The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien  (691)
$10.17
|
Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles by Anthony Swofford  (413)
|
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (36)
$11.20
|
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (Alex Awards (Awards)) by ZZ Packer  (56)
|
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (466)
$10.20
|
This item is not eligible for Amazon Prime, but millions of other items are. Join Amazon Prime today. Already a member? Sign in.
Dear Mr. President
and over 140,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more
|
||||||||||||||||
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The Gulf War may not be the sort of glamorous conflict that lends itself to shoot-'em-up war fiction, but the Middle East face-off does seem ideal fodder for the eight darkly comic, military gothic short stories in Hudson's first collection. "The Cure as I Found It" is a twisted yarn about a vet with Gulf War syndrome who finds peace only after confronting a Brooklyn neighborhood thug who killed his cat. "Cross Dresser" takes the form of a former POW's letter to his shrink after he switches bodies with his 13-year-old daughter to elude his Iraqi tormentors. The title story is a humorous ode to the power of biological warfare as a soldier begins to grow a third ear on his torso after returning home. In "Woman in Uniform," a soldier muses about a female soldier in his squad as well as his nymphomaniac ex-girlfriend while his unit becomes enmeshed in a My Lai-like incident. The best and most complex story is the wonderfully weird "Notes From a Bunker Along Highway #8," which deals with a soldier who saves a fallen comrade and suddenly deserts his unit, only to become trapped in a bunker with a discarded group of chimps. Hudson, a former marine reserves rifleman, displays a brilliantly macabre sense of humor, a fine ear for military and bureaucratic cliches and abundant compassion for his quirky, bruised characters. This is a fine debut that may remind readers of George Saunders.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Hudson was featured in a recent issue of The New Yorker devoted to promising young fiction writers, and this honor is richly deserved; his harrowing, courageous, darkly humorous collection of stories about the Gulf War may very well prove to be the equal of Tim O'Brien's celebrated Vietnam collection, The Things They Carried. What is perhaps most noteworthy about Hudson's work is its fearlessness. He clearly wants us to see that the Gulf War was not the painless, "surgical" event that it may have appeared to be on TV. Hudson's soldiers react to their traumatic combat experiences in a variety of ways, but the most debilitating damage they sustain is psychological. As they try unsuccessfully to return to civilian life, they find that the margins between nightmare and reality, the real and the surreal, have become painfully blurred. For instance, the protagonist in "The Cure as I Found It" copes with his guilt by practicing visualization to get into Heaven. Hudson's hip, ironic voice helps create stories that resonate with disturbing poignancy. An impressive collection; enthusiastically recommended for all libraries.
Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
The Gulf War may not be the sort of glamorous conflict that lends itself to shoot-'em-up war fiction, but the Middle East face-off does seem ideal fodder for the eight darkly comic, military gothic short stories in Hudson's first collection. "The Cure as I Found It" is a twisted yarn about a vet with Gulf War syndrome who finds peace only after confronting a Brooklyn neighborhood thug who killed his cat. "Cross Dresser" takes the form of a former POW's letter to his shrink after he switches bodies with his 13-year-old daughter to elude his Iraqi tormentors. The title story is a humorous ode to the power of biological warfare as a soldier begins to grow a third ear on his torso after returning home. In "Woman in Uniform," a soldier muses about a female soldier in his squad as well as his nymphomaniac ex-girlfriend while his unit becomes enmeshed in a My Lai-like incident. The best and most complex story is the wonderfully weird "Notes From a Bunker Along Highway #8," which deals with a soldier who saves a fallen comrade and suddenly deserts his unit, only to become trapped in a bunker with a discarded group of chimps. Hudson, a former marine reserves rifleman, displays a brilliantly macabre sense of humor, a fine ear for military and bureaucratic cliches and abundant compassion for his quirky, bruised characters. This is a fine debut that may remind readers of George Saunders.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Hudson was featured in a recent issue of The New Yorker devoted to promising young fiction writers, and this honor is richly deserved; his harrowing, courageous, darkly humorous collection of stories about the Gulf War may very well prove to be the equal of Tim O'Brien's celebrated Vietnam collection, The Things They Carried. What is perhaps most noteworthy about Hudson's work is its fearlessness. He clearly wants us to see that the Gulf War was not the painless, "surgical" event that it may have appeared to be on TV. Hudson's soldiers react to their traumatic combat experiences in a variety of ways, but the most debilitating damage they sustain is psychological. As they try unsuccessfully to return to civilian life, they find that the margins between nightmare and reality, the real and the surreal, have become painfully blurred. For instance, the protagonist in "The Cure as I Found It" copes with his guilt by practicing visualization to get into Heaven. Hudson's hip, ironic voice helps create stories that resonate with disturbing poignancy. An impressive collection; enthusiastically recommended for all libraries.
Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
