Customer Reviews

Broken Under Interrogation

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Jeffrey Hopkins presents his version of the American Dream under guise of his novel, "Broken Under Interrogation," and it is not pretty. It is ugly and grotesque and obscene and happens every day in every town and city of America. This book is not an indictment of torture or of the military or war. It is a indictment against lost opportunities, against an America that promises what it cannot fulfill. It is an indictment against drugs and the terrorism that propels drug trafficking. It is the story of the voiceless, the powerless. It is the story of Have-Nots.

Hopkins tells his story in segments through the voice of John Powers, a lethargic, but intelligent youth, who gets lost in himself and under the spell of a domineering father. He joins the military, hoping for Intelligence but not Iraq. He gets both. His job is to scope out spies against the US military and arrange their demise. He is returned to the States during his third tour of duty under questionable circumstances.

Through John's voice, the reader learns about military basic training and the war in Iraq. Both are important background to the last segment of John's life in the States when he trains "useless" war veterans into an army of heroes who fight the war on drugs incognito. There are no rules, no laws, just justice for wasted human lives.

John conceives the idea of such an army as he sits on a bench, observing the devastation of his drug-infested neighborhood. What caused this underworld of Have-Nots? Military life, even war, gives them purpose until they return home. Those born into poverty can see no way out except through drug-induced stupor or the temporary high of riches through the drug business. John takes the powerless, those who tried to grab a piece of the Dream, and creates an army. He is John Powers.

Things go awry, as they always do when violence, guns, torture, and amoral humans are put into the same chaotic, lawless void. Things go very wrong.
A significant point John tells the reader early on is that during a torture session, either party can be broken. There's a moment of incandescence during torture when John realizes how the story will end. He could have said what another character in another time and place said: "The horror! the horror!"

This is not a book for the squeamish.

Jeffrey Hopkins writes with such brutal force that reading his novel BROKEN UNDER INTERROGATION at first seems a story too explosive to explore. But at the same time his gift for the art of writing prose is so concomitantly eloquent that it is impossible not to stay with him: the trust he offers in the opening chapters, chapters that survey where our country is now and has recently been hit the center of the target of sociological observation. The book is powerful on many levels and while the readers who seek thrillers will be more than satisfied, those of us who look for more than action - for substance that comes from examining the past to reshape the possibilities for the future - there is much to be gained by spending time with this book.

Very briefly the story is told by one John Powers, an Army Intelligence officer who has served multiple assignments in Iraq and returns to Peoria, Illinois, mentally injured by his past and unable to cope with the massive amount of crime that surrounds him at home. He struggles with the fact that society has become populated with youngsters who work in the drug business and the many 'victims' of drug addiction and sets out on a vigilante mission to destroy the problem. He teams with a fellow believer, Miller, in the need to destroy the decadence of the drug gangs, and uses heinous means to destroy that element of society gone wrong. Captured by the police - more a corporate security group in the year 2012 - Powers undergoes torture for what he has considered the only way to correct the evils of the world to which he returned after war. Powers may seem to be a victim of sociopathic transformation due to his war experiences, but the author uses the solid technique of flashbacks to Powers' time in Iraq to make this injured protagonist understandable in his motivations and deeds.

To better appreciate the worth of this writing, writing that may sound as though it is not about something we wish to hear, it is best to quote form the author's gifted pages: 'The gnawing black raven of American nihilism takes wing from the suburbs and flies home to roost in the inner city. It lives, breathes, and takes in nutriment there amongst the abandoned homes and crumbling schools. Without the misery and despair of the ghetto, there would be no impetus for people to flock to the safety of the suburbs. Without the homes abandoned by people moving out of the city center in fear, the low property values caused by the abundance of properties on the market, and the slumlords to buy them up looking for a fast buck - there would be no ghetto. The raven was feeding on racism, and the raven was getting fat. It s**t on the American Dream and pecked out the eyes of hope. John thought to himself, if there was an American Dream it should exist for all Americans, but it didn't, and if it ever did, it was dead and rotten as the Founding Fathers. John could cut the tension around him with a knife....'

