In his brilliant debut novel (out today), Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (Ecco, $26), Ben Fountain reimagines the events surrounding a Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving Day 2004—from the perspective of eight Iraq war veterans participating as extras in Destiny's Child's jingoistic halftime show.
Fountain tells this day-in-the-life tale in (sur)real time, accompanying the soldiers as they deal with overzealous well-wishers, movie-rights interest from Tom Hanks, and the title character's hook-up with a born-again cheerleader—not to mention their own combat-induced trauma. The novel is being hailed as a latter-day Catch-22, but it isn't a satire so much as a faithful rendering of the crazy reality of post-9/11 America.
—Timothy Hodler, research director at Details
Also on Details.com:
5 Cookbooks Worth
Reading Cover to Cover
Jonathan Lethem on Talking Heads
Your Spring Nonfiction
Reading List
Rating
Comments
Post A Comment