Phil Klay Redeployment Analysis
Redeployment by Phil Klay Literary Critique
A collaboration of short stories behind the scenes of an exciting era in American history. The author portrays many different point of views throughout the stories from the actual soldiers to the people who worked around the bases of Iraq and Afghanistan to the priests and chaplains that helped keep the soldiers sane. Though the book suffered slightly from its overuse of military jargon it flourished with great imagery and the clear, enjoyable voice. Also, the different point of views help correlate the different perspectives and at times touches upon Phil Klay’s personal connections to the book.
The author displays a wonderful amount of simple imagery that helps connect with the book. There are moments of feeling as if you are there with them like you could tell this story to someone else in such great detail that they’d believe you were there. In the short story “In Vietnam they had whores” he writes about a strip club they visited and says “Something about the sad little parking lot, with a few busted-up Buicks and trucks lined out in front of the pink trailer” (Klay 125) and “It was a small space, smelling of beer and sweat, with seventies rock …show more content…
This makes it difficult to understand the book completely. Unless a military personnel was reading this, the typical day to day person wouldn’t know these terms. In “Frago” the majority of the story is written in abbreviations. It says:
I'm across from PFC Dyer, and he’s not eating much. I’m nest to some Navy 04 from the BOS, and he’s chowing down. When he sees we aren't exactly FOBbits, he starts talking. I don’t tell him what we’re here for, I just say a little about our COP and how it’s good to eat something that’s not MRE. He points out the DFAC where they are serving (26).
Mentions like these made the book a little more confusing and difficult to read at
A collaboration of short stories behind the scenes of an exciting era in American history. The author portrays many different point of views throughout the stories from the actual soldiers to the people who worked around the bases of Iraq and Afghanistan to the priests and chaplains that helped keep the soldiers sane. Though the book suffered slightly from its overuse of military jargon it flourished with great imagery and the clear, enjoyable voice. Also, the different point of views help correlate the different perspectives and at times touches upon Phil Klay’s personal connections to the book.
The author displays a wonderful amount of simple imagery that helps connect with the book. There are moments of feeling as if you are there with them like you could tell this story to someone else in such great detail that they’d believe you were there. In the short story “In Vietnam they had whores” he writes about a strip club they visited and says “Something about the sad little parking lot, with a few busted-up Buicks and trucks lined out in front of the pink trailer” (Klay 125) and “It was a small space, smelling of beer and sweat, with seventies rock …show more content…
This makes it difficult to understand the book completely. Unless a military personnel was reading this, the typical day to day person wouldn’t know these terms. In “Frago” the majority of the story is written in abbreviations. It says:
I'm across from PFC Dyer, and he’s not eating much. I’m nest to some Navy 04 from the BOS, and he’s chowing down. When he sees we aren't exactly FOBbits, he starts talking. I don’t tell him what we’re here for, I just say a little about our COP and how it’s good to eat something that’s not MRE. He points out the DFAC where they are serving (26).
Mentions like these made the book a little more confusing and difficult to read at