Nightcap at Dawn

April 23, 2012
This tome of the tactics, true stories, and "hallucination(s)" of fighting a counterinsurgency war in Iraq was anonymously penned by a group of American soldiers, but despite its serviceman pedigree, the book lacks the narrative structure to become more than a practical primer for a war from which the U.S. has already withdrawn. There are some compelling first-hand des criptions of grisly conflict, the psychomechanics of parsing a loquacious local businessman from a potential enemy fighter, and ideologues competing like corporate franchises, but the book sorely misses the hand of an editor. Anecdotes ranging from soldiers bribing prostitutes for information pertaining to their clientele to tales of informants on the brink are dropped flat without conclusions, and an engaging gallows humor is subsumed by a tone that is as bone-dry as a PowerPoint presentation, flow charts and all. The overview of Iraq's slippery sectarian "soup sandwich" can be fascinating, but a surfeit of general information and lack of a cohesive narrative thread will make this book appeal primarily to hardcore military historians.

Starred review from March 15, 2012
Iraq war experiences from those who were there. "Sgt. J.B. Walker," the "author" of this absorbing, dramatically vivid chronicle, is a pen-named collective effort by American soldiers fighting in Iraq. Originally self-published, the narrative is comprised of candid e-mails assembled once the group returned to American soil and encompasses much more than its original intent to detail "the simple charms of soldiering." With exacting scrutiny, many of the unnamed authors share the stark realities and myriad complications of counterinsurgency efforts. Each of the six sections delves deeply into the multilayered aspects of military duty: the culture shock from intercepting violence (while expressing good intentions) to the citizens of a predominantly foreign society, soldiering with a concussion, profiling jihadist militants, the inexplicability of suicide bombing and the silent suffering of innocent Iraqi women and children. Most affective are the personal accounts, ranging from the poignant to the humorous. Individual narration of violent conflicts and meticulously rendered scenes of armed tactical maneuvering are tempered by the soldiers' first-person depiction of fearless Iraqi civilians demonstrating resistance to cutthroat guerrilla movements. Expertly archived and originally written for military audiences, this confluence of warfare experiences is sure to garner widespread attention, with the publishing proceeds directed to charities serving military families, "the unacknowledged soldiers of any war." A bracing cooperative effort taking readers as close to war as humanly possible.

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