Rating: 
Summary: Literary License, Exaggeration and Fabrication
Review: Swofford's book is not compelling. It is not a classic. Any comparison's to Philip Caputo's "A Rumor of War" are so naive they are laughable. There are a few insightful and poignant observations in the 257 pages of this book. Unfortunately they are entirely obliterated by the inaccuracies, literary license, exagerations and fabrications Mr. Swofford includes.Swofford spins a tale of a trouble young man, one who abused drugs and alcohol, came from a difficult family, and treated his many girlfriends as just another conquest. He blames his problems on the Marine Corps, the difficult life a young enlisted infantryman has to endure, the constant training to kill. In the book he writes that his drug and alcohol abuse started BEFORE he joined the Marines. His family problems and relationship problems started BEFORE he joined the Marines. So why is he so quick to blame his problems on the Marines? I don't know. I don't feel his prose provided ample explanation either. And he fails to point out that some of the more offensive behavior he laments (alcohol abuse, brawling, using women for sex and not much else) not only occur with young Marines trained to kill, but also occur on a much grander scale on every college campus in the country. I was on active duty for six years and graduated from a Big Ten university. I've been there and seen it. The Marine Corps is not perfect. I'm sure Swofford has encountered his share of poor Marines, and his share of poor career Marines. Anyone who serves four years on active duty will. But Swofford allegedly has encountered the worst case scenario for every problematic stereotype there is: The philandering recruiter, the abusive drill instructor, the senior staff NCO's who rely on humiliation rather than leadership; the glory seeking officer. It was too much for this veteran to take. I am a former Marine....I know what I'm talking about....Swofford may have used literary license, he may have combined a lot of events or personalities into one person (as Hollywood does for movies) and he may have exagerated to make a point, but he presents his book as personal experience which makes his book an inaccurate potrayal of the truth.
Rating: 
Summary: Glad I Wasn't There
Review: I was never in the military & this book is one more thing that makes me glad of that. I have a friend that was in Desert Storm in the Army. He has told me a bunch of army stories, different from this book but interesting in their own way. However, my friend would be unable to communicate his stories with anything resembling the literary skill that Mr. Swofford has. The book ends right after the US retook Kuwait & Swofford returned to the US. I would be interested to read about Swofford's thoughts about the subsequent US ground invasion of Iraq, as well as the most recent US conquest of Iraq. This book may be like the war movies that Swofford mentions in the book itself. It may just reinforce the antiwar or gungho sentiments that the reader already has.
Rating: 
Summary: A good 'every-Marine' story
Review: After hearing reviews of this book on NPR, I had great hopes. While the book is an interesting and often intimate look at the life of a young marine, the plot is often choppy. I was also disappointed that the story lead up to the gulf conflict, during which there was very little personal conflict that was described. Granted, it is non-fiction, and the author did paint a colorful and rich picture of his experiences during the war, but it seemed that there was no peak to the storyline. I was let down by the lack of a good single-point of conflict. I am sure that this is a story shared by many of the fighting men and women during the gulf conflict, and in that this author deserves credit. It is a good 'every Marine' story of an important part of US history.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly Written and Unimpressive
Review: Could we have any more run-on sentences, poor grammar, or poor sentence construction? I find it inconceivable that any decent publisher would pay this guy money for what he puts on paper. I was given this book from a publisher to proof the galleys before going to print and I wanted to rewrite the whole thing! By page 20 I wanted to throw it out and by page 60 I wanted to... It's also a great game to count how many times this guy can use [profanity] per page. If you don't mind reading the [sad] self-pity party of an immature whiner, then you might like it. Otherwise, don't bother. Good thing I was paid to read it; I wouldn't have spent the money to purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing, well-written book
Review: Mr. Swofford is a very good writer, expressing humor and enough existential angst to give his military expose credibility. I did not find his views to be all that critical of the U.S. military machine, but what he describes is disturbing (or should be). His writing style is engaging and precise, so while the content is fascinating on its own, his swift, poetic and humorous prose will maintain your interest. I think this book should be on high school reading lists and given our present foreign policy (and the likelihood of many more wars to come), I hope many Americans will read this.
Rating: 
Summary: Pointless.
Review: Pages 217-236 are about the actual war and are fairly well written. The rest of the book is written in the style of an angst-filled girl in her early teens. I frequently found myself rolling my eyes at the way the author would describe a particular situation. The book is also horribly overwritten. Chapters are devoted to relationships that have no bearing on the overall story. The book has a schizophrenic feel with chapters jumping between the past, present, and future. This shouldn't be surprising as the author seems to suffer from a dozen psychological problems. The only reason I read the book to the end was so that I could write a review here and warn others that the reviews you heard on CSPAN and NPR were horribly wrong.
