Phil Klay’s REDEPLOYMENT is a collection of short stories about men serving in Iraq and Afghanistan or readjusting to civilian life. Brutal, raw, honest, and so nuanced it throws the very idea of PC out the window, it’s a brilliant analysis of humans at war and how war breaks everything.

Each of the twelve stories is told by a nameless veteran in first person. We don’t get to know them very well except through their experience, how it affects them, and how they describe it, providing a very intimate snapshot of a person’s life in or after war. Some of the narrators were directly in the thick of it while others at its periphery, though all in one way or another are affected.

What’s remarkable about these stories, written by a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and conducted enormous research into war experiences of fellow veterans, is how raw and honest they are. The soldiers in his stories aren’t lionized as gung-ho, flag-waving, earnest young men, nor are they portrayed as utterly virtuous but pitifully broken pawns. No kid gloves here, and you’ll find no comforting and childish stereotypes. Popular political narratives on all sides are frankly challenged (and wrecked), though there’s no apparent political agenda on the part of the author aside from asking the reader to see these veterans as real people, take it or leave it and make up your own mind, an approach I found utterly refreshing. Nothing is contrived in each story, which simply tells it like it is from one veteran’s point of view, with all the good, the bad, the ugly, and the horrifying.

The moral of each story can be difficult to grasp, as it’s highly nuanced. Generally, there are themes of whether morality can co-exist with war, all shades of guilt and fear, survival, helplessness when death can come at any time by pure chance, and the struggle to find meaning in what was essentially chaos. In one story, a veteran who supports a friend who survived horrible burns finds himself caring but envious, in another a veteran takes on a comrade’s guilt over shooting an armed child to the point it becomes real to him, and in another a priest struggles to comfort a unit that has utterly demonized the enemy and is shooting civilians. The stories are tragic, delivered frankly and without judgment, and seem to focus on the idea that once war gets in your head, it can be difficult for some to get rid of it. They’re also very procedural, providing what at least appears to be an authentic view from the front lines of the global war on terror.

Overall, this civilian found the stories disturbing, thoughtful, powerful, and moving. I recommend the read.

Phil Klay’s MISSIONARIES is a hell of an interesting read, though it often works better on a nonfiction rather than on a literary level. Let me explain.

Klay is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and the author of REDEPLOYMENT, a collection about veterans that earned enormous accolades. MISSIONARIES is a fairly ambitious followup, the result of six years of research. In this novel, a war reporter in Afghanistan, war veterans turned military contractors, narcos, paramilitaries, and intelligence officers in Colombia evaluate, experience, and try to counter the endless cycle of violence and drug trafficking.

The story contains a great deal of fascinating information, written with authority and flair and backed by solid research. It has a documentary feel to it at some points, a brooding SICARIO feel at other points. I love how Klay doesn’t posit easy answers or inject a moral narrative. He just tells you how it is, and how it is is very, very complicated. For me, this is where the novel really shines, in how it holds up for inspection a slice of the War on Drugs as an endless, cyclical war. This is my favorite kind of fiction, where I learn something without feeling like I’m in school, and where I’m exposed to engaging and interesting ideas, of which MISSIONARIES has plenty.

Where the novel works less for me is there are a lot of characters, and despite connections here and there, they don’t really tie together until deep into the last act. I don’t mind a sprawling story, but it needs to tie together thematically early on and eventually through the plot, ideally sooner than near the end. MISSIONARIES has a theme, though I’m not sure what it is other than the War on Drugs became the War on Terror and is now one unending global war, often fought outside the news headlines. Each of the characters is in one way or another an elite playing their part in the game, and we never see them face any real moral dilemmas about the dirty game they’re playing. And the way everything ties together, with a central conflict that doesn’t reveal itself until the last act and then gets resolved pretty quickly and without much fuss, makes this novel more a powerful snapshot of people and ideas than a coherent narrative.

So overall, A+ for ideas and good storytelling at the ground level, more a B or B- for characters and the way the story comes together. In short, I liked it a lot for its positive qualities, and I’m gonna check out his REDEPLOYMENT.

UNDERCARD, a debut novel by David Albertyn, follows the lives of four old friends who reunite in Las Vegas and, over 24 hours, have their lives completely upended. Slightly noirish and set against the backdrop of the War on Terror, Black Lives Matter, Las Vegas corruption, and professional boxing, it’s a powerfully written, in-your-face read. It’s missing a strong moral that makes noirish fiction work–at least I missed it–but overall I liked it as a simple story that packs a punch.

The novel focuses on four people who grew up in Sin City. There’s Antoine, a professional boxer three years out of prison with a personal vendetta; Tyron, a Marine returning home after a decade of war overseas; Keenan, a cop who shot an unarmed teenager and is the subject of BLM protests; and Naomi, a professional basketball player retired to turn coach, loved by each of them. Tonight, Antoine will fight a renowned boxer, a prizefight he must win to earn his name and possibly his vengeance, which will set them each on a path to right old wrongs and hopefully survive.

The writing has a nice energy to it, a hard noirish tone, and heavily developed characters, each of whom is flawed but likeable and somewhat larger than life due to their rich (if a little improbable in combination) backgrounds. The violence and passion of the prizefight serves as the novel’s centerpiece that ties the old friends back together, and it’s delivered with a terrific power. The ending brings it all home nicely, though after the fight the novel loses some energy and never regains it, not even in the climax, and I was left wondering what the point was in bringing all the backdrop issues–BLM, War on Terror, etc.–into the story other than purely to flavor and titillate.

Overall, I liked UNDERCARD a lot. It’s a fun read that delivers a solid punch for its strong characters and style.