Hopkins delves deeply into the topic of torture, relating that topic to the things he witnessed in Iraq as well as to the deeds in which he is engulfed. This portion of the book is as harsh as the torture it describes, as vicious and cruel as any previous books on the subject. Yet Hopkins has the sensitivity to use that topic to find his way out of the bleak reality of now and make us consider just where we are and can go unless we address the evil of the day. Grady Harp, December 10

In the not-so-distant-future, an Iraq vet who specialized in interrogation, returns stateside with his many emotional and mental demons and discovers re-adapting into society just doesn't jive. His demons rise up, he sees the underbelly of his city, and decides to do something about it. Using his interrogation techniques, he slowly moves up the criminal food chain. But this isn't a solo endeavor, and soon a group of specialists are playing vigilante with hints of franchising the operation. And when it goes too far ...

The writing captures the reader very early on and drags them down into the gritty muck of this emotional world during and post military interrogation. That we're witnessing the struggle of the main character as he battles with his past (and present) deeds is where the true breaking point is encountered for the reader. It's one thing to hear reports of certain techniques on the news, but being inside the mind of an interrogator during and after the act is especially chilling. Through this, you can't help but root for the main character as through his partner in this vigilante endeavor, he sees to what end he can truly fall. In this, he realizes he has not yet broken under his demons, but he is close.

The novel is not without flaws, but they are minor. The first half of the novel seems in need of a restructuring, but the second half everything gels and the pace truly takes off. The writer also has a habit of switching between a character's first and last name. Again, once the reader gets used to this, it doesn't pose a problem.

All in all, a good read that will keep you up at night wondering how much the public isn't being told about their interrogation techniques. What's also interesting to note is how the writer foreshadowed events in the Middle East. The novel was written in '08. It'll be frightening to see how many more of his predictions turn out to be correct.

This is a dark and brutal novel, with enough plausibility to make you believe that some of it is possible. John Powers is an American army intelligence officer stationed in Iraq and he joined because he felt that he would die on the streets if he didn't. While in Iraq he was a planner for operations where intelligence was gathered in brutal ways and he actively worked trying to eliminate the leaders of some of the ethnic death squads. Powers was very good at his job, but he was discharged when he was labeled a psychologically disturbed man. In effect, he was tossed out when the job he was given began to wear away at his sanity.
When Powers returned to the states, he found it very difficult to reintegrate back into the society, although as an intelligent man, he kept his demons fairly well in check. His life dramatically changed when he was in the waiting room at a VA medical facility and there was a skirmish between a homeless drug addict veteran and the people running the facility. The other veteran is Mike Miller and Powers takes him back to his humble abode and ties him up until the meth is drained from his body. When Mike recovers and hires some prostitutes, they are introduced to the seedy underworld of their hometown of Peoria, Illinois.
The two men then form an underground organization of veterans that have been used and discarded with Powers as the head of intelligence and Miller the head of operations. They carefully and systematically investigate and eliminate the drug dealers in the city.
In what is likely a precursor to what the future may hold, the police force in Peoria has been privatized; it is now the SCi Security firm. Using cost effective tactics, the officers now basically have put up a barrier between the rich sections of town and the destitute that may defile their pristine and ignorant existence. The officers are also under no restrictions regarding the use of money confiscated from their "arrests", the money they obtain from drug dealers generally goes into their pockets, both corporate and personal. SCi has captured Powers and is subjecting him to a ruthless interrogation in order to learn about the organization and where their money is.
The story moves back and forth from Powers being interrogated by pros from SCi and his life story, with the torture of Iraqis, the drug dealers and Powers himself being described in detail. It is not a pleasant story with a happy ending; it is like the drug business itself. There is a lot of talk, occasional brutal action, but in the end the business continues.
My wife is a counselor with specific expertise dealing with PTSD in war veterans. She spent two semesters counseling at a veterans center and the stories she told me match the despair and anger the veterans in this story have. They feel abandoned and hopeless, with no one that they can count on other than their fellow veterans. Given all the talk about privatizing government functions, using a private security firm as a public police force is also very plausible as well as scary. The story is tough, brutal and riveting.

