A tough and vivid account of war and redemption.
In this no-nonsense chronicle of life inside Abu Ghraib prison, first-time author Griffith describes the aftermath of the abuse scandal and the soldiers stationed there afterward.
Most enlistees in the 152nd Field Artillery Battalion never expected to leave the United States, much less serve in Iraq. Yet suddenly, in early 2004, these members of the Maine National Guard were dispatched to Abu Ghraib prison. Former Marine Corps combat correspondent Griffith describes constant confusion as they struggled to find their equipment when they first arrived and failed to understand why an artillery unit should guard prisoners of war. Worst of all, they took command of Abu Ghraib shortly after photos of torture victims incited global outrage. Griffith focuses on a handful of servicemen, but his protagonist is William Thorndike, known to everyone as “Dizl.” From the first pages, Dizl seems mature and wise, capable of bringing a fresh perspective to an ugly environment. “Overall, Dizl thought, there was something slap-dash and contingent about Abu Ghraib,” writes the author. “It reminded him less of a functioning detention center than a semi-successful refugee camp thrown up in the first few weeks after a disaster.” Griffith’s writing is energetic and conversational. He takes pains to illustrate the wartime experience, describing how bullets actually tear through bodies, how time slows down during bombardment, and what soldiers talk about during endless days in brutal heat. Even as vengeful insurgents showered the prison with mortar and rocket fire, Dizl and his comrades attempted to improve the filthy living conditions at Abu Ghraib. The author ably describes the delicate relationship between the Iraqi prisoners and their overworked captors. He expresses admiration for the soldiers and their courage, but he also lambastes the Iraqi invasion and all the damage it caused. Veterans like Dizl did a lot of admirable things, Griffith asserts, but at what cost?
A tough and vivid account of war and redemption.Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62872-645-9
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
HISTORY | MILITARY | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY
Not flawless, but one of the best recent analyses of the contemporary woes of American economics and politics.
Remarkably comprehensive and coherent analysis of and prescriptions for America’s contemporary economic malaise by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Smith (Rethinking America, 1995, etc.).
“Over the past three decades,” writes the author, “we have become Two Americas.” We have arrived at a new Gilded Age, where “gross inequality of income and wealth” have become endemic. Such inequality is not simply the result of “impersonal and irresistible market forces,” but of quite deliberate corporate strategies and the public policies that enabled them. Smith sets out on a mission to trace the history of these strategies and policies, which transformed America from a roughly fair society to its current status as a plutocracy. He leaves few stones unturned. CEO culture has moved since the 1970s from a concern for the general well-being of society, including employees, to the single-minded pursuit of personal enrichment and short-term increases in stock prices. During much of the ’70s, CEO pay was roughly 40 times a worker’s pay; today that number is 367. Whether it be through outsourcing and factory closings, corporate reneging on once-promised contributions to employee health and retirement funds, the deregulation of Wall Street and the financial markets, a tax code which favors overwhelmingly the interests of corporate heads and the superrich—all of which Smith examines in fascinating detail—the American middle class has been left floundering. For its part, government has simply become an enabler and partner of the rich, as the rich have turned wealth into political influence and rigid conservative opposition has created the politics of gridlock. What, then, is to be done? Here, Smith’s brilliant analyses turn tepid, as he advocates for “a peaceful political revolution at the grassroots” to realign the priorities of government and the economy but offers only the vaguest of clues as to how this might occur.
Not flawless, but one of the best recent analyses of the contemporary woes of American economics and politics.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6966-8
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
Never especially challenging or provocative but pleasant enough light reading.
Former Dirty Jobs star Rowe serves up a few dozen brief human-interest stories.
Building on his popular podcast, the author “tells some true stories you probably don’t know, about some famous people you probably do.” Some of those stories, he allows, have been subject to correction, just as on his TV show he was “corrected on windmills and oil derricks, coal mines and construction sites, frack tanks, pig farms, slime lines, and lumber mills.” Still, it’s clear that he takes pains to get things right even if he’s not above a few too-obvious groaners, writing about erections (of skyscrapers, that is, and, less elegantly, of pigs) here and Joan Rivers (“the Bonnie Parker of comedy”) there, working the likes of Bob Dylan, William Randolph Hearst, and John Wayne into the discourse. The most charming pieces play on Rowe’s own foibles. In one, he writes of having taken a soft job as a “caretaker”—in quotes—of a country estate with few clear lines of responsibility save, as he reveals, humoring the resident ghost. As the author notes on his website, being a TV host gave him great skills in “talking for long periods without saying anything of substance,” and some of his stories are more filler than compelling narrative. In others, though, he digs deeper, as when he writes of Jason Everman, a rock guitarist who walked away from two spectacularly successful bands (Nirvana and Soundgarden) in order to serve as a special forces operative: “If you thought that Pete Best blew his chance with the Beatles, consider this: the first band Jason bungled sold 30 million records in a single year.” Speaking of rock stars, Rowe does a good job with the oft-repeated matter of Charlie Manson’s brief career as a songwriter: “No one can say if having his song stolen by the Beach Boys pushed Charlie over the edge,” writes the author, but it can’t have helped.
Never especially challenging or provocative but pleasant enough light reading.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-982130-85-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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