Let us recall a snippet from Michiko Kakutani's glowing review:
By turns profane and lyrical, swaggering and ruminative, ''Jarhead'' -- referring to the marines' ''high-and-tight'' haircuts, which make their heads look like jars -- is not only the most powerful memoir to emerge thus far from the last gulf war, but also a searing contribution to the literature of combat, a book that combines the black humor of ''Catch-22'' with the savagery of ''Full Metal Jacket'' and the visceral detail of ''The Things They Carried.''I know at least a few folks are planning to shuffle down to the Atlas basement afterward to convene amid mojitos and, I predict, debate the movie more than the book. Come join us!
2 comments:
The reason there is no radio is that he's already done it on Live from...though in a fantasy world, Swoff finally snaps and gives Julie Englander the beat down.
I've never seen a reading at PL so packed. At its fullest, you couldn't even get upstairs. People were standing on the stairs. Julie Englander wasn't even there. Chris Offutt introduced him, ending with the nice line, "This is not a Marine who learned to write, this is a writer who went to war." Swofford read two sections from his novel that he says are going to be cut. They were about a couple of shady CIA-types who are abducting people in Japan, a kabuki actor and a schoolgirl. I liked what he read, but it was such a zoo. They should have booked a lecture hall or something, I think.
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