Comments on: Iraq War Novels and Iraq Conquest Novels – Where They Are and Are Not http://apracticalpolicy.org/2008/03/21/iraq-war-novels-and-iraq-conquest-novels-where-they-are-and-are-not/ which I hope will not be liable to the least objection Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:59:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Craig Trebilcock http://apracticalpolicy.org/2008/03/21/iraq-war-novels-and-iraq-conquest-novels-where-they-are-and-are-not/#comment-15172 Craig Trebilcock Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:57:24 +0000 http://apragmaticpolicy.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/iraq-war-novels-and-iraq-conquest-novels-where-they-are-and-are-not/#comment-15172 The traditional large publishers (and therefore agents) have decided "Iraq" doesn't sell. However, there are some veterans who have out out their impressions of the war anyway for future consumption when that assumption is no longer true. My novel "One Weekend A Month" is the thinly fictionalized story of the mishandled attempt to rebuild Iraq on the heels of the invasion. I was there as a civil affairs officer. Whether it is anti-war or not I will leave up to the reader to decide. It's sequel, "No Time for Ribbons" will be out in September 2008 and explores the homecoming our troops experience in attempting to assimilate back into a country that barely recognizes it is at war. Both can be accessed through www.craigtrebilcock.com or www.armyauthor.com The traditional large publishers (and therefore agents) have decided “Iraq” doesn’t sell. However, there are some veterans who have out out their impressions of the war anyway for future consumption when that assumption is no longer true. My novel “One Weekend A Month” is the thinly fictionalized story of the mishandled attempt to rebuild Iraq on the heels of the invasion. I was there as a civil affairs officer. Whether it is anti-war or not I will leave up to the reader to decide. It’s sequel, “No Time for Ribbons” will be out in September 2008 and explores the homecoming our troops experience in attempting to assimilate back into a country that barely recognizes it is at war. Both can be accessed through http://www.craigtrebilcock.com or http://www.armyauthor.com

]]> By: Lyn Lejeune http://apracticalpolicy.org/2008/03/21/iraq-war-novels-and-iraq-conquest-novels-where-they-are-and-are-not/#comment-14852 Lyn Lejeune Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:54:46 +0000 http://apragmaticpolicy.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/iraq-war-novels-and-iraq-conquest-novels-where-they-are-and-are-not/#comment-14852 When a writer sits down to begin a novel, especially one that is based on a political conundrum, one that until recently would have placed the author in the center of a storm of vitriol should the author take an anti-war position. Now, the writers that you cite above were in some ways brave, but most anti-war novels always seem to come about after the fact. Dennis Johnson waits until 2007 and his book is not really anti-war as much as an attempt to clear the smoke from an America that was long ago fractured by the event. Neither Johnson nor the Iraq War has done much to help a novelist steer a great war novel for us. This is the question: how brave must an author be to write a great anti-war novel? How afraid will the author be of the reviewers who will try to find every tiny bit of error in the characters, the events, the point of view, the landscape, the place, even though it will be clear that the novel is a novel and is therefore fiction. Someone out there, some brave writer, thrust us into the darkness so that we may emerge from the smoke and the fog of Iraq. go to www.beatitudesinneworleans.blogspot.com to read about a brave novel set in New Orleans When a writer sits down to begin a novel, especially one that is based on a political conundrum, one that until recently would have placed the author in the center of a storm of vitriol should the author take an anti-war position. Now, the writers that you cite above were in some ways brave, but most anti-war novels always seem to come about after the fact. Dennis Johnson waits until 2007 and his book is not really anti-war as much as an attempt to clear the smoke from an America that was long ago fractured by the event. Neither Johnson nor the Iraq War has done much to help a novelist steer a great war novel for us. This is the question: how brave must an author be to write a great anti-war novel? How afraid will the author be of the reviewers who will try to find every tiny bit of error in the characters, the events, the point of view, the landscape, the place, even though it will be clear that the novel is a novel and is therefore fiction. Someone out there, some brave writer, thrust us into the darkness so that we may emerge from the smoke and the fog of Iraq.

go to http://www.beatitudesinneworleans.blogspot.com to read about a brave novel set in New Orleans

]]>