From the Land of Genesis
Publication Release Date: November 17th, 2020
Unsolicited Press
Introduction
I have not fought in a war. I’ve never served in the military, either. This book, then, comes as a result of over six years of research, including dozens of interviews with veterans from across the United States, the United Kingdom, and the remote territory of Guam. All references to experiences of war are taken directly from these source materials and transcripts, sometimes verbatim. Depictions of veterans in the civilian world, however—of soldiers returning home and adjusting to their new lives—are of my own invention.
Cover art by Sean Ficht
This collection, like all good fiction, is a fusion of the real with the truth: of what happened with what didn’t happen, but is still “truer than the truth” (Tim O’Brien, How to Tell a True War Story). Some of these stories are true to one veteran’s experience, while others are true in a broader sense, encapsulating themes that pervaded the narratives of veterans from across three continents and numberless wars.
There is always the question of authority, though: one I’ve asked myself countless times, and that I still struggle with today. “How can you write about war without having experiencing it?” And the only answer that’s ever really satisfied me is the simplest one: you don’t.
Instead, you write about human beings. You write about their many complexities, their shortcomings, and their ideals. And, by the end of it, you reach the same conclusions that I found at the end of every interview, and at the bottom of all of my research: that even the most hardened among us, and the most broken, all want for the same things—all feel regret and shoulder burdens—and we all go to great lengths to remember some moments, to forget others, and to face (or to put off facing) the inevitability of death.
But the beautiful part of it is that we can reach across the aisles that separate us—by class, or race, or experience—and grab a hold of someone in an entirely different world and time. This book, for instance, connects veterans and civilians. It spans across two decades, encapsulating the longest war in American history (and counting), and it grabs hold of two worlds: the new world and the old; America and Mesopotamia; the “land of opportunity” and the land of Genesis.