Rating:
Summary: An accurate depiction of the military, as I knew it
Review: Swofford's book is a very accurate depiction of the military in the late '80's and early '90's. I cannot speak for military life today; although, I am sure it is quite similar. I believe that many of the reviewers have missed the mark. I don't believe that Swofford was trying to glorify the marines, or to write a lurid novel, but rather to describe a young marines' life and mind set. As a former soldier, who served in the Gulf war as a Airborne combat engineer, and having had the experience of training with all sorts of military personnel, I found the book hard to put down. After reading the book, I found myself slipping back into the profane soldier/marine vernacular ( I am sure some marines and soldiers are wincing at the comparison between marines and army, but I feel there is very little difference, regardless of what brainwashing we have endured. The marine-army rivalry benefits the services, not the marines or soldiers.)
As a writer, who is trying to distill his own experiences in the peace-time and war-time army, I found his book the best of the books of the Gulf war era. I highly recommend it! Just bear in mind: it is not a "play-by-play" of the Gulf war battles, but rather a marine's account of his life before, during, and after the Gulf.
Write another one Swoffie!
Rating:
Summary: Fails on multiple levels
Review: This is not a particularly good literary work, nor is it of much historical value. It is also not a particularly interesting personal memoir. Swofford comes off more than anything as having been an immature jerk who wallowed in self-pity while in the Marines. And one has to wonder how accurate are his recollections from Gulf War I and earlier, considering the number years that elapsed between the events described and his committing his thoughts to paper. Many of his recollections smack of embellishment for literary effect. Swofford also has the annoying tendency to equate his perspective with that of all Marines who served throughout history. While there have no doubt been similar Marines, it does a disservice to the Corps to imply that all have been like Swofford - drunken, undisciplined malcontents who regretted their service.
Rating:
Summary: Literature it is not, but...
Review: as a bar room tale of one man's story, it succeeds. "Jarheads" is a rather detailed and graphic description of a man's experience in the Marine Corps. From boot camp to the bar stool, it plays out as a long night at a pub, listening to a former Marine. The reader almost feels like they owe Swofford a round to keep this fascinating yarn rolling. But that's all it is! Unfortunately, Swofford fails to back up the flash of his story -- Marine reading Homer -- with any deeper thought and analysis. He uses his platform as a former Marine to complain about the Marine Corps, and never fully explains his questionable judgment and thought process on why he joined in the first place. On the margins, Swofford debates the purpose of the war -- and he was clearly against it -- but never explains the paradox, then, of why he joined a volunteer army. With any factual-based story, one must always question the motivation of the teller. Shakespeare might have been none too pleased in Swofford's interpretation of the past being prologue -- the book is almost all prologue, with only a quarter of it about the actual war -- but perhaps that's a fitting way for the author to let us know what he was sitting through. There is a place for "Jarhead", given the United States recent military adventures, yet its questionable motivation and veracity demonstrate that Amazon's Third Pick in the year's Top 50 is not it.
Rating:
Summary: Dishonorable Discharge for Dummies
Review: Swofford has crafted with wit and whimsy the trials and tribulations brought upon one man over the course of his(nearly completed)4 year enlistment as a Marine. He speaks casually of his insubordination, vandalism and theft of government property. Knowing that the consequences of his actions will result in lasting effects on his fellow Marines' records in addition to their docked pay. He, like multitudes before him, has an unfaithful girlfriend (to whom he readily admits having been unfaithful to repeatedly before)while deployed. So he, until interupted, decides to wrap his lips in dramatic fashion around his M-16 and "end it" in the desert.
Swofford is painting false picture of the average life of a Marine at that time. It IS however HIS life at that time, and to that degree it is a compelling read. To get a glipse at war from behind the eyes of a scared child who's been forced into a Warrior's world and has to fake his way through it truely is heart wrenching. He talks about experiencing the sounds and vibrations of his first shelling and how he actually lost control of his bowels. Even being assigned to a sniper platoon the Author never actually engaged the enemy even once during his entire time in the Gulf. That's the kind of raw honesty that earned him his second star.
There are lot's of guy's out there who will pick this one up just for the title and they'll be disappointed. To them it's not about judging a book by it's cover. It's about the Title. We've earned it. Swofford knows that, so does his publisher. Swofford should rely on his talent not his title.
| 
