Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

I was a huge fan of Ben Fountain's short story collection  Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories (P.S.) , so I was eagerly anticipating his first novel. The novel focuses on one of the author's favorite themes - innocents serving as the pawns for power players in the world of politics. Here the focus in on Billy Lynn, a 19-year-old soldier who, along with his fellow soldiers in the Bravo squadron, become heroes in the Iraq War. Because their battle with Iraqi insurgents was captured on film and shown repeatedly on Fox TV, they become celebrities for people trying to justify a questionable war. They come home to the United States for a two-week Victory Tour, and the novel occurs entirely on the final day of the tour when they are the showcased guests at a Dallas Cowboys football game against the Chicago Bears. Fountain is an immensely gifted writer. The writing on every page is dazzling, and his gift at description, character building and lyricism are so jaw-droppingly good I found myself highlighting section after section until I stopped because I would have highlighted the whole book.My quibbles with the book are that from the outset you don't have a clear sense of some big thing that Billy wants, and there's no clear adversary preventing him from getting it - and without those definite desires and obstacles to them, it's not the kind of book you can't wait to get back to, as you're reading, to see if the character will be able to find a way to reach his goals. The Bravo soldiers will have to go back to the war, and while Billy's sister begs him not to and tries to introduce him to people who could spirit him away, it isn't until the end of the book that Billy starts to give that option any serious consideration. For much of the book he seems to accept his return as a given.The one dream the Bravo soliders collectively have is to make a lot of money from a movie made about their exploits because a Hollywood producer has bought the rights to their lives. That producer, Albert, tags along throughout their day at the football game, but at least through the early part of the book he becomes a tad obnoxious and repetitive as he keeps squawking into his cell phone with all the pompous, over-the-top insincerity masked as brutal honesty that has been portrayed so many times before in books, movies and TV shows like Entourage. The one funny bit here is that the movie deal starts to get some traction when Hillary Swank becomes interested in the story, on the condition that Billy's character become a female hero for the film, but the references to Swank's interest get so repetitive they do start to border on the monotonous. The only real adversary here - and a very thin one - is Norm Ogelsby, the team owner, who's an imitation of the real egomaniac, Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys. But the real tension with him doesn't come until the end of the book when he becomes interested in starting a film company to make the movie himself and becomes a hard-nosed negotiator with Albert and the soldiers. Of course, the main adversary here, would be the Bush Administration for intiating a war on the false pretense of getting rid of Saddam's WMDs, but those adversaries loom far in the background here.The other want Billy has is a relationship with one of the Cowboy cheerleaders, who makes out with him in a hidden corner during a photo shoot with the soldiers. Billy is a virgin, and his instant attraction to an immature cheerleader, is nothing more than the most obvious dreamy, boyhood urge. What the novel does very well is show what little interest people have in actually getting to know the soldiers, while they're fawning all over them, telling them they are heroes and expressing gratitude for their service. It's interesting that the soldiers are trying to get a movie made about themselves because for the hordes of people they meet - the powerful, the famous, and the everyday folk - what the soldiers mostly serve as is a blank screen upon which people can project all their own feelings about the war and how the United States should be exacting revenge in the aftermath of 9/11. One of the best and funniest scenes occurs in a pre-game exchange with the Cowboys' secondary. When the soldiers visit the locker room, most of the players stare off blankly, blocking out the routine interruptions in their pre-game rituals. But the defensive backs draw Billy in, eager for details of what guns Billy uses and taking sadistic pleasure in hearing gory details of his battles, as they entertain fantasies of joining up with the soldiers for a two-week tour in which they could wreak some havoc without having to leave their high-paying jobs permanently.The soldiers know they're being used by the government as a propaganda machine, and they're just interested in making some money off the entire P.R. operation. The way that Fountain so effectively portrays the sarcastic, ball-busting, but I've got your back camaraderie of the soldiers is one of the highlights of the book. I do wish we'd had a clearer description of the battle that made the soldiers famous, but a description of what happened is delayed in the early portion of the book, and when it comes later, it's often in bits and pieces. But there is a very powerful description of the one fatality of that fight dying in Billy's arms and the impact