Actual war comes to Robert E. Lee Prewitt in James Jones’s From Here To Eternity only at the end of the novel, when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. But Prewitt fights a war nonetheless against his own cohorts ... literally when he’s forced to box against them despite his guilt at having killed a man in the ring, and, terribly, when he avenges his buddy Angelo Maggio’s death by stabbing the jailer Fatso Judson in a Honolulu alley. Prewitt’s war is against his fellow soldiers and, most awfully, against himself.
And now here’s Iraq. Five years on, we still see platoons of men and women sent into neighborhoods whose inhabitants are on another planet from the soldiers when it comes to religious beliefs, language, levels of wealth, personal mores and expectations for government. The soldiers have weaponry the likes of which we’ve never known before. But they are surrounded, they feel, by an extremely hostile enemy and are given very little real reason to be fighting in such a place, other than the platitudes of “defending democracy” and so on that are mouthed with monotonous insincerity by politicians of what is now a minority party on the other side of the world. It makes total sense that this would result in very difficult moral confusion among a number of these soldiers, and you can bet that a couple of those can really write.
Just now, finally, journalists are rising to the task of telling something of the truth of the war in Iraq. But no one will tell that truth really until some fine novelist — American, perhaps, but maybe Iraqi — writes about a dysfunctional Muslim family in Baghdad whose son is lost in the war, a pleasure-seeking Sunni merchant profiting from that war, a mercenary American bodyguard and his disapproving Vietnam veteran father, the mourning daughter of a killed Shia merchant, the parents of an American infantryman who commits suicide by fragging himself...
These fictions will tell us the truth about Iraq. But even then, the war itself in Iraq will not have been the issue. Rather, it will be personal emotional truth emerging from seemingly endless darkness, and that’s something that great novelists are particularly adept at writing about.
Article comments
1 - Tony Christini
For what it's worth - the good and the bad, and the in-between - an incomplete list of Iraq War fiction:
IRAQ WAR NOVELS:
Hocus Potus - Malcolm MacPherson
The Sirens of Baghdad - Yasmina Khadra
Last One In - Nicholas Kulish
Homefront - Tony Christini
Still the Monkey - Alivia C. Tagliaferri
The Scorpion's Gate - Richard A. Clarke
The Human War - Noah Cicero
"Greendale" as graphic novel - Neil Young & Joshua Dysart
Homeland - Paul William Roberts
Outsourced - R. J. Hillhouse
IRAQ WAR PLAYS:
The Wolf - Sean Huze
1984 - Tim Robbins
Peace Mom - Dario Fo
Stuff Happens - David Hare
IRAQ WAR FICTION FILMS AND VIDEO:
Lions for Lambs
Over There
Valley of the Wolves Iraq
The Tiger and the Snow
Stop-Loss
The Situation
G.I. Jesus
24
Home of the Brave
Grace is Gone
Valley of Elah
Rendition
Redacted
Homecoming
Embedded
Body of Lies
2 - Terence Clarke
Hello Tony:
Thanks for the list. Much appreciated.
Terry Clarke
3 - webmaster
Dear Friends,
I would like to introduce you to my new novel entitled Nejim...Nejim. The novel events took place in Baghdad, Iraq during the height of the Sadr City revolt of 2004. It describes in vivid details some of the historic accounts that took place in Baghdad during that year and events I was touched by throughout my life. But above all this novel is about unimaginable fictional magic and thrilling mystery of the old and new blended together in a very telling story.
I wrote the novel with clear description of the people and the culture that only an Iraqi would know. The novel has a distinct Iraqi folklore flavor that readers will find very enjoyable. It has authentic local mythology built into it highlighted by magic and mystery similar to that of the Tales of Thousand and One Nights but in a modern setting. It ties a thousand year old mystical tale to current Iraq and takes it even beyond, through series of mysterious but yet thrilling actions and horrific incidents. The unexplainable events make you wonder if such breathtaking wonders are still exist to this day in this old country.
The novel completed is about 70,000 words and consists of eighteen chapters. I wrote the novel with several hooks at the beginning which continued as thrilling mysteries all the way to the end. The novel is a must read to those who are interested in Iraq and the local culture. It describes in details places and events that are unique to this part of the world and to that period. Those who are genuinely love to read mystery novels with real authentic flavor will find it captivating and delightful at the same time.
The novel has just been published. It is available only at the website right now. Please order or reserve your copy and pass the word around. This is a short run first edition print and might be sold out very soon.
Best Regards
Saad Farage
ISBN 978-0-615-30273-7
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2009906396
4 - Justin
This isn't particularly an Iraq war novel, but I think it absolutely applies- there's a book called 'Operation Downfall' by Daniel McNeet.
It's a novel about a war that came out of corruption and lies. Essentially, everyone from people in the executive branch to the CIA was involved in tricking the American public into going to war. I loved it, personally!