March 25, 2010

Where Men Win Glory, by Jon Krakauer


 I couldn't have timed it out more perfectly. I took 2 library books on my trip to Iceland, and I finished this, the second one, near the end of our flight home. Bazinga! (As Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory would say.) (That show is both formulaic and unusual at the same time.) 

I really like Jon Krakauer, as I've mentioned before, but at first I wasn't too interested in reading about a football player who quit his NFL career to serve in Afghanistan, where he died under 'friendly' fire (a phrase I despise). Football and war, not my favourite topics. Eventually I thought, "Heck, why wouldn't I like it? Krakauer is a great writer who writes well researched non-fiction." So I ordered it from the library.

Great idea. This book is an absorbing and tragic tale of an intelligent, complex, brave man. I kept on wishing he hadn't been so noble that he left his wife and amazingly close family and friends to fight for something he believed in so much. He even had chances to get out and go back to the NFL, but he didn't take them. The futility of his death, and the ensuing cover-up, are both sad and infuriating. 

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