The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien’s memoir of his experience in Viet Nam begins with his dalliance with the idea of becoming a draft-dodger to Canada. So prevalent was this reaction to the draft that in the Initiation Week package I was given upon university registration in 1967 was a Guide to American Draft Dodgers To Canada. He utlimately served in Viet Nam and this series of loosely connected short stories details the experience of he and his fellow squad members.

The things they carried were not limited to the items on their persons and in their packs but extended to the psychological baggage they brought with them to Nam, the physical and mental scars they suffered in battle, and the trauma they brought back with them state-side. Call it post-traumatic stress disorder, battle-fatigue, Gulf-War Syndrome, shell shock.... the aftermath of war for the participants lingers long after the vets return. It is now posited that dealing with the needs of those vets wounded in body, mind, and spirit is likely to cost 3 times what it cost to wage the battle in the first place.

I read this book at least a month ago but it was still fresh in my mind when I read Junger’s War. The sense in which both books demonstrate how the experience of combat makes re-integration into normal society difficult if not almost impossible links these two books in my mind. Can we afford the price we pay for so injuring so many of our youth?

Breaking Dawn

This is book 4 of the series by Sephanie Meyers which began with the book Twilight in which Bella leaves a desert city in Arizona to come to rainy Forks in Washington State to live with her father the town sheriff. Although she has a childhood friend in the person of Jacob, son of her father’s hunting and fishing buddy from the La Push Reserve her world is shaken up by her introduction to the enigmatic Edward, who turns out to be a modern-day ‘vegetarian’ vampire--his family drink animal blood. Already popular with the teenage girl set the series went viral upon its adaptation for the screen with the chalky-faced Robert Pattison making fun of the sculpted-abbed Taylor Lautner’s lack of upper body attire.

Having driven through Forks and seen the old pickup truck parked outside the Chamber of Commerce I can attest to the fact that it exists as well as the reserve out at the coast. The town’s other claim to fame is as the jumping off spot for hikers bound for Mount Olympia and the rest of Olympic National Park. Only rabid Twilight fans and those who love rain need bother come. The place boasts 144 inches of yearly rainfall.

With book 4 Bella finally gets her vampire and her wish to be transformed as well despite the wishes of her werewolf buddy Jake. At nearly 800 pages this book is an undertaking for Twilight Fans only and has been split into a two-part movie.