What does war accomplish? There were numerous wars in the history of mankind. Whether I have read or watched a story about war, it just gives more justification to what I believe - war is senseless.
Johnny Egan Goes to War by John David Young with Teresa Whitehawk is a book based on Mr. John David Young’s recollections of his life serving the military. I commend both Mr. Young and Ms. Whitehawk for the courage to wisely put this together. That wasn’t quite a great story to tell but definitely worth sharing. As for Ms. Whitehawk, it wasn’t quite a tale someone might enjoy hearing, but worth listening to. The story has been fictionalized. It has been noted like a disclaimer by the author, nonetheless, every detail about the war felt real.
Narrated from a first-person’s perspective, John Egan began by sharing his journey of becoming a soldier. A young lad who dreamt of becoming a rock star. An ordinary teenager enjoying his life with friends and music. And then came a letter that would change his life. He enlisted in the military and received the letter of acceptance. John wasn’t tall enough to be in the Air Force and the Coast Guard is filled. He was then recruited as a “volunteer” for Special Forces.
I definitely enjoyed the satire humour and all the sarcastic remarks in this book. I giggled every time they made remarks about the M-16, especially when they mentioned about putting condoms on the barrels of their guns. The first few parts of the book made me laugh. Little did I know, my emotions were being prepared for the next few chapters.
Apart from the humour, I appreciate the first-person perspective way of story-telling. I don’t think it would have been better if done otherwise. I guess, it was intended to be that way, so us readers can perceive and imagine the experiences and the events better and clearer.
There were some minor errors on spelling, capitalization and punctuation. That was the only negative point I have for this book and I believe they can easily be edited.
If you are not into war stories, especially with graphic descriptions of death, please stay away from the book. Otherwise, it might be a valuable story to read. In addition, the book contains profanity and mentioned of explicit contents, although not vivid. This is not limited to a specific religion, hence people who like reading war and/or history of any religion (or without) might consider the book appealing.
To sum up my review, I am rating this book with 4 out of 4 stars. The minor errors mentioned above were not heavy to weigh down the score of this book. I would be honest, it wasn’t an amazing reading experience. I was sad, I was mad and there were moments that I giggled and laughed. That’s my personal feelings, nonetheless, that should not affect the score of the book since we are reviewing it fairly. It deserves a full rating.
This book once again reminded me to be grateful with everything that I have. I’m leaving you with these lines from John Egan as they were coming back to the war zone after a little vacation.
******“I was thinking about home, how the Northwest wind left a cool spot on your skin and how it made you feel good to be alive. Here, all you could smell was the stink of the South China Sea and wonder if this breath would be your last.”
Johnny Egan Goes to War
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