A child of the 80s, I grew up on a distorted view of Vietnam. Free love was a whispered aphorism that seemed almost impossible in the age of Ronald Reagan, televangelism, and HIV. Peace on earth, a barely remembered dream amidst the bluster of Cold War bravado and the cinematic blood lust of Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The 60s were dead. But in its place, like some perverse cosmic satirist with a zeitgeist-altering pen, was a hyper-visualized mirror image that exaggerated its […]
Like the war itself, I want to support it but find myself turning away from the lies and delusion
This is easily the most controversial book I’ve read for the Cannonball. First: about me. I was never in the military. But I was an army brat, and have spent most of my life around military or ex-military. While I am under no illusions about my qualifications to speak on war, I do think I understand the kind of person Chris Kyle was (in the most general sense). I’ve known people like him (in temperament if not experience) my whole life. And, frankly, I don’t […]
In which I am about to make Fox News suuuuper angry.
This is probably the hardest book review I’m going to write all year, because it’s complicated by several factors. The first is that I recognize that I am not Kyle’s demographic that he’s writing to. I mean, a proud Texan who likes chewing tobacco, guns, and the military? Yeah, this white Yankee liberal feminist is not exactly gung-ho about guns. So that complicates my response. And then there’s the fact that Chris Kyle killed a lot of people over in Iraq–was he right to kill […]