Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Book Review: Lone Survivor

Lone Survivor is based on an incredible true story. My brother highly recommended it to me, saying he couldn’t put it down due to the non-stop, heart-pounding action.

Unfortunately, I have to disagree with him.

The pace I found to be slow and choppy. While having some interesting information on Iraq in Chapter 1, the author spent a lot of time telling us how perfect and awesome his comrades were. (As happened many, many times throughout the book.) Chapter 2 gave us a long passage on his childhood. Throughout the book, these stories recurred again and again along with diatribes about the greatness of President Bush, the evils of liberals and the liberal media, mixed in with long transitions to his Texas ranch when al-Qaeda is looking for him in Afghanistan. Not quite the non-stop, heart-pounding action I'd expect in an action novel.

It was the constant references to the greatness of his friends that threw me off the most. Perhaps the author needed filler material. Even fighting on the mountain, the most intense part of the novel which didn’t start until half way through the novel, was constantly broken up by telling the reader how awesome his fellow soldiers performed: how smart they were, how courageous, how durable, etc. It really pulled me out of the scene. I can’t imagine recreating the chaotic events on that mountain, but being interspersed with all of the author’s thoughts about his friends, the fight on the mountainside never seemed vivid, real. Sure there was blood, and ugly wounds to see, but when one soldier was hit four or five times and still running, I started to wonder how can someone be shot through the throat, gut, arm and other places by assault rifles and keep on running and shooting. It started to take on a sense of the absurd – even if it was true. Sometimes writing the truth can become unbelievable. When one of the SEALS finally died, I was surprised because by the time he did die, because they had been shot so many times and had kept on ticking.

The part I found most vivid, exciting and well written was Marcus’ SEAL training. It was well-paced, interesting, the characters were solid and the story kept us wondering what would be in store for Marcus next.

But the long passages about his childhood, the Texas ranch, political ramblings and the perfectness of his friends kept pulling me out of the core story just when the book would get moving.

If you’re looking for a well-written, fast-paced action novel based on a true-event like Black Hawk Down, this is not it. If you’re someone who wants to know what it takes to be a SEAL, read a biography of a SEAL since his childhood, learn about the terrible SEAL tragedy in Afghanistan, and you had - at a minimum - neutral feelings towards President Bush’s conduct and reasons for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, you’ll like Lone Survivor.

1 comment:

Canada said...

Lone Survivor is a story that is a testament to the true warrior spirit. This book had to be indeed one of the greatest books that I have ever read, The book starts with a young Navy Seal Captain named Marcus Luttrell that has just gotten done with a very huge mission rather on an attack meant for vengeance for what has happened to the World Trade Center otherwise known as the Twin Towers being deliberately bombed by series of four coordinated suicide attacks. The Seal Captain’s mission was named Operation Redwing His main goal was for him to lead his platoon of men through the Pakistani border with a mission to capture and kill a notorious leader of the Al Qaeda that was known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold that is surrounded by a small but heavily armed force.