Right away, in Part One, BROKEN UNDER INTERROGATION starts off with insight into the agonized soul of John Powers, a restless and haunted Iraq War veteran. A woman claws and screams at him, injustice bleats from the radio as Iraq descends into futuristic chaos and then ceases to be, and meanwhile John's in constant training--doing pushups and triceps raises, keeping himself in military shape--for imminent action.

"After Iraq, Powers' entire life revolved around collecting information that would be of use to him in his endeavors. His latest endeavor would prove to be his last." [13]

Soon, John Powers has had enough, and though he realizes that drug dealers are mere symptoms of an enslaving system ("John Powers didn't blame the drug dealers for the life they chose. They were just trying to buy into the American Dream..." [175]), still they disgust him: and he's going after them.

SecuriCorp, however, arrests John and charges him with the brutal torture of at least twenty-five people. But John's determined: "John wouldn't give up the identities of his associates for any amount of parole, pardon, or fear that the interrogator tried to build in him." [142]. What follows is a series of events in which John is treated like Iraqi "insurgents" ... showered with a hose, thrown into an orange jumpsuit, given Gideon's Bible--and interrogated. Peppered among episodes are flashbacks and backstory revealing a troubled youth, a mother who kills herself, a religious father, and the Army's recruitment of John by a Jolly MP.

Throughout this part of the book, our omniscient narrator gives us insight and opinions we often don't get, since a predominant literary attitude is that so much ought to be shown, for example, "The best sales pitch for the army would be playing on the truth of the way the military functions in the United States of America. It takes the salt of the earth, the poor, and manufactures them into the middle class. It takes maggots without a will of their own, like John Powers, and makes them into someone able to excel" [39]. We also get insightful, informative pages of John's experiences going through basic, the motivation of soldiers compared with the elitist objectives of America's previous generations, and John's removal from the Army because of a misunderstanding over graft.

In Part Two of the novel, we get more of John's befriending of Miller (who becomes an overzealous street interrogator--and later, much more), and also more of both men's motivation: it's up to everyone to make up their own mind about how they want to effect change, or leave the world how it is; also we get more of Powers' despair of humanity's tendency to mindlessly screw each other over: "Powers began to see mankind as a great flock of birds, with each individual taking wing and mindlessly following the individual in front of it, flying until they all grew tired and landed in the same overcrowded tree to chatter, squawk, and bicker until they took the same flight again" [220]. Meanwhile, the interrogation of John becomes more violent, more urgent, and finally deadly, allowing General Miller, with an army of veterans, to have the novel's last word.

When we read BROKEN, we're reading partly to view into the perspective of an American soldier/writer who WAS THERE and has intimate, first-hand knowledge of America's legacy in the Middle East, and especially in Iraq today. Sure, as in any first novel, there are some rough edges, but fused throughout that, and endearing any un-sandpapered corners, is Hopkins's own struggle ... the interrogations of himself ... as he wrote this book.

American Letters require writers like Hopkins, and BROKEN UNDER INTERROGATION offers a fascinating, highly original story that would also make a damn good movie.

I found this book to be disturbing and thought provoking, in general an excellent read. The author addresses the politically-charged issue of torture through the short, troubled life of John Powers. The message is clear: by participating in torture abroad we Americans have taken the ethical low ground. In doing so we risk importing torture into our own neighborhoods. This book gives a plausible and chilling story of exactly how this situation could arise in the near future in America. As the war on drugs escalates and troubled troops return from Iraq, the issues brought to life in the book are worth considering on a personal level, and this book makes a real contribution in this direction. So overall, I recommend this book to the reader who is looking for a fresh but stark perspective on our modern wars but who is not simply seeking a source of empty calories of entertainment.

