What It is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read this on a rec from my Dad (a veteran of Vietnam) saying that it captured and analyzed the experience of going to war in a profound way.  I couldn't put it down. Marlantes was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford when he decided to enlist. In my dad's words, he had a particularly "awful tour," which (it seems) is recounted in the semi-autobiographical novel Mattherhorn. Marlantes is concerned here to educate all those  who have not been to war so that they might understand those who have; he offers some great ideas that if taken seriously could help our military respond to the inevitable trauma and moral/spiritual confusion that battle brings. The weakest parts of the book are the analyses inspired by Jung and Joseph Cambpell; still, this is a moving and important book for anyone to read who's been to war or loves someone who has (or will).


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