Peter Van Buren's
Hooper's War is a powerful anti-war novel of empathy, wit and engaged imagination, vividly depicting war's commingled devastation and savage beauty.VanBuren portrays the lasting wounds suffered by innocent victims and guilt-ridden soldiers wracked by grave moral injury. As Van Burenwrites, "This sh*t doesn't end when the war does, but only ends when we do."
--Douglas A. Wissing, journalist and author of
Hopeless but Optimistic: Journeying through America's Endless War in Afghanistan and
Funding the Enemy: How US Taxpayers Bankroll the Taliban.With its changing points-of-view and reverse timeline, Peter Van Buren's Hooper's War is a spiritual cousin to the movies "Rashômon" and "Memento." The book is set in an alternate World War II, in which U.S. forces invade Japan, rather than drop the atomic bomb. With philosophical precision and wit, VanBuren constructs a literary origami, which unfolds to reveal that the creases and lines of history are determined as much by personal chance as they are big decisions--and that war is as much our doing, as it is our undoing.
--Randy Brown, author of Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire (Middle West Press, 2015)
Hooper's War is evocative and beautiful, its writing sweeps you along, touches lives and transports you effortlessly on a sometimes poignant, sometimes stark, sometimes obscure journey; that of Hooper himself, attempting to reconcile the deep tragedy and moral ambiguity of war. These are ever-relevant themes and Van Buren's authentic insight into human nature reveals itself like the prick of a pin. Anyone can recognize the depth of research that has gone into this book, it's something those who know Van Buren have come to expect from his work- it feels effortless and uniquely enriches each character, bringing them to life in ways that build empathy for the reader,through details or twists from the ordinary to the obscene - fluently evoking the horror of war.'
-Dr. Emma L Briant, Lecturer in Journalism Studies, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.
A bloody American invasion of Japan; the incineration by firebombing of Kyoto; an unlikely truce between a U.S. lieutenant and a Japanese sergeant. In Van Buren's imaginative retelling of the end of World War II, we learn about the stubborn horrors of war -- and the fragile grace that blooms ever so fleetingly amid the chaos. "The question isn't so much why Private Garner is screaming," notes a doctor treating a PTSD casualty. "It's why we aren't." Striking words from a story of searing intensity.
- William Astore, Lt Col, USAF (Ret.), author of
Hindenburg:Icon of German MilitarismIn this alternate-history novel, Van Buren follows both present-day and historical timelines to explore what might have happened if the United States had launched a ground invasion of Japan to end the second world war.
In 2017, elderly Nate Hooper is in a retirement home, reflecting on a recent visit to Kyoto, during which he kept a promise to his late wife. But back in 1946, Hooper is an 18-year-old Army officer leading a group of equally young soldiers through the remnants of Kyoto after it's been firebombed, dealing with the horrors of war and the less-than-humanitarian instincts of his own men.
The narrative jumps between the two timelines as Hooper contends with memories of battle and secrets he's kept for decades. Readers gradually discover the truth about his wartime actions. Van Buren presents a bleak picture of a world in which no action is ideal but avoiding decisions is impossible. The dialogue captures the raw emotion of war and the soldiers' struggles for self-preservation ("Is the morphine for Garner so he stops screaming, or is the morphine for you so you don't have to hear him screaming?" says a medical officer. "He probably feels better screaming").
Hooper is an engaging protagonist, a prototypical innocent young man dealing with the loss of his illusions and the demands of a new role ("The worst words in the English language to me had become 'What should we do, Lieutenant?' "). Van Buren doesn't provide simple answers, and readers are left with the understanding that decisions made in battle can be both right and wrong at the same time.
A complex portrayal of a counterfactual invasion.
-- Kirkus Reviews
While the story in
Hooper's War is set in WWII Japan, the point of the bigger story here is aimed dead-center at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The men and women in Hooper confront the complex ethical decisions of war, torture, drone-like killings, and the aftermath of moral injury and PTSD. This is an antiwar novel for people who enjoy a good war story -- think Catch-22. Sometimes funny, sometimes deadly serious.
From the Inside Flap
The Yellow-Gray Noise of Morning, Pacific Coast of Japan, American Landing Craft, 1946There is nowhere to go in a landing craft except where it takes you.
"I don't know what to do," I said.
"Don't say that, never, sir, that's quicksand," the Sergeant said.
Chunks of steel destroyed boys. I watched someone I didn't know ripped apart, face the color of school chalk. Your nightmares have no idea.
"Stop the boat, make the Lieutenant stop the boat, we're all gonna die, we're all gonna die," a soldier said.
Their blood smelled like copper. I steadied myself touching something too wet and soft. There was a sound that started deep and only found its way out as a scream. A head snapped back like one of those red rubber balls attached to a paddle.
"Lieutenant Hooper can't stop the boat, nobody can stop the boat. Boat can't stop the boat," another of them said.
Screeching metal-on-metal, the ramp dropped and everyone ran forward. That was all I could hear except the sing-song of "Lieutenant Hooper! Lieutenant! Lieutenant! Lieutenant!"
From the Back Cover
There's no prosthetic for a soul that's dying faster than its body. You have to heal it. And to do that, you're going to have to fight Hooper's War.
In this powerful anti-war novel set in WWII Japan, Lieutenant Nate Hooper isn't sure he'll survive. And if he does make it home, he isn't sure he can survive the peace. He's done a terrible thing, and struggles to resolve the mistake alongside an unrepentant Japanese soldier, and a Japanese woman trying to save both men.
War can be about a lot of things but it is always about what happens to people. The characters face a decision that will forever define them not by their war against each other, but by their war against themselves. This is a tale of moral injury, of decisions that last longer than people do.
With allegorical connections to America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the reverse chronology telling of Hooper's War turns a loss-of-innocence narrative into a tale of why that loss is inevitable in war.
Think The Things They Carried, crossed with Catch-22; some parts funny, some deadly serious.
More at hooperswar.com
About the Author
Peter Van Buren is a former Foreign Service officer at the Department of State. He is the author of We Meant Well and Ghosts of Tom Joad. His commentary has been featured in Reuters, the Guardian, HuffingtonPost.com, Mother Jones, the New York Times, and Salon.com, among other publications. He lives in New York City.
