The International Journal of Literary Humanities

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Perimeter Watch: Three American Soldiers Write about the Iraq War


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1 English Department, Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
     

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Kevin Powers was deployed as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar. His novel, The Yellow Birds, was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. David Abrams was a public relations officer in Iraq in 2005. Publishers Weekly described his novel Fobbit (2012) as the "Iraq War's answer to Catch 22." Finally, the poet Brian Turner, author of two poetry collections including the award winning Here, Bullet, spent seven years in the US Army, one of which he acted as an infantry team leader in Iraq. Each of these writers in his own way has answered Wilfred Owen's famous challenge to all writers choosing to evoke what he called the "pity of war": warn and be truthful. Furthermore, each addresses the problem of what Abrams calls "America, the beautiful ostrich," his metaphor for folks on the home front blind to the costs and realities of war.

Keywords

Identity, Difference, Literature, Human Rights.
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  • Abrams, David. Fobbit. New York: Grove, 2012.

  • Dooley, Ben. "War Poetry. What Is It Good For?" Review of Here, Bullet, in The Millions. 2007.

  • "Fobbit." [Unsigned Review]. In Publishers Weekly Review 259, no. 27. July 2, 2012.

  • Hicks, Patrick. "An Interview with Brian Turner." War, Literature, & the Arts 2012. 24: 61-86.

  • Jones, James. The Thin Red Line. New York: Delta Press, 2012.

  • Marlantes, Karl. What It Is Like to Go to War. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2011.

  • Najmi, Samina. "The Whiteness of the Soldier-Speaker in Brian Turner's Here, Bullet." Rocky Mountain Review. Spring, 2011, pp. 56-77.

  • Owen, Wilfred. "Preface." In The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen, 31. Edited by C. Day Lewis. Boston: New Directions, 1965.

  • Powers, Kevin. Yellow Birds. Boston: Little, Brown, 2012.

  • Robinson, Roxana. Sparta. New York: Sarah Crichton Press, 2013.

  • Sandburg, Carl. Selected Poems. New York: Mariner Books, 1996.

  • Turner, Brian. Here, Bullet. Farmington, Maine: Alice James Books, 2005.

  • Turner, Brian. Phantom Noise. Farmington, Maine: Alice James Books, 2010.


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  • Perimeter Watch: Three American Soldiers Write about the Iraq War

Abstract Views: 97  |  PDF Views: 1

Authors

Paul Ady
English Department, Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

Abstract


Kevin Powers was deployed as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar. His novel, The Yellow Birds, was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. David Abrams was a public relations officer in Iraq in 2005. Publishers Weekly described his novel Fobbit (2012) as the "Iraq War's answer to Catch 22." Finally, the poet Brian Turner, author of two poetry collections including the award winning Here, Bullet, spent seven years in the US Army, one of which he acted as an infantry team leader in Iraq. Each of these writers in his own way has answered Wilfred Owen's famous challenge to all writers choosing to evoke what he called the "pity of war": warn and be truthful. Furthermore, each addresses the problem of what Abrams calls "America, the beautiful ostrich," his metaphor for folks on the home front blind to the costs and realities of war.

Keywords


Identity, Difference, Literature, Human Rights.

References