Adding his voice to the current debate about the US occupation of Iraq, in poems written in the tradition of such poets as Wilfred Owen, Yusef Komunyakaa (Dien Cai Dau), Bruce Weigl (Song of Napalm) and Alice James’ own Doug Anderson (The Moon Reflected Fire), Iraqi war veteran Brian Turner writes power-fully affecting poetry of witness, exceptional for its beauty, honesty, and skill. Based on Turner’s yearlong tour in Iraq as an infantry team leader, the poems offer gracefully rendered, unflinching description but, remarkably, leave the reader to draw conclusions or moral lessons. Here, Bullet is a must-read for anyone who cares about the war, regardless of political affiliation.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The verse in this book is not good, but it is, in a cultural moment that includes Cindy Sheehan, timely. Turner served seven years in the U.S. Army, including deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina with the 10th Mountain Division, and a year spent as an infantry team leader with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division in Iraq. He, begins, after a prefatory poem ("This is a language made of blood./ It is made of sand, and time. To be spoken, it must be earned"), with poems whose titles precisely describe their contents: the nightmarish dispersal of "The Baghdad Zoo," the infamous "Hwy 1" ("the Highway of Death"), "The Al-Harishma Weapons Market," "Body Bags," "Najaf, 1820," "Dreams from the Malaria Pills," "Katyusha Rockets," "Observation Post #798," "2000 lbs." (in one bomb)—along with medevacs, translators, civilians and much more. Turner earned an M.F.A. from the University of Oregon before joining the army. His work is straightforward and direct. It highlights the violence and death of the war in a manner little seen elsewhere. (Nov. 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Turner attempts to capture the extreme experience of war by depicting the feelings it generates..." -- Library Journal
"Turner has sent back a dispatch from…the war in Iraq—and deserves our thanks…" -- The New York Times Book Review
"…a powerful reading experience…" -- The Franklin Journal
"…earnest, nonpartisan attention to the terrors as well as to the beauty of ruins." -- The New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
"…written by a veteran whose eye for the telling detail is as strategic as it is poetic." -- The Globe and Mail
"Turner has sent back a dispatch from…the war in Iraq—and deserves our thanks…" -- The New York Times Book Review
"…a powerful reading experience…" -- The Franklin Journal
"…earnest, nonpartisan attention to the terrors as well as to the beauty of ruins." -- The New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
"…written by a veteran whose eye for the telling detail is as strategic as it is poetic." -- The Globe and Mail
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More About the Author
Brian Turner earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and lived abroad in South Korea for a year before serving for seven years in the US Army. He was an infantry team leader for a year in Iraq beginning November 2003, with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Comb
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
78 of 82 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After learning about Brian Turner in The New Yorker, I purchased a copy of "Here, Bullet." I have just finished reading it cover to cover, and it is one of the finest collections of poetry--especially pertaining to warfare--I have ever read. For Publisher's Weekly NOT to give this book a starred review is astonishing; indeed, their review above demonstrates, once again, how profoundly ignorant they are concerning modern poetry. (Everyone in the poetry world knows that while PW's fiction and non-fiction reviews are quite solid, their poetry reviews are embarrassingly pedestrian.) As with any collection, there are some works in "Here, Bullet" that are stronger than others, but many of these poems are absolutely breathtaking. Turner has an exceptional gift for bringing images vividly to life, and his poems, overall, transcend the subject of war and capture emotions to which all readers will be able to relate. I highly recommend this book, and I believe that Turner--like Brooke, Owen, Sassoon, and McCrae before him--will become one of the most celebrated literary voices of his generation.
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Brian Turner's poetry about his experiences in Iraq are, in a word, excellent. I could hardly believe that Publisher's Weekly panned it the way they did. Turner is not a Sassoon, Owen, or Graves, the war poets of an earlier age - his is a more contemporary voice. The opening poem, "A Soldier's Arabic" clearly demonstrates this - it is a poem not just about war, but about separation, love, tragedy and confusion. The entire collection shows the irony, sadness and yes, beauty of the Middle East.