that has on Billy's thought patterns.I feel a little silly offering so many critiques of a book that's full of so many brilliant sentences, descriptions and observations. Just one section -- the prolonged description of the tour the soldiers get of the equipment room by the equipment handler - could serve as a showcase of how prodigiously talented Fountain is. The catalogue of the endless variety of gear the team requires is so eye-opening and so humorously told, you can't believe that a writer could make that subject so fascinating.I just wish I could have along the way rooted along with Billy for something bigger than getting money from a smarmy movie producer or a sexual romp with a drop-dread gorgeous cheerleader. And while the prospect of death hangs over Billy constantly as he contemplates returning to Iraq, the brutality of that war only comes through in a few brief passages, such as the death scene noted above and another in which Billy recalls the horror of what happens to the human body when it's shot at in close range with a high-powered weapon. In conclusion, I suppose, it was a book I did enjoy and I still look forward to Fountain's next work, but I think he fell short of making this a classic on the level of Catch 22, to which I know it has been compared.(If Billy had an urge as compelling as Yossarian's desire to avoid another combat mission, and as worthy an adversary as the crazy bureaucracy that blocked Y from his goal, this book might have had the same impact for me as that classic.) Another current novel in this vein of comic/satirical (with touches of tragedy) looks at the plight of Iraqi soldiers is  Last One In (P.S.)  by Nicholas Kulish, which didn't get the attention it deserved. It too offers a great look at the war from the perspective of the foot soldiers, although in this case that perspective is filtered through a worefully unprepared gossip writer, who by virtue of sharing a name with a more experienced but indisposed newspapersman, ends up embedding with them as a reporter.

A biting and quite funny satire that delivers a punch made more powerful because there is an utter believability to most of the story — you can just see a lot of events depicted happening “for real” — Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain is one of the best novels I read this year, or ever for that matter. I liberally used the highlight function on my Kindle, bookmarking dozens of passages for later recall.It’s a pity that a certain segment of the American population won’t bother to read this book, which shines an uncomfortably bright spotlight on issues of class, politics, economics, patriotism and religion.After taking part in a dramatic firefight in Iraq that was filmed by an embedded crew from Fox News, nineteen-year-old Specialist Billy Lynn and the seven other surviving members of his Army squad are on the final day of a whirlwind two week “Victory Tour” of the US. Finishing up at Texas Stadium as guests of the Dallas Cowboys for the annual Thanksgiving Day game, Billy and his mates will report to Fort Hood immediately after the game before returning to Iraq to finish out the year left on their tour.The soldiers of Bravo Squad are hung over and reeling from the frenetic pace of Victory Tour, but they’re also still trying to deal with the death and injury of friends in the battle, during which Billy displayed great courage and coolness under fire. Tagging along is Albert, a Hollywood producer trying to put together a movie deal to make the Bravos rich and even more famous, and the battle-scarred, mysterious and dangerously deaf Major Mac, their Army-assigned chaperone.In the time it takes to play a football game, Billy and the Bravos will have to make it through countless speeches, bask in the adulation of a many, survive assaults on their minds and bodies by friends and foes, try to strike it rich, strive to meet halftime headliners Destiny’s Child … and did I mention meeting the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders?Although called by some reviewers Catch-22 for the Iraq War, I think Mr. Fountain’s debut novel differs from Joseph Heller’s classic in a couple important ways. First and foremost is, as mentioned above, the realism. Granted, it has been years since I read and enjoyed Catch-22, but I recall much of it to be so wildly improbable as to be considered a farce — I’m not knocking it, just saying. In contrast, most of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk rings with a truthfulness that ratchets up the reader’s emotions.“Billy and Mango stand there eating scalding hot pizza and know that their fame is not their own. Mainly it’s another thing to laugh about, this huge floating hologram of context and cue that leads everyone around by the nose, Bravo included, but Bravo can laugh and feel somewhat superior because they know they’re being used. Of course they do, manipulation is their air and element, for what is a soldier’s job but to be the pawn of higher? Wear this, say that, go there, shoot them, then of course there’s the final and ultimate, be killed. Every Bravo is a PhD in the art and science of duress.” — Fountain, Ben (2012-05-01). Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A Novel (pp. 28-29). