When I Was a Soldier [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Valerie Zenatti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 2005

What is it like to be a young woman in a war?At a time when Israel is in the news every day and politics in the Middle East are as complex as ever before, this story of one girl's experience in the Israeli national army is both topical and fascinating. Valerie begins her story as she finishes her exams, breaks up with her boyfriend, and leaves for service with the Israeli army. Nothing has prepared her for the strict routines, grueling marches, poor food, lack of sleep and privacy, or crushing of initiative that she now faces. But this harsh life has excitement, too, such as working in a spy center near Jerusalem and listening in on Jordanian pilots. Offering a glimpse into the life of a typical Israeli teen, even as it lays bare the relentless nature of war, Valerie's story is one young readers will have a hard time forgetting.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–In this compelling memoir, Zenatti, first among her group of friends to be called for compulsory military service, chronicles two years of growing up in the Israeli army between 1988 and 1990. With teen self-absorption, she describes the end of her high school years, her initial excitement with the uniform and gun, and grueling training. At first overwrought and pretentious, her voice matures as she continues her course, suffers an anxiety attack, and is posted to a security listening post. As Zenatti grows away from her old friends and a former boyfriend, she becomes more aware and open to the ideas, interests, and needs of others–even, eventually, to the Palestinians who share her country. It is true, as adults told her, "The army changes everything." Although immersed in the country and the experience at the time, Zenatti retains her outsider perspective. French by origin, she and her family emigrated to Beersheva when she was 13, where she learned Hebrew. Her love of language shines through, and the translation, though undeniably British, is smooth. Journal entries in italics are interspersed with the present-tense narrative. This is a fascinating glimpse of a different part of the world and a different kind of experience. Older readers, facing the end of high school themselves, will be drawn to this description of the interim between childhood and adulthood that is a universal Israeli experience.–Kathleen Isaacs, formerly at Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 8-11. For immigrant Valerie, 18, the required two-year Israeli army service is an exciting rite of passage. She gets to leave home, be considered equal to boys, and feel like a real citizen. The military training fascinates her, even if she misses her bitchy best friends ("friends and rivals forever"), and she is haunted by memories of the boyfriend who dumped her. Zenatti's fast, wry, present-tense memoir, translated from the French, begins like a contemporary YA novel: "What will I wear?" is the important question for Valerie's farewell party. But later, when Valerie confronts the politics and propaganda, she has a breakdown: "Who is the enemy?" she wonders. "Why am I fighting?" Zenatti's family immigrated to Israel from France when Valerie was 13 (she now lives in Paris), and much of the memoir's power is in the writer's dual perspective as newcomer and participant. Valerie is entranced by contemporary Israeli diversity and intellectual life, even as she sees Palestinian "poverty, sadness, hatred." There is no heavy message. Readers will be swept into Valerie's military experience only to realize she can't justify why she is there. The honest conflict about haunting issues in daily life is prime teen material, and readers on all sides of the war-peace continuum, here and there, will find much to talk about. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books; Tra edition (April 21, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 1582349789
• ASIN: B001G8WH2E
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,882,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very well writen! Haley Best, December 12, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: When I Was a Soldier (Hardcover)

Book Review of When I Was A Soldier:

When our grade was assigned to read a nonfiction book, I groaned. The class then went to the library to pick out, either a biography, an autobiography, or a memoir. I searched and searched for a book that didn't look too boring, but all were things like Jane Arre or something else without a plot. I was on the verge of despair, when I saw a book in the corner of the room that didn't have soft watercolor pictures of ladies in frilly hoop skirts and a scrawling title, but that had a picture of a young girl in an army uniform on it with the title When I Was A Soldier. Ever since I was little, I've always wondered what it would be like to be a soldier and for many years I had the dream of one day joining the army and being a hero that girls everywhere would look up to and say that girls could do anything. Now that I've grown out of that aspiration, the feminist part of me, and the interest in the army remains, so I picked up the book. The back cover had a passage form the book on it that mirrored perfectly my views; "Why should I hide the fact? I'm fascinated by my submachine gun. They're instruments of death and we're finding them easier and easier to handle. We don't think for a moment that we might that for real someday. But at the same time, it's the ultimate sign that we really are soldiers, on completely equal terms with the boys. And it makes me feel proud." It's perfect. I checked out the book and put it in my locker to take home, and eventually forgot about it. That night I remembered it and started reading. I couldn't stop.

