Sebastian Junger is the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Storm and A Death in Belmont. He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and has been awarded a National Magazine Award and an SAIS Novartis Prize for journalism. He lives in New York City.
"Absorbing and original . . . Junger is aiming for more than just a
boots-on-the-ground narrative of the travails of fighting men . . .
. WAR strives to offer not just a picture of American fighting men
but a discourse on the nature of war itself. This is no small
ambition . . . He writes some beautiful sentences about this ugly
world."--Dexter Filkins, New York Times Book Review
"It is a gripping account of how modern warfare is experienced by
those who do the fighting, and its focus is that of a laser, not a
floodlight . . . WAR is full of stories that prove the adage about
all politics being local."--Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
"With his blue-eyed, chiseled and starting-to-grizzle looks, Junger
is just the specimen Hollywood would cast as a foreign
correspondent in Afghanistan to ensure a box office hit...But to
assume that Junger had easy access diminishes his reporting skills
and his commitment to the story. At age 48, he's a generation older
than most of the soldiers he accompanied into combat over the
course of their 15-month deployment and who instinctively put up
their guard against an outsider...The resulting book is written in
the first person, but it is observational, offering no critique of
the combat he witnessed, taking no position on the efficiency,
logic or value of the war. He offers a close-up view of men and the
raw elements of war: fear and courage, killing and death, love and
brotherhood."--Marjorie Miller, Los Angeles Times
"With his narrative gifts and vivid prose -- as free, thank God, of
literary posturing as it is of war-correspondent chest-thumping --
Junger masterfully chronicles the platoon's 15-month tour of
duty...Junger makes us see the terror, monotony, misery,
comradeship and lunatic excitement that have been elements of all
wars since, say, the siege of Troy. He thus becomes a kind of
21st-century battle singer, narrating the deeds and misdeeds of his
heroes while explaining what makes them do what they do...It's the
best writing I've seen on the subject since J. Glenn Gray's 1959
classic, The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle. . . . Junger's
sketches of the men are deft, his ear for their quirky speech
(aided by video recordings) spot on . . . This splendid book should
help the rest of us understand them -- and war itself -- a little
better."--Philip Caputo, Washington Post
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