The Yellow Birds

In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger.

Bound together since basic training when their tough-as-nails Sergeant ordered Bartle to watch over Murphy, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes impossible actions.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Kevin Powers writes a poetic, yet haunting, tale of one military member's experience with the Iraq war in his novel, The Yellow Birds. Private Bartle made a promise, one that he should never have made, to keep another member alive during their deployment. He failed. His failure haunts him as survivor's guilt shreds his life along with his suffering from PTSD. 

John Bartle is represented as being both bad and good. His assignment as narrator is not easily trusted, as Bartle struggles with remembering what happened in Iraq. As a soldier, Bartle adapted to the war. He killed when he had to, almost automatically, while his mind sometimes questioned what his body was doing. Bartle's memory of Iraq is beautifully described with glints of danger, fear, and horror. The blunt force of what happened in Iraq is positioned carefully in contrast with the beauty of Powers' prose. It almost attacks the reader with its horrific qualities. 

Readers will undoubtedly form an emotional attachment to Bartle. As the chapters switch from past to present, readers see what toll the war takes on Bartle's mind, body, and sense of right and wrong. His PTSD is readily apparent and begs for release. It's heartbreaking and soul shattering in its disparity. 

From the start of the novel, readers know that Private Murphy will die and that Bartle will break his promise to protect him. Though what exactly happened is held back until near the end of the story. Bartle shares the story in pieces, reminiscent of the chalk marks he made on a concrete wall that represented each memory resurfacing. The non-linear timeline creates a poignant chaos of different disasters all culminating in one broken promise. Though the prose is beautiful and the writing style poetic, this novel is not for the faint of heart. It's a struggle to read and to understand, though incredibly moving and powerful in its complexity. 

Rating: 3.5/5 Cups

The Lucky One

A walk from Colorado to find the woman in a photograph. A lost photograph.

Found in Kuwait by Logan Thibault. His lucky charm throughout his career in the U.S. Marines.

Kahn

A woman whose photograph saved his life.

But what happens when he finds her? If he can find her? Why is he looking for her? What does it mean? Logan Thibault can't even answer these questions himself. He just knows that he must find her.

With a dark cloud around the past he wants to forget, Logan walks across the country with only his dog, Zeus, in hopes of finding where the photograph was taken, and the beautiful woman in it.

* *

Nicholas Sparks' novel The Lucky One completely absorbed me. Right from the start the reader is introduced to the three main characters of the novel: Beth, Logan, and Keith. Characters that are as different as night and day. And although each have their good and bad qualities, readers can identify with each one. 

Logan Thibault is an ex-marine who came home from Iraq completely lost. With horrific events happening in the safety of his home country, Thibault finds himself glancing at rooftops and over his shoulder, waiting for a gun shot to ring through the air. He's a quiet man, who doesn't feel the need to fill the silence. Yet he finds himself unsure of who he can open up to about his past. 

Janaka Dharmasena 

Beth is a single mom who teaches second grade children and works with her grandmother training dogs. Her son Ben is the light of her life, but she wants something more. She wants love. Readers can identify with her because of the universal need to give love and be loved in return. 

Keith Clayton is the villain of the story. And although he isn't an over-all good guy, readers can relate to some of his nicer motivations. He isn't a very good father, but he does seem to love his son. Keith's main problem is connecting with people who are different from him. Acceptance isn't something he's used to giving out. Instead he chooses anger and projects that on the people he doesn't understand. 

The Lucky One was one of those novels I read in one sitting. I couldn't have stopped if I wanted to. But I'm glad I didn't. Too many intriguing story lines to pause. However, I did have one small problem with the book and sadly, it was the end. 

Not that I didn't like the ending. It was dramatic, thrilling, and even a little heart breaking. But the epilogue was the barest chapter in the novel. It was bones. There was no muscle, no flesh, no feeling of accomplishment when the book was closed. Sparks did an amazing job throughout the entire novel digging up the details, making the reader question motives, and keep turning the page. And the end fell flat. Another chapter, instead of an epilogue, would have been so much better. It would have left the reader with a smile verses a disappointed grimace. 

The way the novel ended: good. The explanation of what/how it happened: not. 

    The Lucky One

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                         rating: 3/5 cups