayeen militiamen and their Syrian allies against American forces bulldozing through towns and cities and into Baghdad. Wright paints compelling portraits of a handful of Marines, most of whom are young, street-smart and dedicated to the business of killing the enemy. As he shows them, the Marines' main problem was trying to sort out civilians from enemy fighters. Wright does not shy away from detailing what happened when the fog of war resulted in the deaths and maimings of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Nor does he hesitate to describe intimately the few instances in which Marines were killed and wounded. Fortunately, Wright is not exposing the strengths and weaknesses of a new generation of American fighting men, as the misleadingly hyped-up title and subtitle indicate. Instead, he presents a vivid, well-drawn picture of those fighters in action on the front lines in the blitzkrieg-like opening round of the Iraq War.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Its timeliness notwithstanding, this chronicle of an American reconnaissance platoon's mission to spearhead the invasion of Iraq is not one of those hastily thrown together "instant books." The author was the only journalist to travel with First Recon. He joined the platoon in March 2003 and traveled with its soldiers into combat missions (including the assault on Baghdad in April). His book is not about the war itself but about one group of men who fought in it. Today's American soldiers, Wright says, are young men who are "on more intimate terms with the culture of the video games, reality TV shows and Internet porn than they are with their own families." (One 19-year-old corporal compares driving into an ambush to a Grand Theft Auto video game: "It was fucking cool.") Wright also explores how today's pop-culture-driven soldiers differ from those who fought more than three decades ago in Vietnam. A perceptive, often troubling examination of soldiers' view of war, peace, and combat. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Raw Unedited Rage,
By
This review is from: Generation Kill (Paperback)
I have a friend serving in Afghanistan as part of the Canadian contingent of NATO. He was describing to me the thrill he felt to be on the front-lines fighting. As an admitted pacifist and having never served in the military, it is hard for me to understand how someone can feel "glee" in an all out firefight. My friend referred me to "Generation Kill", as a way to explain how he feels.First the mechanics, Evan Wright is an excellent journalist and writer and the lucidity of his prose reflects his talents. The book is literally a page-turner and Wright does a great job developing each of the characters as an embedded journalist in a Recon unit leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The parallel with Lt. Fick and my friend are uncanny. It's still difficult for me to comprehend why soldiers do what they do, but Evan Wright's book has helped me bridge that gap. Soldiers are ultimately human, conflicted and flawed. Compared to Mark Bowden's "Black Hawk Down", I felt Wright did a better job showing more raw human emotion, to explain what it means to be a soldier. I'm writing this review as I'm watching the HBO series that bears the same name as the book. I read the book last year and watching the series brings me back to this great book, a worthwhile read for anybody wanting to know more about what it means to be a soldier.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
No Boyscouts Here,
This review is from: Generation Kill (Hardcover)
I'm glad to read a story about the Marines that is uncensored - with the high expectations of the American people set by the greatest generation that ever lived I found it impossible to live up to Steven Spielberg's version of "Band of Brothers". Being a Marine in 1st Recon Bn, Evan Wright's interpretation of our daily lives and experiences are extremely accurate. While reading the book almost a year later I had forgotten some of the details of my own experiences that Wright brought back to life. It was almost like I was living through the war again. Simply put, if you want to know what it is like to be a Marine during this campaign there is no better book at this time. It seems to me that Evan Wright was influenced by nothing but the experiences and the personalities that he absorbed during the war. No one is over exaggerated.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get some!,
By
This review is from: Generation Kill (Paperback)
Comparisons are made with this book and Michael Herr's "Dispatches" for the Iraq War generation. I think you need to look at these books as bookends of a long arc of excellent journalism on the "American soldier on the ground" experience.Look, forget the analysis as all I know is any military unit that bans any country music and calls it "the Special Olympics of music" is one I want to get to know. This book takes you inside that unit and is right up there with Anthony Swofford's "Jarhead" at the top of the heap in books on the modern military.
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