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| Emerging wave of Iraq fiction examines America's role in 'bullshit war' | Emerging wave of Iraq fiction examines America's role in 'bullshit war' |
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| After readings of his novel Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, veterans of America's long war in Iraq often approach writer Ben Fountain to tell him what they think of his acclaimed study of the conflict. | After readings of his novel Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, veterans of America's long war in Iraq often approach writer Ben Fountain to tell him what they think of his acclaimed study of the conflict. |
| "They say: 'You got it right,'. It seems this book is a source of pleasure and comfort to them," Fountain told the Guardian in an interview. | "They say: 'You got it right,'. It seems this book is a source of pleasure and comfort to them," Fountain told the Guardian in an interview. |
| But Fountain's book, which has been hailed as an instant classic of war literature, is just one of an emerging wave of American fiction that is tackling the impact, legacy and experience of the Iraq war. It joins Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds and David Abrams' Fobbit as books that have come out in 2012 and offered a searing, sometimes visceral fictional examination of the war and the men and women who fought it. Adding to the growing body of work next year will be a short story collection written by veterans called Fire and Forget and Lea Carpenter's eagerly awaited Eleven Days. | But Fountain's book, which has been hailed as an instant classic of war literature, is just one of an emerging wave of American fiction that is tackling the impact, legacy and experience of the Iraq war. It joins Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds and David Abrams' Fobbit as books that have come out in 2012 and offered a searing, sometimes visceral fictional examination of the war and the men and women who fought it. Adding to the growing body of work next year will be a short story collection written by veterans called Fire and Forget and Lea Carpenter's eagerly awaited Eleven Days. |
| Powers, himself an Iraq veteran, believes that the flood of fiction – and his own award-winning The Yellow Birds – are helping Americans understand the war better than journalism has done. "One of the reasons that I wrote this book was the idea that people kept saying: 'What was it like over there?'," Powers explained. Yet he was puzzled by the question because of the vast amount of reporting. "It seemed that it was not an information-based problem. There was lots of information around. But what people really wanted was to know what it felt like; physically, emotionally and psychologically. So that's why I wrote it," he said. | Powers, himself an Iraq veteran, believes that the flood of fiction – and his own award-winning The Yellow Birds – are helping Americans understand the war better than journalism has done. "One of the reasons that I wrote this book was the idea that people kept saying: 'What was it like over there?'," Powers explained. Yet he was puzzled by the question because of the vast amount of reporting. "It seemed that it was not an information-based problem. There was lots of information around. But what people really wanted was to know what it felt like; physically, emotionally and psychologically. So that's why I wrote it," he said. |
| Powers' book and its powerful descriptions of the impact and experience of modern combat explores two individual soldiers and the hurried promise that one made to the other to keep him alive through their tour of duty. But, as with all great war literature that has examined conflict from the first world war to Vietnam, the experience of individuals becomes a symbolic stand-in for the nation as a whole. It is impossible not to draw a link between the rash promise – which the book quickly makes clear is not kept – and the way America itself went to war in Iraq. "It is a story about making a promise that you cannot keep; promises made in a quick way. Someone who wants to be good but finds it difficult and does not understand the ramifications of what they have done," Powers said. | Powers' book and its powerful descriptions of the impact and experience of modern combat explores two individual soldiers and the hurried promise that one made to the other to keep him alive through their tour of duty. But, as with all great war literature that has examined conflict from the first world war to Vietnam, the experience of individuals becomes a symbolic stand-in for the nation as a whole. It is impossible not to draw a link between the rash promise – which the book quickly makes clear is not kept – and the way America itself went to war in Iraq. "It is a story about making a promise that you cannot keep; promises made in a quick way. Someone who wants to be good but finds it difficult and does not understand the ramifications of what they have done," Powers said. |
| Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, which examines the experience of a squad of soldiers on their return from Iraq, also serve a larger purpose in illustrating the war in all its folly, misunderstandings and catastrophic consequences. With its fractured structure, the book seems to replicate the conduct of the Iraq war as a whole. "I wanted to capture people talking past each other and this systemic dysfunction. That was the tone I was going for. A lot of things going on at once and not much making sense. I mean, as a result of 9/11 we invaded a country that had nothing to with 9/11," Fountain said. | Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, which examines the experience of a squad of soldiers on their return from Iraq, also serve a larger purpose in illustrating the war in all its folly, misunderstandings and catastrophic consequences. With its fractured structure, the book seems to replicate the conduct of the Iraq war as a whole. "I wanted to capture people talking past each other and this systemic dysfunction. That was the tone I was going for. A lot of things going on at once and not much making sense. I mean, as a result of 9/11 we invaded a country that had nothing to with 9/11," Fountain said. |
