Scan barcode
jdintr's review
4.0
In Dark at the Crossing, Elliot Ackerman, himself an Iraq War veteran, ties the fighting of the Aughts to the terror of our present decade through the character of Haris, an Iraqi expatriate returning to the region to fight against the Assad regime for.... Well that's part of the tangled Syrian web, isn't it?
Haris, like many American collaborators, has left Iraq with his sister, living for a time in Michigan, but the beginning of the novel finds him on the Turkish border city of Kilis, trying to cross a closed border to fight on behalf of rebel forces. Daesh (ISIS) is also in town, and Haris's handlers pry the murky ground of mixed allegiances that emerge in any war zone.
There is a relationship Haris forges with Daphne, a grieving mother desperate to return to Aleppo to comb the rubble for her missing daughter. I don't want to call this a 'love story,' because while Haris and Daphne certainly draw closer, the intimacy one would look for in such a tale is completely missing. I could say they come together like two rafts lashed together to run a rapids more than "two ships passing in the night."
Ackerman's sense of setting is vivid, but I never got the motivation of key characters like Haris and Amir, costing this well-written book a fifth star in my opinion.
For those who enjoyed Iraq War novels like The Yellow Birds and Redeployment, this is a novel that is definitely worth adding to the canon.
Haris, like many American collaborators, has left Iraq with his sister, living for a time in Michigan, but the beginning of the novel finds him on the Turkish border city of Kilis, trying to cross a closed border to fight on behalf of rebel forces. Daesh (ISIS) is also in town, and Haris's handlers pry the murky ground of mixed allegiances that emerge in any war zone.
There is a relationship Haris forges with Daphne, a grieving mother desperate to return to Aleppo to comb the rubble for her missing daughter. I don't want to call this a 'love story,' because while Haris and Daphne certainly draw closer, the intimacy one would look for in such a tale is completely missing. I could say they come together like two rafts lashed together to run a rapids more than "two ships passing in the night."
Ackerman's sense of setting is vivid, but I never got the motivation of key characters like Haris and Amir, costing this well-written book a fifth star in my opinion.
For those who enjoyed Iraq War novels like The Yellow Birds and Redeployment, this is a novel that is definitely worth adding to the canon.
pearloz's review
4.0
All that effort, all that preparation. This book was surprisingly tense and human--but human without much warmth, at least not until the last scenes. The girl with the envelope full of seeds in her pocket really got to me.
manaledi's review
3.0
I don't know how I feel about this book. It left me unsettled and frustrated. The dude running an ice hockey team in the middle of the war with research money is such a stereotype. But also for all the talk of "motive" and "purpose" those questions were left unanswered. Or unsatisfying.
joestewart's review
5.0
I hope that Dark at the Crossing will be recognized as the classic war novel of my generation. Ackerman illustrates the futility of war as only an empathetic warfighter could.
jbmorgan86's review
4.0
A crucial aspect of Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" is "Crossing the First Threshold." Bilbo and Frodo both leave the Shire. Dorothy opens the door to Oz. Alice chases the White Rabbit into Wonderland. The crossing of the threshold shows that the hero is fully committed to the journey. The novel Dark at the Crossing, however, is all about crossing the threshold (the threshold being the Syrian border).
Haris is an Iraqi-American citizenship who won his citizenship for being a translator for American forces in Iraq. However, life hasn't turned out well for him in America. He works as a janitor at a university so he can put his sister through the university. Now, his sister decides to marry a wealthy man and move back to the Middle East. Haris decides that he must also return to the Middle East. However, he isn't going for love. He's going for war.
The whole novel is about Haris attempting to cross the Turkish-Syrian border so he can join the fight against Bashar Al-Assad. He meets allies and opponents along the way. How will he cross the border? With democratic-loving freedom fighters? With Da-Esh (ISIS)?
The resounding message of the novel is that war is hell. I was somewhat surprised by this when I learned that the author had served several tours in Iraq.
The novel was short-listed for the National Book Award.
Haris is an Iraqi-American citizenship who won his citizenship for being a translator for American forces in Iraq. However, life hasn't turned out well for him in America. He works as a janitor at a university so he can put his sister through the university. Now, his sister decides to marry a wealthy man and move back to the Middle East. Haris decides that he must also return to the Middle East. However, he isn't going for love. He's going for war.
The whole novel is about Haris attempting to cross the Turkish-Syrian border so he can join the fight against Bashar Al-Assad. He meets allies and opponents along the way. How will he cross the border? With democratic-loving freedom fighters? With Da-Esh (ISIS)?
The resounding message of the novel is that war is hell. I was somewhat surprised by this when I learned that the author had served several tours in Iraq.
The novel was short-listed for the National Book Award.
pentalith5's review
4.0
This gripping tale of war at the Turkish border with Syria grapples with the essence of what it means to be human in a world of conflict and tragedy. It's well written and filled with many gems such as these:
If you're interested in these kinds of ideas - what it means to devote yourself to a cause, or to identify yourself as having a home in one country and not another, I highly recommend this book.
Side note: I went to high school with the author, who was a year ahead of me, hence why this book popped out as I was browsing Overdrive!
“But I won’t help under the assumption that you’re a good man punishing a bad one,” she added. “I’m exhausted by those ideas. He took something from you. You’re going to take it back, nothing more. Agreed?
He believed in the war but not as a cause. He believed in it as an impulse, the way a painter paints, or a musician plays, a necessary impulse.
If you're interested in these kinds of ideas - what it means to devote yourself to a cause, or to identify yourself as having a home in one country and not another, I highly recommend this book.
Side note: I went to high school with the author, who was a year ahead of me, hence why this book popped out as I was browsing Overdrive!
carmenere's review
4.0
Haris Abadi is an Iraqi by birth, American by gratitude. As an interpreter, his duty is blurred by emotion which leads to regret. Perhaps to set things right, he chooses to return to the Middle East and become a fighter for the Free Syrian Army. He meets Daphne and Amir who also struggle with events in their past and together they work to achieve their desires and cross the border back into Syria but the war is far reaching and filled with deception, revenge and betrayal. There is no place for naivete and the gullible. One needs to know where they're convictions lie, who the enemy is, what they are fighting and why. This story had an unexpected though not fulfilling conclusion and serves to reiterate just how ongoing and complicated this war can be.
cat_manders's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
itsgg's review
3.0
3 stars. This book is worth reading not necessarily for its quality, but because it humanizes an important moment in current world events. Like Virgil in Dante's Inferno, protagonist Haris leads us back and forth over the Syrian border and introduces us to characters living in a variety of circumstances whose life courses have been altered by the civil war. It's moving and specific in a way that news reports are not. I recommend it for anyone interested in getting more insight into the conflict there.