"What Every Soldier Should Know" and "Ashbah" haunt me still with the raw emotion presented on the page. "Sadiq", "Last Night's Dream" and "9 Line Medivac" express feelings common to any combat soldier with a power rarely seen in literature. "Night in Blue", one of the final poems in the book, is a fitting way to conclude the collection, providing a sense of closure as Turner describes his journey home.
I hesitate to compare Brian Turner to other authors who have written of their combat experiences. The comparison only fits in that they are all veterans; _Here, Bullet_ is unique, profound, haunting and troubling. It is honest - which is as much as anyone can ask of a poet. Highly recommended.
"What Every Soldier Should Know" and "Ashbah" haunt me still with the raw emotion presented on the page. "Sadiq", "Last Night's Dream" and "9 Line Medivac" express feelings common to any combat soldier with a power rarely seen in literature. "Night in Blue", one of the final poems in the book, is a fitting way to conclude the collection, providing a sense of closure as Turner describes his journey home.
I hesitate to compare Brian Turner to other authors who have written of their combat experiences. The comparison only fits in that they are all veterans; _Here, Bullet_ is unique, profound, haunting and troubling. It is honest - which is as much as anyone can ask of a poet. Highly recommended.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Brian just spent two days at Virginia Military Institute as a guest of the Institute and the English Department where I teach. His reading last night and his readings in my classes today were among the best poetry readings I've ever heard. The poems in this collection can alternately sear themselves into your memory with their startling, and yet inevitable, images of the heartbreaking carnage of war, or transport you to a ruggedly beautiful landscape of delicate flowers, quiet night skies and the redemptive power of rain. This collection brings the war home in an urgent and slightly different way than we are accustomed--not the snapshots of the photojournalist, the terse dispatches from correspondents or even the handheld video of the networks. It works its magic by engaging our imaginations and our humanity, and for that everyone should be grateful.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Had to get rid of it. Too good.
I dont want to be told what's going through my head. I dont want to think about it. I dont want it on paper. Maybe it's cathartic but not right now? Read more
Published 3 months ago by TankGirl
Far exceeds most contemporary poetry. Lives outside the institution...
I think the best compliment you can give to poetry about a real event is that it held up a mirror to the experience and let the reader taste the events in Iraq. Read more
Published 3 months ago by DG
Brilliant and Moving - From a Vet
I've spent too much time in Iraq aver the last decade and just recently heard this author speak on an NPR program. I picked up the book and couldn't put it down. Read more
Published 4 months ago by J. Fisher
Here, Bullet
Lately, I've been obsessed with reading poetry. Mostly current poets - I'm not a fan of Emily Dickinson or her peers. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Brianna Soloski
What Really Matters
For a society that sends its children off to kill other children, Brian Turner's beautiful poetry delineates a soldier's painful realization of what we have done and what we have... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Jeanio
An unspent shell of a book
Let me start off by saying this, to head off any attacks: I have family in the service and am in no way critiquing either the war featured in this book or this (and other)... Read more
Published 13 months ago by L. J. Brown
Excellent collection
Despite being forced to read this collection for a class, I found myself at the verge of tears and being pulled directly into the poems. Read more
Published 16 months ago by J. D. Olson
War Poetry
I enjoyed reading this very compelling account of a soldier in war, even though it was assigned for school. Read more
Published 21 months ago by CaitlinK
A Clear-Eyed Look at Inhumanity
Although Brian Turner holds an MFA, his poetry does not suffer from "MFA-itis": no strained metaphors, no fractured sentence structure, no scrambled grammar, no forced ambiguities,... Read more
Published on February 15, 2010 by Rob Jacques
An inspiration to all the men and women serving in Iraq and...
This was the first book of poems I bought and it was a great comfort to me. I have served in Iraq three times and it is great to read something from someone that has been on the... Read more
Published on August 20, 2009 by M. White
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