Topic: HOT BOOKS
THE UNFORGIVING MINUTE by Craig M. Mullaney
A Soldier's Education (Hardcover) by Craig M. Mullaney
Young Captain Mullaney’s admirable, literate autobiography, that of a veteran of combat in Afghanistan, adds much to knowledge of the modern army and makes a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate over what a “warrior” is these days. Mullaney wryly recounts his years at West Point and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, then writes eloquently of infantry combat and the persistent burden of guilt for not bringing all his men home even as he makes his account a tribute to his fellow warriors. He concludes with sidelights on his teaching post at the U.S. Naval Academy and the moving story of his younger brother’s graduation from West Point and subsequent passage into the ranks of the warriors himself. Almost impossible to put down for anyone interested in the modern U.S. Army or in modern warfare in general. --Roland Green (amazon.com)
The Unforgiving Minuyte by Craig M. Mullaney
Updated: Friday, 27 March 2009 1:12 PM EDT
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November 7, 2007 - Award-winning Nigerian writer Chris Abani's latest novella, Song for Night, follows a voiceless, injured West African child soldier, as he journeys through the horror and hope of civil war. Trained as a human mine detector, an Igbo boy soldier in West Africa witnesses and takes part in unspeakable brutality. His clipped, dispassionate narrative tells of mutilation, rape, massacre. But tells is the wrong word. He has not spoken for three years since, at 12, his vocal cords were deliberately cut so that he would not scream and give away his platoon's presence if he was blown up. After an explosion, he travels back in search of his comrades through abandoned villages and rotting corpses—and through his own memories. As he did in Becoming Abigail (2006), Abani, who was himself jailed and tortured in Nigeria, never backs away from a gruesome detail, but the gore is never sensationalized. The horror of what happens to this Igbo boy is intensified by his confusion and his tenderness. He remembers his mother taught him to crochet; she died hiding him. Ijeoma, the girl he loved, comforted him after he was forced to rape a captive. Then Ijeoma stepped on a mine. His words, "I miss her," say it all. 
Irving Fine (1916-1962) was a gifted composer, an excellent pianist and a notable educator. His death at the age of 46 deprived us of an important creative talent; the fact that no serious book about him has appeared until recently is rather surprising. Philip Ramey’s book fills this gap admirably.