Rating: 
Summary: Eloquently Profane
Review: Anthony Swofford's "Jarhead" is a cynical and swear-ridden memoir of a young marine's tour of duty in the 1991 Gulf War. This is an adult book about an immature youth becoming a man the Marine Corps way. The language may be a turn-off for some, but the book is written in Marine-speak, where hardly a sentence goes by without reference to bodily fluids or perverse acts. It has the feel of accuracy ... and a bit of melodrama. Swofford's style is fairly unique and it succeeds in communicating the images and emotions of his experience, though it does so at the expense of good decorum. Here's a fine example of his run-on and strangely poetic prose:"I am a grunt, dressed up in fancy scout/sniper clothes; I am a grunt with limited vision. I don't care about a New World Order. I don't care about human rights violations in Kuwait City. Amnesty International, my ass. Rape them all, kill them all, sell their oil, pillage their gold, sell their children into prostitution. I don't care about the Flag and God and Country and Corps. I don't give a **** about oil and revenue and million barrels per day and U.S. jobs. I have a job. I'll walk the rest of my life. I'm a grunt. I'm supposed to walk and love it. I'm twenty years old and I was dumb enough to sign a contract and here I sit in the hairy armpit, swinging in the ball sack, slopping through the straddle trench of the world, and I can hear their bombs already, Mr. Times, I can hear their bombs and I am afraid." While in a literary sense "Jarhead" is a worthy and successful effort, Swofford's nonstop cynicism is depressing. I think his largely anti-war message is that his negative attitude is to be blamed on his Marine Corps and Gulf War experiences. But as he clearly shows, his "issues" were formed much earlier in life. And war or no war, if life were really as bleak as he portrays, we might as well all just lay down and die. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes...
Rating: 
Summary: A Tour de Force, Vulgar and Beautiful
Review: Jarhead will, I believe, become a classic. It is a vulgar and profane and yet also lyrical and literate tour de force. Jarhead is not told in a linear fashion; the way the story unfolds is similar to that of a contemporary literary novel, and I enjoyed it as such. Insofar as it reflects the deep-seated cynicism of the author-as-main-character, I was reminded of the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye: in the end, the reader has conflicted feelings--sympathy, admiration, pity, impatience, revulsion--about the subject. I think this book should and will be taught in our schools as a tool to discuss the social ramifications of training people to kill in the nation's defense. It's easy to proclaim our support for a strong defense, but unless we're in the military we don't usually become intimately familiar with the demands that are made on our servicepeople. Our self-image as a nation conflicts with our need for security: we think of our country as benign, benevolent, and peace-loving, but to protect our liberties--freedoms that have been and are clearly threatened--we, or our surrogates, must learn to fight, to destroy, and to kill. How do we reconcile those aspects of our national psyche? I can understand why some Marines might despise this book; it's certainly not a flattering portrayal of their Service. However, the perceptive reader will understand that this book is only one man's experience; the reader will also admit that, the vagaries of personal experience and of the interpretation of events aside, there is a truth in this book that is worth contemplating.
Rating: 
Summary: Jarhead
Review: I read this book on a recommendation of "Christine", the cheating girlfriend that Tony refers to in this book. I have also met the post war Tony on a few occasions as I was "Christine's" roomate for several years. I was disappointed that such a talented writer would sell out on his first book. He hated the Marines which is evident in the book and never mentioned it after he was out of the corp. But it was good timing, with another war starting, to write this one. Just the easy road to a quick half a million $$. The more lies I read in the book the angrier I became. It was entertaining to read how a man justifies his numerous cheating escaped by saying his girlfriend was doing it too. Which she wasn't, at least not with who he thought. But I guess, this again was a good way to sell books, with sex. I did learn a lot about war and the Military from the book. I just can't determine which is fact and which is fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of Money
Review: Thank God our military does not consist solely of individuals like the author. An extended profane navel gazing exercise, this book has nothing useful or interesting to say about the Marines or the first Gulf War. I glean from the book that the author didn't like the Marine Corps. Based upon the book I bet the Corps reciprocated the sentiment.
Rating:
Summary: garbage
Review: Being highly rated by the NY Times should have made me suspicious, but I fell for the war theme and expected all you would of a superior chronicle of man's nobility in and the futility of war. Instead all I read was an expletive laced, poorly written version of one loosers attempt to come to grips with himself among real men.This was about as pathetic a diatribe against what little battle this sod saw.If I wasn't so disgusted with the quality and quantity of this screed I would have paid money to return it to the publisher.Instead I'll content myself with tossing it in the garbage and hoping my review will trash anyones desire to read this. I wish there were a negative star I could assign this book.Simply one of the worst things I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Been there.
