War - what is it good for? Well, if nothing else, over the centuries it has produced outstanding writing, even if like this novel, very little of the action takes place on the actual battlefield. Instead, in this piece of outstanding writing, it is Thanksgiving Day; the battlefield is a football stadium deep in Texas; the combatants are, on one side, eight young men from the bottom of the US Army pecking order and, on the other, the rest of America.
Billy Lynn, at 19 years old, is one of ten Bravo soldiers, sent to Iraq to fight. At the beginning of this story, the remaining eight (one died in the battle, the other seriously injured) have all been flown from the real battlefield of Iraq where they happened to be filmed by a Fox News crew while simply doing their job - ie battling insurgents and trying to keep themselves and each other alive - back to America for a two week period. Lauded as heroes by Bush and his cohorts, then in turn by the media, then the population at large, these ill-equipped young men are transported around the country, wined and dined, feted and praised, all over a two week period. At the end of which they are put back on a transport plane and returned to their tour of duty. Heartfelt thanks indeed.
The reader sees all this craziness and hype through the eyes of Billy. These young men really can't understand what all the fuss is about. Where ever they are paraded they are cheered, lauded, thanked (for what). There is no connection at all that these boys have been living a life utterly different and disconnected from 21st century America. In Iraq they have purpose, camaraderie, they are battle hardened fighting units, but in their homeland they are simply a product, a pawn in the game of American consumerism, vying kings for the castle, and delusional self esteem.
The climax of this tour is their presence at a football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Chicago Bears where the boys will be taking part in the half time show with act of the moment Destiny's Child. The boys are completely out of their depth, only interested in getting as much drink on the sly they can, smoking the odd joint, and hopefully hooking up with one of the Destiny Child stars or failing that, a cheerleader. They can't figure out what all the fuss is about, and really can't be bothered with it all.
Billy comes across as the strong sensitive type. His analytical radar is perhaps a bit too sophisticated for a high school dropout who opted for a stint in the army rather than a stint in prison. Nevertheless he is a superb vehicle for the author's unflattering portrait of his fellow countrymen, the moral right, the power of the interdependent triangle of the media, big business and politics, and the general level of ignorance of what war really means.
Powerful stuff, and very well written. Not a novel about a war per se, but more about how war is perceived by those actively engaged in it, engaging with those who are not actively engaged in it.
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