A review by shawntowner
The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel

3.0

I'd heard such good things about The Good Soldiers and I'd been on the library's waiting list for it for so long that I was probably setting myself up for disappointment. And disappointed I was. The Good Soldiers is a book about an incredibly interesting topic: an Army infantry battalion assigned to Baghdad during the surge. Unfortunately, the book reads too much like a series of AP wire reports than a cohesive work. Maybe I've just been spoiled by all the good literary non-fiction that I get from my subscriptions to McSweeney's and the Believer, but I found The Good Soldier a relentlessly dull read. Which is a shame, considering the events described in the book provide an insight into the lives of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians that most news reports, even long-form stuff, just doesn't manage to equal. If The Good Soliders had been published as a series of articles, it would have been fantastic. When read straight through, however, it leaves a lot to be desired. I'm interested to see how The End of Major Combat Operations (included with McSweeney's 34 compares.