Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army [Paperback]

Michael E. Staub (Author), Kayla Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 2006

“Brave, honest, and necessary.”—Nancy Pearl, NPR Seattle

Kayla Williams is one of the 15 percent of the U.S. Army that is female, and she is a great storyteller. With a voice that is “funny, frank and full of gritty details” (New York Daily News), she tells of enlisting under Clinton; of learning Arabic; of the sense of duty that fractured her relationships; of being surrounded by bravery and bigotry, sexism and fear; of seeing 9/11 on Al-Jazeera; and of knowing she would be going to war.

With a passion that makes her memoir “nearly impossible to put down” (Buffalo News) Williams shares the powerful gamut of her experiences in Iraq, from caring for a wounded civilian to aiming a rifle at a child. Angry at the bureaucracy and the conflicting messages of today’s military, Williams offers us “a raw, unadulterated look at war” (San Antonio Express News) and at the U.S. Army. And she gives us a woman’s story of empowerment and self-discovery.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Williams's account of her Iraq service tries very hard to be a fresh and wised-up postfeminist take: Private Benjamin by way of G.I. Jane. Showy rough language peppers every paragraph, and Williams's obsessive self-concern, expressed in a lot of one-sentence paragraphs beginning with "I," verges on the narcissistic. The surprise is the degree to which the account succeeds and even echoes military memoirists from Julius Caesar to Ernie Pyle. The fear, bad weather, intermittent supplies, inedible meals (especially for the vegetarian author) and crushing boredom of life in the field are all here. Williams's particular strength is in putting an observant, distaff spin on the bantering and brutality of barracks life, where kids from the Survivor generation must come to terms with a grim and confusing reality over which they have little control. The differences are less in the sexual dynamics (which mostly are an extension of office politics) than the contradictions of the conflict in which the troops are engaged, which Williams embodies more than illuminates. She learns Arabic; there's a Palestinian boyfriend and a short, failed marriage during her state-side training. While an ex-punk, Chomsky-reading liberal, Williams questions the day-to-day conduct of the war without ever really engaging with its underlying rationale. Such nuance, though, might be too much to ask.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Williams’s war memoir is just one in a string that originated from recent U.S.-led forays into the Middle East, and its uniqueness comes from its female perspective. Critics agree that Love My Rifle is no deep piece of literature. Instead, it’s a shocking, on-the-ground view of one military woman’s experience in Iraq. Williams spares no details about the stress of combat, the questionable treatment of Iraqi prisoners, and her scathing opinion of the U.S. administration, though she never explains why she enlisted in the first place. As one of only 15 percent of women employed by the Army, Williams possibly overplays the sexual harassment she suffered—or so claim a few of the more suspect male reviewers. But the story’s not over: Williams can be called back to duty any time.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First edition (September 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393329224
• ISBN-13: 978-0393329223
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (106 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Education & Reference > Encyclopedias > Military

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, November 21, 2005

By 

C. Talento (Clarksville, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army (Hardcover)

I read this book with great interest because both Williams and I were deployed witht he 101st and I thought it would be interesting to see the war from another 101st soldier's perspective. What I got was angry, wondering really, what war did Williams go to. I spent my year the only female in an all male unit and did not once get groped, leered at, or attacked. I went out everyday with the guys and was expected to pull my weight. The only part of William's book I found myself connecting with was the last chapter about coming home. That chapter was spot on. Otherwise William's story is not a accurate description of what it is like to be female in the military but should be subtitled The Story of One Young Female Soldier in the Army.

41 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A complete disappointment, September 24, 2005

By 

B. L. Rogers (Georgia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army (Hardcover)

Kayla Williams' voice was not what I expected at all. I was browsing through the new release section at the local bookstore when I came across this book. Like an idiot, I read only the back cover with all its clever little blurbs. Not bothering to read any of the inside pages, I went ahead and bought it, since 'Jarhead' was not in stock. Big mistake.

I had hoped for more insight, more of a philosophical approach to her time in Iraq, and most importantly, of 'being a woman in today's Army.' The book has neither. Williams takes a conversational approach in her writing, one that reads more like an e-mail or letter to a friend than anything worthy of a book.

Her experiences are mundane. Fair enough. But instead of trying to inject some deep emotional meaning or even lighthearted moments, she delivers everything with the same sort of distant, observer-only perspective. As if she were not a participant at all.

This book is also very whiny. She whines about the sand, the lack of running water and the heat. Williams is forever telling us about her hardship in trying to find suitable MREs to eat, as she is a vegetarian. I think she mentions this fact more than anything. I don't have food. I have food now. The villagers are bringing me food. Yay.

Her 'challenges' with dealing with men are simple. She's a doormat. She admits she ends up with men who don't treat her right at the beginning of the book. This trickles down into her work relationships with male soldiers. Instead of standing her ground, or trying to act professional, she instead tries to become buddies with them, playing their games and hanging out with them. Someone asks her to 'Cook me some eggs, B****.' And she says she obliges and then makes sure everyone knows he really is a good guy, he just has some emotional baggage.

This is probably the first book I've read in years that I wish I had never bothered to pick up.

36 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor representation of women serving in Iraq, December 25, 2005

By 

Willette C. Balsamo (Iraq) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army (Hardcover)

As a woman Army Nurse Corps captain deployed in Iraq, with 17 years prior active duty enlisted service, I was dismayed to read Ms Williams account of her experiences, which seem more self-absorbed and immature than a representation of the brave, professional female soldiers and Marines that I have encountered here. I'm sure sexual advances and offenses occur here in Iraq, as they do all over the world in any organization, but I also know that if a woman in the military presents herself professionally and performs her job well, her male counterparts treat her with respect and not as cheaply as Ms Williams' book implies. When I read the book, I was hoping for a woman soldier's tale of being a true soldier and how her tour in Iraq helped facilitate that, as it has for many of us. I am proud to be a soldier and I actually do love my M16, much more than this book, which attempts to revive stereotypes I'd hoped we'd overcome.