This book is a passage in Valerie Zenatti's life that illiterates the duties, drawbacks, and rewards of being in the Israeli army. She writes about the average soldier in a peaceful base far away from any fighting. You wouldn't expect this; I was expecting wondrous heroics and endless action. But I was wrong. Valerie describes her two years in the army with a sense that she is living through it at that very time, and not years later. She vividly describes the conditions at her bases and her tasks with the emotions of a growing teen-ager. She writes about her anger and sorrow on losing friends and lovers, and her wishes for the future on gaining new ones. I was very impressed by this book and how it was written. I highly recommend this to young adults and those who have a bad stereotype of nonfiction books. This will change how you look at the genre. I truly intend to read more nonfiction books in the future.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Young Adult Label Misleading; A Worthy Read, May 9, 2006

By 

James Kunz (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When I Was a Soldier (Hardcover)

When I saw the "JUV" label on the spine of Valerie Zenatti's memoir I must confess I was quite a bit apprehensive about delving further into the book than its front and back covers. However, I must urge you not to make such a mistake; this book merits a read, not just a look.

I was born and raised in New York, about half a world away from Israel: the notion of entering mandatory military service upon turning eighteen is so alien that I had to continually remind myself while reading that this work was not by Robert Heinlein but rather by Valerie Zenatti. Nonetheless the latter, serving as protagonist and narrator, does a wonderful job shepherding her reader through compulsory "peacetime" military service. This is hardly the demoralizing world of boot camp we have all seen 307 times in literature and film. Valerie isn't dressed-down by an evil drill sergeant, her head isn't shaved, and she doesn't lose her identity to become a faceless cog in the military machine.

Valerie's story and rite of passage is much subtler. She drifts apart from her friends but only as much as can be expected. Her superiors are more often than not women a few years older than her. At the conclusion of the story she doesnt find herself in a pitched gun battle but instead in a routine surveillance op. The freshness of the tale never ceased to keep me involved.

Politically the book is fairly neutral. Characters express both left and right-wing sides to Israel's questions, with the author actually falling more on the former. Though I am not someone intimately acquainted with the struggle between Israel and its neighbors, I beleive that this book would be acceptable to most audiences. First and foremost it is the story of an 18-year old girl; it rarely stops to comment on politics and certainly never preaches.

"When I Was a Soldier" is an exceptionally quick read (indeed so much so as to be a detriment; though the book has a decent narrative structure I would have preferred more of Valerie's second year and a less abrupt ending) and a good one. It has not lost its wit, charm, or exigence in translation and I thoroughly reccomend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and thoughtful teen's story, February 15, 2010

By 

M. Knapp "Maggie Knapp" (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When I Was a Soldier (Hardcover)

Interesting and honest view of an older teen's experience of two years in the Israeli army. Although the threat of violence looms, Zenatti does not see actual combat. It was very interesting to read about her daily life and training. The officers were very human (and even portrayed as caring) rather than as "break 'em down to build them up" type of drill sergeants I expected. More about "teen issues" (boyfriends, friends, finding your place) than political ideology, but still well-worth the time to read it. This books gives you an Israeli point of view(with sympathy for Palestinians as well.) This would be good tandem reading with books more oriented to the Palestinian POV, such Joe Sacco's FOOTNOTES IN GAZA (astounding book!)and/or Anne Laurel Carter's THE SHEPHERD'S GRANDDAUGHTER, in terms of showing "the other side."