Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles | Anthony Swofford

Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles | Anthony Swofford | Jarhead

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Jarhead : A Marine...

	Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles Anthony Swofford Recorded Books, 2003 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 426 reviews view larger image
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Anthony Swofford's "Jarhead" is the first Gulf War memoir by a frontline infantry marine, and it is a searing, unforgettable narrative. When the marines -- or "jarheads," as they call themselves -- were sent in 1990 to Saudi Arabia to fight the Iraqis, Swofford was there, with a hundred-pound pack on his shoulders and a sniper's rifle in his hands. It was one misery upon another. He lived in sand for six months, his girlfriend back home betrayed him for a scrawny hotel clerk, he was punished by boredom and fear, he considered suicide, he pulled a gun on one of his fellow marines, and he was shot at by both Iraqis and Americans. At the end of the war, Swofford hiked for miles through a landscape of incinerated Iraqi soldiers and later was nearly killed in a booby-trapped Iraqi bunker. Swofford weaves this experience of war with vivid accounts of boot camp (which included physical abuse by his drill instructor), reflections on the mythos of the marines, and remembrances of battles with lovers and family. As engagement with the Iraqis draws closer, he is forced to consider what it is to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man. Unlike the real-time print and television coverage of the Gulf War, which was highly scripted by the Pentagon, Swofford's account subverts the conventional wisdom that U.S. military interventions are now merely surgical insertions of superior forces that result in few American casualties. "Jarhead" insists we remember the Americans who are in fact wounded or killed, the fields of smoking enemy corpses left behind, and the continuing difficulty that American soldiers have reentering civilian life. A harrowing yet inspiring portrait of atormented consciousness struggling for inner peace, "Jarhead" will elbow for room on that short shelf of American war classics that includes Philip Caputo's "A Rumor of War" and Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," and be admired not only for the raw beauty of its prose but also for the depth of its pained heart.

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Jarhead, an honest look at war

Jarhead is a fantastic read! It is a glimpse into the everyday life of Marine in Desert Storm. The book is pure raw emotion. You get the chance to move to the front lines with a Marine Corps Surveillance and Target Acquisition or S.T.A sniper and see the war through his eyes. It provides an honest glimpse into what sometimes happens to these heroes after the war, the forgotten part of most war books. This book also has some hilarious parts.

Jarhead

This is an amazing book that offers insight into the thoughts of a Marine during the Gulf War. It isnt meant to be an action packed book, it is meant to offer reflections about the many things that the Marines and other servicemen experienced. It does a great job at helping someone who isnt in the military to understand in a small part what they experienced.

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Jarhead - The True Story of a Marine Who Served in the Gulf War

Anthony Swofford's writing is rough around the edges; a great deal of the book is difficult to read, and the language crude, but it's also an honest, first-hand recounting of life as a Marine, before and during the first Gulf war.

The anti-war establishment should photocopy pages 99-103 and hand out the pages to kids who are thinking about enlisting in the military. S--er patrol has never before been so intricately described in print, and any illusions about the glamour and drama of war will be forever erased from the mind of any person reading 'Jarhead.'

This book is not recommended for those who are easily offended. Swofford describes a military hazing ritual known as the field f--k, and I have to wonder how these traditions between enlisted men are playing out now that there are so many women serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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