Review: War is not just about killing and dying of comrades. It is about losing your innocence. Just as in every other experience in life it is a platform for the future, or a prelude to despair. Any war, or any deployment for war cannot be measure in friends you lost. Losing one good friend is as difficult as losing a plane load of people you don't know. That is because what you really lose is a part of yourself. I think Mr. Swafford qualifies. I can see that he lost a part of himself there, and this is a path of recovery for him. Any person who shares his path of recovery in such honest terms is a hero to me. The hardest thing about the first Gulf War is that everyone thinks they know what it was like because they saw it on TV. Well here is a first hand account of what it was like for one individual. This story is not told for grand self elevation. It is told from the perspective of a young man who had hopes and dreams and illusions that were doomed to fall short. It is honest in that it shows the dark reality. War is terror, horror, and destruction, but mostly boredom. No person can do more justice toward describing it than to tell the story in terms of that mix. Our greatest battles are within, not without. From this book I see that Mr. Swaffod has fought those internal battles. FMR Marine SGT
Gulf War Veteran
Rating:
Summary: "Jarhead"
Review: Swofford's book is a metered revelation in both reality and humanity. I haven't been so affected by writing in a long, long time. I don't have to be a Marine to recognise the authenticity of feeling this man conveys. Hopefully, this book has/will stanch some of his and other veterans' internal bleeding. But mostly it should make us all think about what we do when we commit others to war. Thank you, Anthony Swofford, and keep on writing.
Rating:
Summary: Empty Headed Narcissism
Review: You really don't want to live in this guy's head for 254 pages. The sub-title says that this is "a marine's chronicle of the gulf war and other battles" but the book is really only about the marine - Swofford. Not the Marine Corps, not the war. The incidents portrayed are nothing more than backdrop for Swofford to talk about himself -his self-pity and his sense of superiority to others. No matter what Swofford claims to be talking about, the only thing that he really talks about is himself - Consider these two accounts: the first we hear of his girlfriend while he is in the gulf, is when he suspects she is cheating on him. We have no idea who she is, how they met, what she looks like or even what he thinks of her - he merely mentions that he is sure she is cheating because she works in a hotel and claims to "have a good friend". The incident is not about infidelity but about how easy it is for Swofford to play the victim and feel sorry for himself. This is pretty much true of all people in the book. Second example: a friend from the Marine Corps dies back home after serving his commitment. Swofford creates a chapter not about his friend, or grief or insights or revelations about how those might affect him. All his observations are about how he knew the deceased better than the mother and how pathetic the mother is because she didn't really know her son the way Swofford knew him. Not once does he consider that the mother may have known another side of her son, one not shown to a buddy in the corps. Getting into a rough bar fight after the funeral he observes of the strangers in the bar that "those men had actually shown Troy more respect than his family and friends becasue the family and friends had loved Troy and with their selfishness and love had wanted him to again be a part of their world." This sounds more like territorial posseviness - who gets to claim the memory of the deceased - the mom or the other marine who wants him to belong to his own world instead. Swofford shallowly doesn't even see he is doing just what he blamed the mom for. Though he is quick to let you know he carries around books like "Myth of Sisyphus" or "Portable Nietzche", the books are also mere props - ways to show his superiority but the subtly and refelction required to understand these books never comes out. No woman in the book comes out well - they are either there as "pay for" or as girlfriends or wives who will almost certainly cheat on you. While Swofford is capable of writing a sentance and even portraying anectodotes, the book as a whole lacks cohesiveness or depth and becomes monotonous - sort of like he makes the Marine Corps sound - drinking, womanizing, self-pity and rude behavoir in an endless cycle. The only real war going on in this book is that Swofford can't decide if he hates himself or feels superior to everyone else or both.
Rating:
Summary: I AM EMBARASSED TO HAVE READ THIS BOOK!
Review: Cry baby Swofford depicts the US Marines as a dirty, filthy bunch of guys who are born to kill and cuss and drink. I have been married to a Marine for 9 years and he has been in the Corps for 27 years. He has served proudly in 2 wars and would be embarassed to read such garbage. After Sept. 11, we took our kids to a baseball game at a local stadium and our son noticed the guy next to us with a 'towel' on his head. He got very scared and wanted to go home. He thought the guy was there to 'blow the place up'. This instance alone is why I support the Marines, and the fact that I haven't seen my husband in 9 months. Swofford should have went to college and become a writer and skipped the Marines. He is a great writer, but the content is bad! Real men (and women) won't read this trash!
Rating:
Summary: Fighting Against Type
Review: I am not generally a fan or reader of war stories or memoirs, but picked this up because it was written by someone who grew up where I live. I was impressed and, at times, awed. Swofford blends the often stoic, sometimes harsh soldier's perspective with that of the conflicted creative writer, in a voice that is smooth and literate. Not a typical "war memoir", perhaps--but that may be why it's so refreshing.
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