The frantic, present-tense narrative abounds with scenes and dialogue that make this account of battle read like a realistic war novel. They are filthy, hot, tired and dehydrated as they slog through rubble, broken glass and dead bodies to conduct risky searches of houses that may be “clean” or filled with booby traps and enemy soldiers. In an era of high-tech weaponry, Bellavia puts us on the ground with modern-day grunts who could just as easily be fighting in World War II in Europe. Written with military historian Bruning ( The Devil’s Sandbox, 2006, etc.), this rapid-fire recreation of the block-by-block fighting captures perfectly the horror-and horrible peak-experience attraction-of war. Months earlier, the burnt corpses of four American contractors had been hung from a bridge in the same city. They were part of the successful recapture of Fallujah, a command base for Iraqi insurgents. In November 2004, Army staff sergeant Bellavia led his men into the chaotic urban fighting described here. Staccato account of infantry combat in Iraq.
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