A veteran of recent British military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, Harry Parker avoids the path of least resistance in this highly intriguing and moving novel which does not take the form of a banal war memoir. The author captures the mind-blurring effects of war trauma by employing an exploded mosaic style to relate the events in the life of Captain Tom during and after his traumatizing experiences in a Middle Eastern war zone. However, Parker opts for a very original and pertinent means for evoking the cruel randomness of violence in war by allowing various inanimate objects in the protagonists'
environment to tell the story in objective yet dignified terms. Ironically, one is left with the feeling of increased sympathy for all victims of war who are nothing more than fragile beings in the wrong place at the wrong time. Very moving and realistic.
How to write about the unspeakable
A veteran of recent British military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, Harry Parker avoids the path of least resistance in this highly intriguing and moving novel which does not take the form of a banal war memoir. The author captures the mind-blurring effects of war trauma by employing an exploded mosaic style to relate the events in the life of Captain Tom during and after his traumatizing experiences in a Middle Eastern war zone. However, Parker opts for a very original and pertinent means for evoking the cruel randomness of violence in war by allowing various inanimate objects in the protagonists' environment to tell the story in objective yet dignified terms. Ironically, one is left with the feeling of increased sympathy for all victims of war who are nothing more than fragile beings in the wrong place at the wrong time. Very moving and realistic.