by Donovan Campbell ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2009
An accessible view of combat on the ground and a valuable supplement to big-picture histories of the war’s first year.
Chronicling his experiences in Iraq, Campbell movingly portrays his love for the men under his command, and theirs for each other.
His debut memoir also depicts the war’s effect on the author’s faith and hope, shaking the former and shattering the latter as horror after horror befell the Marine platoon that went by the call name Joker One. During a seven-month tour in Ramadi, capital of the Sunni-dominated Anwar province, Lt. Campbell and his company were on hand to witness the critical intensification of hostilities between Coalition forces and the Iraq insurgency in the spring and summer of 2004. The velvet-glove treatment Joker One at first extended to the locals, rather than winning them loyalty and respect, earned the Marines a reputation for being soft. While the Americans mistakenly believed they were merely caretaking the transition to Iraqi rule, the insurgents were arming the masses, threatening heads of household with retaliation against their families if they didn’t allow their homes to be used for weapons storage. On the morning of April 6, 2004, in place of the daily call to prayers, Ramadi awoke to the repeated call of “jihad” emanating from loudspeakers on mosques around the city. Campbell and his men soon found themselves in a hellish situation, forced “to make horrible choices, day in and day out, until it seemed like no matter what path we took, we lost.” Yet during their baptism by fire Campbell observed and recorded numerous acts of heroism and selflessness among his comrades in arms, a diverse group of young men whose collective strength was greater than the sum of their individual weaknesses.
An accessible view of combat on the ground and a valuable supplement to big-picture histories of the war’s first year.Pub Date: March 17, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6773-2
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2009
Share your opinion of this book
by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Share your opinion of this book
More by Elie Wiesel
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel
by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.