A review by danibeliveau
Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel
5.0
"When we ask young men and women to go to war, what are we asking of them? And when they return, what are we thanking them for?"
Finkel's reporting offers vignettes into the lives of soldiers readjusting to life at home after experiencing physical and mental trauma during the Iraq war. It is an overwhelmingly, hopelessly bleak picture: brain injuries, suicide, spousal abuse, guilt, shame, depression, alcoholism, isolation, bureaucratic apathy. He documents widows left alone with young children and government payouts, and wives struggling to become caretakers to their husbands. What struck me most, though, was Finkel's demonstrations of the run-around veterans get while trying to take advantage of even their most basic benefits, the absurdity of the system that they depend on for their lives and livelihoods, especially considered alongside the gooey but empty sentiment which is the title of the book. Each story, I think, is selected and portrayed carefully to convey a very particular point. The overall effect is devastating.
In a time where the vast majority of our country is unaffected by war, a book like this is not just important: it is urgent. Every American should read it.
Finkel's reporting offers vignettes into the lives of soldiers readjusting to life at home after experiencing physical and mental trauma during the Iraq war. It is an overwhelmingly, hopelessly bleak picture: brain injuries, suicide, spousal abuse, guilt, shame, depression, alcoholism, isolation, bureaucratic apathy. He documents widows left alone with young children and government payouts, and wives struggling to become caretakers to their husbands. What struck me most, though, was Finkel's demonstrations of the run-around veterans get while trying to take advantage of even their most basic benefits, the absurdity of the system that they depend on for their lives and livelihoods, especially considered alongside the gooey but empty sentiment which is the title of the book. Each story, I think, is selected and portrayed carefully to convey a very particular point. The overall effect is devastating.
In a time where the vast majority of our country is unaffected by war, a book like this is not just important: it is urgent. Every American should read it.