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This powerful book should be read.

Jarhead is a 2003 Gulf War memoir by author and former U.S. Marine .Anthony Swofford. After leaving military service, the author went on to college and earned a double master’s degree in Fine Arts at the University of Iowa.

When the U.S. Marines–or “jarheads”–were sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 for the Gulf War, Anthony Swofford was there. He lived in sand for six months; he was punished by boredom and fear; he considered suicide, pulled a gun on a fellow marine, and was targeted by both enemy and friendly fire. As engagement with the Iraqis drew near, he was forced to consider what it means to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man.

Review: Wow, this portrait of war is funny in the Catch-22 mode of humour, profane and graphically realistic. It is a sad statement about our society that young men and women can be manipulated by hateful propaganda to develop the Gung Ho spirit that undermines morals and morality, mental health, and view life as a cheap, expendable commodity. The writer’s self-examination reveals a increased understanding of himself and the machinations of war. Difficult to read, but entertaining and enlightening. This should be mandatory reading for any young person who has allowed parents, movies, video games, recruitment personnel, etc. to influence them to think that war is glamorous or good. Not for the faint of heart.

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 New York.