JARHEAD
A Marine's Chronicle of the
Gulf War and Other Battles

NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. Scribner, 2003. 260 pages.

Anthony Swofford's Jarhead is the first Gulf War memoir by a frontline infantry marine, and it is a searing, unforgettable narrative. When the marines -- or "jarheads," as they call themselves -- were sent in 1990 to Saudi Arabia to fight the Iraqis, Swofford was there, with a hundred-pound pack on his shoulders and a sniper's rifle in his hands. It was one misery upon another. He lived in sand for six months, his girlfriend back home betrayed him for a scrawny hotel clerk, he was punished by boredom and fear, he considered suicide, he pulled a gun on one of his fellow marines, and he was shot at by both Iraqis and Americans. At the end of the war, Swofford hiked for miles through a landscape of incinerated Iraqi soldiers and later was nearly killed in a booby-trapped Iraqi bunker. Swofford weaves this experience of war with vivid accounts of boot camp (which included physical abuse by his drill instructor), reflections on the mythos of the marines, and remembrances of battles with lovers and family. As engagement with the Iraqis draws closer, he is forced to consider what it is to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man. Unlike the real-time print and television coverage of the Gulf War, which was highly scripted by the Pentagon, Swofford's account subverts the conventional wisdom that U.S. military interventions are now merely surgical insertions of superior forces that result in few American casualties. Jarhead insists we remember the Americans who are in fact wounded or killed, the fields of smoking enemy corpses left behind, and the continuing difficulty that American soldiers have reentering civilian life. A harrowing yet inspiring portrait of a tormented consciousness struggling for inner peace, Jarhead will elbow for room on that short shelf of American war classics that includes Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War and Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and be admired not only for the raw beauty of its prose but also for the depth of its pained heart. "

About the Author: Anthony Swofford served in a U.S. Marine Corps Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon during the Gulf War. After the war, he was educated at American River College; the University of California, Davis; and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has taught at the University of Iowa and Lewis and Clark College. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times, Harper's, Men's Journal, The Iowa Review, and other publications. A Michener-Copernicus Fellowship recipient, he lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is at work on a novel.

This book has greatly angered many Marine veterans. One Marine wrote to Leatherneck recently: "I just finished reading the book Jarhead by Anthony Swofford. I am angry as hell. I would like to meet this despicable character [the author] in a dark alley ~ and that includes his so-called buddies. He has defiled the Corps I love. It is as if he and his friends in the Corps climbed to the top of the statue of the Marine Corps Memorial, tore down the flag, took a spray can and painted obscenities on the monument. He has insulted every Marine who has been a part of the Corps. How dare he! ... How did this individual manage to get into the Corps and stay in long enough to get an honorable discharge? Where were his superiors?..."

The "Sound Off Editor" of Leatherneck wrote in response: "I have not read the book, and based on your comments and those of others who have written in, I probably never will, which is the best way to remedy any insult from a person who wants to be considered a successful writer. We did not review Swofford's book, because our editor and Vietnam veteran, Walt Ford, read it and said it was "trash". He wasn't the only one. Marine veterans have called the book "self-aggrandizing," "borderline porn" and "wannabe fantasy" riddled with inaccuracies. If that's the case, it is not surprising that mostly those who are not Marines, and who know little of the Corps, have favorably reviewed Swofford's book."

And for those who are interested, here are some of those reviews:

From Publishers Weekly: "A witty, profane, down-in-the-sand account of the war many only know from CNN, this former sniper's debut is a worthy addition to the battlefield memoir genre. There isn't a bit of heroic posturing as Swofford describes the sheer terror of being fired upon by Iraqi troops; the elite special forces warrior freely admits wetting himself once rockets start exploding around his unit's encampment. But the adrenaline of battle is fleeting, and Swofford shows how it's in the waiting that soldiers are really made. With blunt language and bittersweet humor, he vividly recounts the worrying, drinking, joking, lusting and just plain sitting around that his troop endured while wondering if they would ever put their deadly skills to use. As Operation Desert Shield becomes Desert Storm, one of Swofford's fellow snipers-the most macho of the bunch-solicits a hug from each man. "We are about to die in combat, so why not get one last hug, one last bit of physical contact," Swofford writes. "And through the hugs [he] helps make us human again." When they do finally fight, Swofford questions whether the men are as prepared as their commanders, the American public and the men themselves think they are. Swofford deftly uses flashbacks to chart his journey from a wide-eyed adolescent with a family military legacy to a hardened fighter who becomes consumed with doubt about his chosen role. As young soldiers might just find themselves deployed to the deserts of Iraq, this book offers them, as well as the casual reader, an unflinching portrayal of the loneliness and brutality of modern warfare and sophisticated analyses of-and visceral reactions to-its politics."

From Booklist: "Swofford hated being a marine, but he was apparently a good and skilled soldier during his service. He was recruited from the ranks of grunts for a reconnaissance and sniping squad and was on the front line of the Gulf War's ground attack. In this memoir, Swofford's portrayal of the battlefield also contains flashbacks and flash-forwards of his personal life, which serve as platforms for his recurrent cynicism. Expressing it gives Swofford's prose an exaggerated style as he searches for variant descriptions for his anger over military decorations, girlfriends, civilians, and the purpose of the war he fought. Death lurks in Swofford's story, for he contemplated suicide, worried about being killed by enemy or friendly fire, and witnessed the deaths of Iraqi soldiers. Writing graphically and in the marines' defiantly vulgar argot, Swofford candidly exhibits his negative feelings--and his comradeship with buddies belly to the sand."

From The New York Times: "An irreverent but meditative voice that captures the juiced-up machismo of jarhead culture and the existential loneliness of combat"

From Chris Offutt, author of No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home. Jarhead tells us why boys go to war and how they return as men, told by someone who truly knows the perils of battle -- a decorated veteran of the Gulf War. Anthony Swofford's courageous and lyric prose is matched by a searing personal honesty that will break your heart with its compassion. He reveals the inner life of a marine from boot camp to bombardment, to victory and peace. Like all great memoirs of war, humanity is at stake instead of politics. Anthony Swofford entered his adult life as a warrior, but has emerged as an artist of the highest order. This book is a great achievement. Everyone should read it.

$24.00