What I’ve Read: What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes

Vietnam veteran Karl Marlantes wrote this haunting nonfiction book about the realities and after effects of combat, in the context of both historical conflict and modern-day war.

I had put this on my to-read list after reading a review of the book that earmarked it as one of the best insights into the modern-day warrior mind that the reviewer had ever read. Although I can’t say I’ve read every book in this genre in order to make that comparison myself, I can say that this book—and Marlantes’ personal combat experiences—will haunt me for some time to come.

There is a divide between a civilian (like myself) and the veteran or modern soldier that this book attempts to gap by showing how intrinsically different combat is from any other human experience. There’s a tendency among civilians to believe certain things about combat situations from movies or fiction books, and I know I’m guilty of this myself. (I wonder how many non-veterans claim their greatest exposure to the Vietnam War to be Apocalypse Now, for example?)

What this book does so well well is putting words to emotions and to experiences in a masterful way that I haven’t read before. I found myself taking away something so valuable from reading this, but believe that there is an even greater value in this book for the combat veteran, or currently-enlisted soldier, or for the person thinking about enlisting, or for the family or wife of a member of the armed forces. As for me—someone with very little personal connection to the military—I have left this book with a completely altered thought process regarding our nation’s soldiers and what is expected of them both abroad and at home. It’s incredibly sobering and eye-opening.

Have you read this book? What did you think?