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Sep. 29th, 2009 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerDespite the reading for class, I managed to get through a few more titles recently
42/50: Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian. Another of this series, and one I had read before (I couldn't remember when I started it, and by the time I could I had gotten sucked in). Terrifically enjoyable. The part of the PoB film that dealt with Aubrey's battle with the American ship was taken from this book. Here he's in a larger ship than in the film (though still smaller than his foe's), and the enemy is Dutch, not American (why that change in the movie, I wonder?) but the tension is as great and the ending as horrific. More Maturin intel skullduggery--an interesting study of the most human part of intelligence: building a close relationship with someone even while deceiving them.
43/50: Send a Fax to the Kasbah by Dorothy Dunnett. DD's last Johnson Johnson/Dolly mystery novel, set mostly in Morocco and dealing a good deal with the convoluted (and at the time of writing popular) topic of business finance and mergers and acquisitions. Anything involving corporate finance puts me straight to sleep, so I find this the least interesting of her books, but there's some good action, some entertaining characters, and a bit of final revelation of JJ's life, which is generally very close-hold in the books. I'd love to know if she had intended this to be the end or maybe write more. Unfortunately, the main DD discussion list on Yahoo seems to have devolved into an appreciation society for trashy bodice-rippers, so there doesn't seem to be any point in raising the question there.
44/50: House to House by David Bellavilla. This was very difficult to listen to in places, and I'd caution anyone attempting it either in spoken or written form to be aware that is is, well, written by an infantryman. And very much for adrenaline/testosterone junkies and those fascinated by the details of combat.
It's filled with a great deal of profanity. I'm used to dealing with military folk, whose language is usually rather ripe. This was borne in on me the other day when the liaison officer in our department was on the phone with some buddies and rather idly chaffing them about something that had happened. It took me a moment to notice that the other people in earshot were all looking rather like cats that have been dressed up in funny little outfits (i.e., offended, upset, and more than a little outraged) and then to realise it was because MAJ So and So had been on the phone in a rather stentorian voice, asking his former billetmates whether they had been *)&$%$#-ing themselves silly or just ()&*%$%#-ing off, because from what he'd been hearing from Old &(%^%$ (a mutual friend, one gathered), they had all just about &(%^$$@%$-ed their *&^^&-ing @##R@# and should be kicked in the *^$* for being a bunch of lazy &*(%^%$-es. Just the normal sort of thing. :-)
No, what's really fairly disturbing, even to me, is the amount of fairly graphic description of what happens to people in combat. Mostly the people who don't come back from combat. The effect of weapons fire on people is pretty nasty, and he doesn't hold back in describing it. There's a description of hand to hand combat that's nerve wracking. The dogs... there are some stories about dogs that are rather chilling. Also, well, it sounds like Iraq is not a place that's easy on your bowels either.
So, grossness. But beyond that, I found it a deeply moving book. His description of the experience of preparing for combat, fighting, the aftermath, and the bond he created and experienced with his comrades, and his thoughts on how to deal with the conflict between his career as a soldier and his role as a husband and father is genuine and terrifically moving. He and I don't see eye to eye about everything, but I feel as if I have a deeper understanding of what people can go through and how they survive some awful things after having read this book. I will probably write more about this book later, as I digest it more and reflect on it.
42/50: Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian. Another of this series, and one I had read before (I couldn't remember when I started it, and by the time I could I had gotten sucked in). Terrifically enjoyable. The part of the PoB film that dealt with Aubrey's battle with the American ship was taken from this book. Here he's in a larger ship than in the film (though still smaller than his foe's), and the enemy is Dutch, not American (why that change in the movie, I wonder?) but the tension is as great and the ending as horrific. More Maturin intel skullduggery--an interesting study of the most human part of intelligence: building a close relationship with someone even while deceiving them.
43/50: Send a Fax to the Kasbah by Dorothy Dunnett. DD's last Johnson Johnson/Dolly mystery novel, set mostly in Morocco and dealing a good deal with the convoluted (and at the time of writing popular) topic of business finance and mergers and acquisitions. Anything involving corporate finance puts me straight to sleep, so I find this the least interesting of her books, but there's some good action, some entertaining characters, and a bit of final revelation of JJ's life, which is generally very close-hold in the books. I'd love to know if she had intended this to be the end or maybe write more. Unfortunately, the main DD discussion list on Yahoo seems to have devolved into an appreciation society for trashy bodice-rippers, so there doesn't seem to be any point in raising the question there.
44/50: House to House by David Bellavilla. This was very difficult to listen to in places, and I'd caution anyone attempting it either in spoken or written form to be aware that is is, well, written by an infantryman. And very much for adrenaline/testosterone junkies and those fascinated by the details of combat.
It's filled with a great deal of profanity. I'm used to dealing with military folk, whose language is usually rather ripe. This was borne in on me the other day when the liaison officer in our department was on the phone with some buddies and rather idly chaffing them about something that had happened. It took me a moment to notice that the other people in earshot were all looking rather like cats that have been dressed up in funny little outfits (i.e., offended, upset, and more than a little outraged) and then to realise it was because MAJ So and So had been on the phone in a rather stentorian voice, asking his former billetmates whether they had been *)&$%$#-ing themselves silly or just ()&*%$%#-ing off, because from what he'd been hearing from Old &(%^%$ (a mutual friend, one gathered), they had all just about &(%^$$@%$-ed their *&^^&-ing @##R@# and should be kicked in the *^$* for being a bunch of lazy &*(%^%$-es. Just the normal sort of thing. :-)
No, what's really fairly disturbing, even to me, is the amount of fairly graphic description of what happens to people in combat. Mostly the people who don't come back from combat. The effect of weapons fire on people is pretty nasty, and he doesn't hold back in describing it. There's a description of hand to hand combat that's nerve wracking. The dogs... there are some stories about dogs that are rather chilling. Also, well, it sounds like Iraq is not a place that's easy on your bowels either.
So, grossness. But beyond that, I found it a deeply moving book. His description of the experience of preparing for combat, fighting, the aftermath, and the bond he created and experienced with his comrades, and his thoughts on how to deal with the conflict between his career as a soldier and his role as a husband and father is genuine and terrifically moving. He and I don't see eye to eye about everything, but I feel as if I have a deeper understanding of what people can go through and how they survive some awful things after having read this book. I will probably write more about this book later, as I digest it more and reflect on it.
