American Spirit by Dan Kennedy

There are some vile bits in this book. If you don’t like vile bits don’t read this book or the rest of this review.

The book follows 45-year-old Matthew Harris who is “long, lanky, slightly underweight, now hung-over, semi-moneyed, tall, and medium slim, with no evident interest in shaving.”

He is going through a nervous breakdown thanks to his marriage to “unfaithful, unwieldy, retired fashion model wife” falling apart, and also because he was fired from the job he held for eleven years. The book follows him through this time where he “is in the midst of an endless and rudderless journey on rising seas of anxiety and receding tides of currency.” 

(Vile bit) The beginning sees him basically living out of his car, spitting all over it, him going over the incident that made him lose his job where “suddenly taking a leak all over your office is a crime” plus he has a kidney stone which makes blood come out instead of the normal.

The book is written through Matthew’s over-thinking, active and self-destructive mind. This makes him not a nice person. For example, in addition to the above vile things, he goes to a meditation class and thinks, “The instructor has been brought here today to teach me how to relax and not let fear govern my life. I have been brought here today to teach the instructor how to be tense and afraid again.” And his depression makes him “ponder the very real and very urgent shadow of death that seems to come to mind when there’s too much silence.”

He refuses help. “This is what Matthew’s head does every time help comes along… it looks for holes in the argument.” But eventually he comes to realise that he can’t run away from the pain forever and it is time to get his life in order, deal with his kidney stone etc. “Let’s get rid of some of the crutches; let’s ask for help when it is needed; learn to have a little faith that there’s still time, no matter how much was wasted.”

So overall not a book for me, as a happy-go-lucky person, but maybe for others.

Publication date: 28th May 2013

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed HERE.)

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

“The men of Bravo are not cold.”

And thus the book draws you in, right from its opening line, and keeps you there until the end thanks to the quality writing.

Bravo are Bravo squad, a troop of 8 soldiers. They are being treated to a victory tour of the US following a heroic deed at the Al-Ansakar Canal in Iraq, as they fight against TerrRr. Billy Lynn is one of their number, the Texas-boy and the one who was singled out for being the hero, the news crew footage proves it and only enhances their status. 

Throughout the tour they are treated like heroes by their fellow Americans. But they have to return for another 11 months. The focus of the book is on the end of the tour where they are being treated to a Dallas Cowboys American Football game by the owner Norm Oglesby. But the rest of the book takes you through the painful goodbyes with family, the cheerleader Billy falls in love with on first sight then has to say goodbye to, the option of not going back to war, the narrow margins between life and death, the loss of a good friend in war, the camaraderie the group have for each other etc. 

It is like one of those war films where you know the hero is going to die because of all the goodbyes that are going on. But the poignant ending is left unsaid.

Obviously a knowledge of American culture, in particular American Football will help through parts of the book, although it is not essential. And maybe the hero-worship does go on for a bit too long but overall the writing oozes quality in this well thought out novel on the Iraqi war.

I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed HERE.