War Nerd (Paperback)

by Gary Brecher (Author) "AMERICA KEEPS GETTING deeper into the shit in Colombia..." (more)
Key Phrases: primitive warfare, United States, North Korea, The Americas (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Self-described war nerd Gary Brecher knows he’s not alone, that there’s a legion of fat, lonely Americans, stuck in stupid, paper-pushing desk jobs, who get off on reading about war because they hate their lives. But Brecher writes about war, too. War Nerd collects his most opinionated, enraging, enlightening, and entertaining pieces. Part war commentator, part angry humorist àla Bill Hicks, Brecher inveighs against pieties of all stripes — Liberian generals, Dick Cheney, U.N. peacekeepers, the neo-cons — and the massive incompetence of military powers. A provocative free thinker, he finds much to admire in the most unlikely places, and not always for the most pacifistic reasons: the Tamil Tigers, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Danes of 1,000 years ago, and so on, across the globe and through the centuries. Crude, scatological, un-P.C., yet deeply informed, Brecher provides a radically different, completely unvarnished perspective on the nature of warfare.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979663687
• ISBN-13: 978-0979663680
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #293,523 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bloody. Brilliant., May 7, 2008

By	Steven E. Martin "Steven" (Florida) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sure, of course this is a mere collection of the Exile columns but I'm just tickled pink to be able to read these things in old school print and in a form where I can pass along the book to friends and enemies. Brecher's analysis of current events is not only frighteningly accurate but his writing is fit inducing hilarious. Buy this book. Often.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work, May 8, 2008

By	D. Watt "pocketrubbish" (Vista, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While it's just a collection of his columns at the eXile, I'm very pleased to give Brecher a little bit of money in return for all the entertainment he's given me over the years.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funniest Writer of English , May 25, 2008

By	Billy Willy "Johnny" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

Gary Brecher is up there with 10 or 15 other great American essayists of all time. Since he's running roughshod over our particular cultural taboos, that makes him pretty much the funniest guy out there, for us.

If you're not familiar with his schtick, you don't know what it is, and you should know. If you're already a war nerd fanatic, some of the essays are distinct enough to stand as alternate versions, but relatively similar. Essays also should have been dated, Brecher is one of the few literary geniuses unaware people are going to be reading his stuff in 100 years, and he tends to speak "in the moment," on in-the-news matters, making the arrangement of essays chronologically problematic. Still essential reading though, for debunking the Victorian nonsense of our times, liberal and conservative.

"The iconoclast proves enough when he proves by his blasphemy that this or that idol is defectively convincing - that at least one visitor to the shrine is left full of doubts. The liberation of the human mind has been best furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went roistering down the highways of the world, proving to all men that doubt, after all, was safe - that the god in the sanctuary was a fraud. One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms."

-- H.L. Mencken