Hopkins clearly took a lot of inspiration from George Orwell to produce this genuinely frightening book. "Broken Under Interrogation" is the story of an Iraq veteran who gets his hands on information that may be a potential threat to the U.S. Government and pays a dear price. A good read.

I have given this book "2 stars" rather than the minimum "1 star" simply because I found the early chapters on Army training and Iraq War operations somewhat educational (though without a doubt fictional).

"Broken Under Interrogation" follows the intelligent but downtrodden young man John Powers through a short-lived military career as an interrogator which ended abruptly following his third tour in the current Iraq War. At a VA hospital he meets fellow veteran Mike, a drug addict, whom he takes under his wing. Shortly thereafter, the two devise a scheme to rid their crime infested city of drug dealers and criminal scum by undertaking vigilante missions. Before long, they recruit other veterans to be a part of their underground army, operating under the pretense that they are performing noble work by murdering the so-called terrorists. As one might suspect, the police force becomes suspicious after dozens of gang-related murders occur within a short time frame. Now, Powers finds himself being interrogated and tortured and learning the horrible truth behind his underground missions.

Overall, the pretense of the book was good. However, the execution was poor. The writing was not particularly strong though it was incredibly obscene and depressing. This is without a doubt one of the most disturbing novels I have read to date. It took me days to struggle through to the end where as with most books, I finish them in a few hours. I really can't recommend this one unless you are really interested in reading ~350 pages of brain-splattering violence and gore.

I recently reviewed a book that attempted, and failed, to unite a domestic story with a commentary of American presence abroad. Where that book failed, this book succeeds with chilling results.

The story of a formerinformation specialist from the Iraq warcarrying home a bit too much baggage from his interrogation days is riveting, both in the Iraq flashbacks and the domestic aftermath.

Sometimes brutal, often sad, this book is a stark illustration of the darkness associated with cruelty and the toll it takes on the best-intentioned.

Be warned: this is a dark book. If you get the feeling it's not going to end happily, buckle up for the tragic ride to the climax. Highly recommended, despite the cloud that followed me while I was reading it and for days afterward. Excellent book.

After more thought, this book should be given three stars, but Amazon won't let me change my rating.

Let's start by saying it's not impossible to actually take a very depressing subject on its face and provide social comment, satire, truths, or philosophy while never losing sight of the depressing reality. "Hogan's Heroes" was an entertaining comedy about life in a German WWII POW camp. "Catch 22" and "MASH" both found irony and humor among the destruction and meaninglessness of war, and used them to illustrate "greater truths" about humanity. Vonnegut was in my opinion the master of balancing the personal futility and ugliness of war with irony and humor to allow "the rest of us" to avoid looking the other way.

This plot has its roots in the Iraq Wars and the military, but focuses on all the shattered dreams, broken promises and disturbing trends of American cultural life to create one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Once is constantly hammered with the devastating consequences of this needless war to the personal lives of veterans and to the lives of all whom they touch.

There is no joy. There is no hope. There is no humor. There is no point. There is only the abyss and the apocalypse, dripped drop by acidic drop into your face until you want desperately to look away--to pretend it doesn't exist.

The narrative, considering the subject, is emotionally flat and brings home the legendary "thousand yard stare", because none of these people have anything worthwhile to live for except the glimmer of surviving another day. Having no military experience myself, only reading of Paul Fussell's works prepared me for this. There is no glory, there is no lasting success, there is no justification.

So, why should you read this book? If you want to see the "personal" costs of these policies that created and exploited this war, this book hits you full in the face with it. If you want to see the policy consequences to the people least able to bear them, this book works. It doesn't demonize enemies or glorify Americans, and it is relentless. It may actually change for its readers, the cavalier attitude with which we order our young men and women into harm's way with no genuine regard for long term costs or consequences. Be brave. Read the book.