In his deeply affecting 2009 book, “The Good Soldiers,” David Finkel gave us a harrowing and unnervingly intimate picture of the Iraq war as seen by members of an Army battalion sent to Baghdad during the surge in 2007. This was not Washington’s “macro” war, but the “micro” war on the ground, made up of “specific acts of bravery and tragedy” experienced by the soldiers of Battalion 2-16 as they patrolled streets riddled with sniper fire and improvised explosive devices that would claim the lives and limbs of their comrades.
Some of that book’s most powerful passages dealt with the war after the war — the efforts of the soldiers to come to terms with their injuries and ineradicable memories, and to try to readjust to ordinary life back home in the States. Mr. Finkel’s new book, “Thank You for Your Service,” amplifies that story, tracking the lives of some of the same soldiers after their deployments have ended. They and their families attempt to recover some facsimile of normalcy or, in the words of one veteran’s wife, “come up with reasonable expectations of what can be,” given their lingering physical and psychological wounds.
Read Full Article »