| With the end of the war, America now has the cultural space to start to examine its eight years in Iraq. In the emerging literature there is a complex array of emotions and responses on display. They range from sadness to anger, to condemning the war, to seeking to wrest something positive out of the experience: both as soldiers and as a nation. "It is not a coincidence that the first wave of fiction is occurring after the war ended. We need a little bit of distance. We are trying to make sense of it and that could not happen until the war was over," said Matt Gallagher, who co-edited Fire and Forget with fellow veteran-turned-writer Roy Scranton. | With the end of the war, America now has the cultural space to start to examine its eight years in Iraq. In the emerging literature there is a complex array of emotions and responses on display. They range from sadness to anger, to condemning the war, to seeking to wrest something positive out of the experience: both as soldiers and as a nation. "It is not a coincidence that the first wave of fiction is occurring after the war ended. We need a little bit of distance. We are trying to make sense of it and that could not happen until the war was over," said Matt Gallagher, who co-edited Fire and Forget with fellow veteran-turned-writer Roy Scranton. |
| The range of stories in Fire and Forget displays a remarkable depth and breadth of the experience of the Iraq war. There is a tale of a soldier shooting an Iraqi boy, another of a recently returned Marine visiting a shopping mall while haunted by trauma, a description of a lost patrol and a study of a veteran's harrowing search for a job on his return from war. | The range of stories in Fire and Forget displays a remarkable depth and breadth of the experience of the Iraq war. There is a tale of a soldier shooting an Iraqi boy, another of a recently returned Marine visiting a shopping mall while haunted by trauma, a description of a lost patrol and a study of a veteran's harrowing search for a job on his return from war. |
| Like every previous war, the literature from Iraq is a reflection of its own unique set of circumstances as well as more universal horrors of killing, death and destruction. | Like every previous war, the literature from Iraq is a reflection of its own unique set of circumstances as well as more universal horrors of killing, death and destruction. |
| In Iraq, the politics of the war's build-up, the role of the media in failing to adequately examine its justification and the way the experience of war remained so distant from the country's civilian population are all getting an airing. "The time may be right for fiction to address the war. But it will be difficult for many people to handle and painful for nearly everyone," said Professor Margot Norris of the University of California, who has studied 20th century war literature. | In Iraq, the politics of the war's build-up, the role of the media in failing to adequately examine its justification and the way the experience of war remained so distant from the country's civilian population are all getting an airing. "The time may be right for fiction to address the war. But it will be difficult for many people to handle and painful for nearly everyone," said Professor Margot Norris of the University of California, who has studied 20th century war literature. |
| One unique aspect of the war in Iraq compared to previous wars is that it was fought by an all-volunteer force. In Iraq war literature there can be no story of an innocent draftee sent to face a nameless enemy against his will: characters and writers who are themselves veterans are, in some way, culpable. "That changes so much. At some point we signed on a dotted line. I am immensely proud of my service. But what did it mean? What was the legacy that I left?" Gallagher said. | One unique aspect of the war in Iraq compared to previous wars is that it was fought by an all-volunteer force. In Iraq war literature there can be no story of an innocent draftee sent to face a nameless enemy against his will: characters and writers who are themselves veterans are, in some way, culpable. "That changes so much. At some point we signed on a dotted line. I am immensely proud of my service. But what did it mean? What was the legacy that I left?" Gallagher said. |
| There are shifting moods in the literature, too. Fountain has found that a simple sense of sadness pervades most writing on Iraq so far; a deep melancholy that haunts through the words rather than lights a fire of rage against the conflict. "There is an elegiac feel running through it all," he said. But that might change and it might be veterans themselves who lead the charge. Gallagher said he was growing angry as he explored his war through the medium of fiction. "I have become angrier at how events transpired. My generation of soldiers was treated so recklessly. Our leaders did not explore other options. I hope we don't let this happen to our sons and daughters," he said. | There are shifting moods in the literature, too. Fountain has found that a simple sense of sadness pervades most writing on Iraq so far; a deep melancholy that haunts through the words rather than lights a fire of rage against the conflict. "There is an elegiac feel running through it all," he said. But that might change and it might be veterans themselves who lead the charge. Gallagher said he was growing angry as he explored his war through the medium of fiction. "I have become angrier at how events transpired. My generation of soldiers was treated so recklessly. Our leaders did not explore other options. I hope we don't let this happen to our sons and daughters," he said. |
| Of course, warriors and writers from all history's wars have expressed the same sentiments with little impact on stopping the next conflict. Fountain is certainly deeply aware of the long tradition of war literature that his and others books are now joining. "This was a bullshit war," he said, before digressing to talk about Homer's epic prose-poems of the Trojan War when the armies of ancient Greece marched abroad to avenge the kidnapping of Helen of Troy. "It's King Menalaus's wife. It is his problem. But everyone else has to spend ten years trying to find their way home again. That was a bullshit war too," he said. | Of course, warriors and writers from all history's wars have expressed the same sentiments with little impact on stopping the next conflict. Fountain is certainly deeply aware of the long tradition of war literature that his and others books are now joining. "This was a bullshit war," he said, before digressing to talk about Homer's epic prose-poems of the Trojan War when the armies of ancient Greece marched abroad to avenge the kidnapping of Helen of Troy. "It's King Menalaus's wife. It is his problem. But everyone else has to spend ten years trying to find their way home again. That was a bullshit war too," he said. |
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