Sunrise Over Fallujah
Sunrise Over Fallujah
By: Walter Dean Myers
This is an extremely emotional yet unemotional tale at the same time. I'm really not trying to be contradictory, but when you read a book about the day to day life in a war zone you're going to come across emotions, and the blocking out of them. It's very intriguing to read, because you feel as if you are right next to Birdy, Jonesy, Kennedy and the rest of their Civil Affairs Unit. You feel the tension, the unexpectedness of people shooting at you when you're supposedly in a ‘safe' area of Iraq. You can also feel Birdy and other characters distance themselves from the sights they have seen. Don't get me wrong, there are some beautiful things that happen, but when the focus of the story is on a war, you know that everything is not going to come up all roses. It's just not possible, there will be suffering wherever war happens to be. This book really makes you think about the Iraq War and the day-to-day life of our men and women who are serving over there.
Birdy tries to distance himself from the violence that is all around them. Being in the Civil Affairs unit means he's not on the front lines and shouldn't be getting shot at, but he and his entire company are. Their job is to help the Iraqi people and make them feel that they are safe with the Americans there. Things sometimes work out, but when they don't it can get bad for everyone very quickly.
For someone who is opposed to the war, this would be a great book to understand the thought process of some of our soldiers and why they are there. They may not always like what they're told to do, but they do it out of pride of their country and a true belief that they are helping people. There's nothing wrong with that. On the flip side to that though, for someone who has supported the war from day one and has never been involved in one, you can see the impact that war has on a person's psyche. It may make you re-think your thought process.
A word of caution on this tale: you will be reading some descriptions of people dying and other forms of torture. There will be some mild language and other things that you may not appreciate, but it's necessary to the story. Myers doesn't shy away from tough subject matter. Some of it is a bit graphic, but it really is essential to make the tale have that truly realistic feel. It's going to challenge you no matter what your thoughts on the war in Iraq are.
Notes on the Cover:
Beautiful. Just beautiful. There is a passage in the book that refers to the sunrise and comes at a poignant time in the story. I re-read that passage to really get the full effect of it. The colors of the cover really portray how the sunrise is described in the story. The lone soldier walking with his weapon, the military vehicle (sorry, I have no idea which one, I had a hard enough time keeping the different units straight - but not to worry, there's a glossary!), the smoke rising from a building in the background, and the colors of the sunset is just amazing.