Interviewer: Is it true that reviewers are too cowardly to review your Iraq War novel, Homefront?
A: You mean antiwar novel? I don’t know. I guess you would have to ask them.
Interviewer: Well, what makes me ask is, see, there’s this whole war going on, people dying by the scores every day in Iraq, and U.S. soldiers dying and occupying the place, and the Air Force bombing across the land, and, well, here you’ve written this Iraq War novel Homefront and can it possibly be that no one is interested?
A: Antiwar novel. What can I say? You would have to ask reviewers. And their editors and publishers.
Interviewer: Way back on March 12, 2004, for Kirkus Reviews Tom Miller and Gregory McNamee asked: “Where are the great Iraq war novels? It’s been a year since American tanks rolled into Baghdad, and we have yet to see the first roman a guerre.” [The Great Iraq War Novel] That was over 2 years ago, and still nothing today?
A: Seems strange doesn’t it? It’s a massive, very serious public issue, very grave, very many people involved. Hard to fathom why there is not more exploration of the war and occupation of Iraq in novels. Think of the stories the military war resisters could tell…as some are, all across the country.
