Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War - Hardcover

SWOFFORD, Anthony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743239180 ISBN 13: 9780743239189

Publisher: Scribner, 2003

Synopsis

When the U.S. Marines--or "jarheads"--were sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 for the Gulf War, Anthony Swofford was there. He lived in sand for six months; he was punished by boredom and fear; he considered suicide, pulled a gun on a fellow marine, and was targeted by both enemy and friendly fire. As engagement with the Iraqis drew near, he was forced to consider what it means to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man.

About this title

About the Author:

Anthony Swofford grew up on military bases in the US and Japan, and joined the Marine Corps in 1988, aged eighteen. He was deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield in 1990 with the Second Battalion, 7th Marines. On leaving the Marines Swofford attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Review:

"A bayonet in the eye...brutal and unforgettable."

--"The Sacramento Bee"

"A brutally honest memoir...gut-wrenching frontline reportage."

--"Entertainment Weekly"

"A searing contribution to the literature of combat."

--Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times"

William Boyd

Author of "Any Human Heart"

A scathingly honest and bleakly powerful book. A hugely disturbing insight into the minds of the very young men who long to go to war.

Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D.

Author of "Odysseus in America" and "Achilles in Vietnam"

This memoir is not pretty -- but veined with beauty. It is as outrageous, irreverent, funny, and obscene as an Aristophanes comedy, and as rich in pain and moral understanding as the "Iliad." Anthony Swofford: remember this name.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0743239180
• ISBN 13: 9780743239189
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272