The Forever War

All war is awful but the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are particularly so. I've finished The Omnivore’s Dilemma and am now reading Dexter Filkins’ The Forever War. A New York Times journalist his account is what he saw and felt. It does not speculate or discuss policy. It merely tells his own experience. It’s a personal account of the hardships faced by the troops and the civilians.

The glimpses of human spirit amidst the chaos and violence are moving. They are given power by the unvarnished under-statement of the author. There is no place for platitudes in the battlefield. But there is for compassion. And Filkins has this.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma was not a good book to be reading during a time of grief. I should have put it aside to do it justice. But I stubbornly read it – something to do to pass the time. I’d finished the iindustrial section about corn before Mum died. The organic section is but a blur. I did pick up that in the USA organic is now big business with the same mass production techniques, very different from our weekend organic markets.

(An aside. Colin brought up an organic pinot noir last night, Vinfields from Martinborough. It is one of the loveliest reds I’ve tasted).

The last section of Pollan’s book was about hunting and gathering. It struck many a cord in me. My childhood contained the remnants of that way of getting food. One sentence particularly struck me, hunters lose all sense of irony when on the trail.

It finished I returned to a childhood favourite – The Wind in the Willows which Mum gave me during the war years. A comfort read. Good triumphs. Now I’m riveted by Filkins' narrative.