Redeployment by Phil Klay (Penguin 2014)
may
be the strongest and most literary work of fiction to have emerged from
America’s recent wars, deserving comparison with Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds . It is a collection of short stories,
presenting different voices of soldiers, all back from war and all trying to
process their various experiences.
Together the voices have the quality of a person directly after an
accident, still trying to ascertain the extent of their injuries.
The
author, Phil Klay, served from 2007-2008 as a Public Affairs Officer in the US
Marine Corps in Iraq. While he describes
his own experience as “a very mild deployment”, it is clear that he was a
skilled observer of military experience.
His characters seem highly believable as they go through the many stages
of returning home, including emotional numbness, anger, heightened alertness,
and disillusion.
author, Phil Klay, served from 2007-2008 as a Public Affairs Officer in the US
Marine Corps in Iraq. While he describes
his own experience as “a very mild deployment”, it is clear that he was a
skilled observer of military experience.
His characters seem highly believable as they go through the many stages
of returning home, including emotional numbness, anger, heightened alertness,
and disillusion.
Klay
is clearly writing for a civilian audience, to whom the minds and experiences
of new veterans are largely inaccessible.
In some stories, he shows readers how an experience at home can trigger
memories and re-traumatize them. In the
first story, a Marine, a dog lover who had to shoot feral dogs in Iraq, finds
that his girlfriend has kept his ancient and sick dog alive for his return. He
refuses the services of a veterinary, and decides to put his dog down
himself. “That’s how it should be done,
each shot coming quick after the last so you can’t even try to recover, which
is when it hurts”. In other stories,
characters struggle to make themselves understood to civilians, sometimes using
their “war stories” as weapons to wound and alienate their listeners.
is clearly writing for a civilian audience, to whom the minds and experiences
of new veterans are largely inaccessible.
In some stories, he shows readers how an experience at home can trigger
memories and re-traumatize them. In the
first story, a Marine, a dog lover who had to shoot feral dogs in Iraq, finds
that his girlfriend has kept his ancient and sick dog alive for his return. He
refuses the services of a veterinary, and decides to put his dog down
himself. “That’s how it should be done,
each shot coming quick after the last so you can’t even try to recover, which
is when it hurts”. In other stories,
characters struggle to make themselves understood to civilians, sometimes using
their “war stories” as weapons to wound and alienate their listeners.
Redeployment is a
distinctively American book and the experiences of US Marines in places like
Fallujah do not closely match (thankfully) those of CAF personnel in
Afghanistan. However, as a starting
point in learning to understand the many ways in which contemporary war both
wounds and stays with its survivors, it is a useful book. Two stories will be of particular interest
as they both feature chaplains. In one,
“Prayer in the Furnace”, a Catholic chaplain finds few words of comfort for a
Marine who wonders how “somebody can live and fight for months in that shit and
not go insane”. As a Catholic himself,
Klay imagines the priest’s pastoral and theological struggle with great
sympathy and integrity.
distinctively American book and the experiences of US Marines in places like
Fallujah do not closely match (thankfully) those of CAF personnel in
Afghanistan. However, as a starting
point in learning to understand the many ways in which contemporary war both
wounds and stays with its survivors, it is a useful book. Two stories will be of particular interest
as they both feature chaplains. In one,
“Prayer in the Furnace”, a Catholic chaplain finds few words of comfort for a
Marine who wonders how “somebody can live and fight for months in that shit and
not go insane”. As a Catholic himself,
Klay imagines the priest’s pastoral and theological struggle with great
sympathy and integrity.
While
a work of fiction, Redeployment offers some understanding of the
traumatic effects of war and the post-traumatic effects of survival and return
from war. For chaplain readers of this blog, since we who are called to walk
with soldiers, and seek to understand their often concealed interior worlds, it
is a useful book to have on our shelves.
Using war fiction as a means to explore issues of moral injury,
spiritual resilience, and ethics may also be a useful way for chaplains to
connect with other CAF members through one-on-one conversations, study groups,
or talks. Other recent fiction which
chaplains should know about include Kevin Powers’ Iraq war novel The Yellow Birds and two classics of the
Vietnam War, Tim O’Brien’s The Things
They Carried and Karl Marlantes’ Matterhorn.
a work of fiction, Redeployment offers some understanding of the
traumatic effects of war and the post-traumatic effects of survival and return
from war. For chaplain readers of this blog, since we who are called to walk
with soldiers, and seek to understand their often concealed interior worlds, it
is a useful book to have on our shelves.
Using war fiction as a means to explore issues of moral injury,
spiritual resilience, and ethics may also be a useful way for chaplains to
connect with other CAF members through one-on-one conversations, study groups,
or talks. Other recent fiction which
chaplains should know about include Kevin Powers’ Iraq war novel The Yellow Birds and two classics of the
Vietnam War, Tim O’Brien’s The Things
They Carried and Karl Marlantes’ Matterhorn.