Battle Fatigue (review)

Kurlansky's prologue finds narrator Joel Bloom pondering his imminent migration to Canada, a move he's chosen over the alternatives: military service in Vietnam or incarceration for refusing to serve. Over the ensuing chapters he methodically reviews the ages and stages of his life and how the customs and attitudes of his parent's World War II generation—public pride in wartime heroism, and private reticence to discuss the details of combat—made him and his childhood buddies eager to make their own marks as warriors. Joel, however, was just a tad more reflective than his pals, apt to question the efficacy of atomic bomb drills and the wisdom of a nuclear showdown over the island of Cuba. College offered not only temporary refuge from immediate decisions about draft or enlistment but also introduced him to a culture of protest that was almost unimaginable in his youth. By the time graduation arrived, Canada was his only real option, and by novel's end Joel, now a young man settled in Alberta, can say with confidence, "But I'm not sorry at all. How often do you get a chance to stand for something? Refusing to go to war was actually one of the best moments of my life." Joel's memoirs, which reflect his state of mind at various points in childhood and adolescence, are poignant, funny, and heavily brushed with the irony of an adult who knows where these early ruminations will lead. Accessible across a range of reading levels, this could be an excellent class selection for American History or Language Arts.