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.One negative reviewer I read complained that Billy and the other Bravo soldiers have “nothing in common” with soldiers they knew, but I disagree wholeheartedly. Some are sketched lighter than others, but I recognized plenty from my days as a division officer and department head in the Navy. Need a more “Army-centric” comparison? Try watching the excellent Sebastian Junger-Tim Hetherington documentary Restrepo, something I did again after reading this book to confirm my initial impressions.A second departure from Catch-22 is — despite what some negative reviewers say — the U.S. Army, indeed the military in general, comes across in a positive light. The Army was at best complicit, and likely wholly responsible for, the myth-creation surrounding Private Jessica Lynch and former-NFL player Pat Tillman, but here the events leading to the Bravo’s Victory Tour are fully documented and indeed available for anyone to see on YouTube.For sure, shots are taken at politicians responsible for the Iraq War and the hollowness and hypocrisy of those for whom “support the troops” has become a reflex that doesn’t extend to allowing any sacrifice that will actually affect the spouter of said platitudes, but the soldiers who are actually conducting the dirty business of war in a foreign nation are treated with respect.Many of the positive attributes of military service that I recall and indeed experienced are highlighted. Billy and the Bravos are more mature and focused than their peers — just nineteen, Billy is thought at one point to be many years older — and have exercised responsibilities the breadth and depth of which few civilians will experience. That isn’t to say Billy and the Bravos are saints or even grown-ups; they’re a rough-around-the-edges bunch, smart but not schooled, trained to be deadly but not socially graceful, and bonded to each other as combat soldiers. And very few of them come from money.“What cards these Bravos are, what a grab-ass band of brothers. Okay, so maybe they aren’t the greatest generation by anyone’s standard, but they are surely the best of the bottom third percentile of their own somewhat muddled and suspect generation.” — Fountain, Ben (2012-05-01). Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A Novel (p. 166). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.As noted above, it is a pity that some won’t bother to read this fine novel. But clear positions are expressed on so many topics that run counter to the expressed beliefs of many political conservatives and those in our polarized society willing to openly cross party lines seem to be an endangered species. Some of sharpest passages address the disparity between the haves and have-nots — both politically and economically — in America. The Iraq War’s legitimacy is addressed, as is the integrity of the country’s leaders who started that conflict. As Hollywood producer Albert, who admits to avoiding his own military service, puts it:“All the big warmongers these days who took a pass on Vietnam, look, I’d be the last person on earth to start casting blame. Bush, Cheney, Rove, all those guys, they just did what everybody else was doing and I was right there with ’em, chicken as anybody. My problem now is how tough and gung-ho they are, all that bring-it-on crap, I mean, Jesus, show a little humility, people. They ought to be just as careful of your young lives as they were with their own.” — Fountain, Ben (2012-05-01). Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A Novel (p. 55). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.I could go on and on, but you get the point. Read this book and I hope you enjoy it and find as much to ponder as I did. When you’re done, read or re-read Catch-22 (I’m going to) and watch Restrepo.

Ben Fountain, arrivé assez tard à l'écriture, s'est vite avéré être un très bon nouvelliste. Auteur pour l'instant d'un seul recueil, fort réussi, mais datant déjà d'il y a quelques années -  Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories  / Brèves rencontres avec Che Guevara  (voir mon commentaire) - j'attendais sa nouvelle livraison. Il vient donc de signer un 1er roman,  Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A Novel  (ou bien  ici  ou  là ) et en dépit des quelques petits défauts que l'on pourra y trouver, la déception n'est pas au rendez-vous.C'est bien sûr l'ambition qu'il faut tout d'abord saluer. Si les récits - plus ou moins bruts de décoffrage - et essais autour des guerres extérieures des Etats-Unis ont pullulé ces dernières années, il y a finalement eu encore assez peu de tentatives de les approcher frontalement par le roman. Certes, les anciens combattants d'Afghanistan ou d'Irak font désormais partie des personnages attendus de la fiction américaine, en littérature ou au cinéma - cf. par exemple l'intéressant personnage de  The Wilding  / Le Canyon  de Benjamin Percy, dont le retour au pays est appréhendé de façon relativement complexe - mais peu de romans se sont colletés directement et largement à la façon dont ceux-ci sont perçus et à l'usage pervers que l'on en fait.Le récit est simple (voir aussi description ci-dessus). De retour au pays, où un 'Victory Tour' a été organisé en leur honneur et afin de remonter le moral d'une nation qui commençait à se poser des questions sur la validité de la guerre en Irak, les huit soldats de l'escouade Bravo sont ballotés d'un endroit à l'autre, jusqu'au stade de Dallas où ils vont être exhibés devant la foule reconnaissante pendant la mi-temps. Flanqués d'un producteur hollywoodien sur le retour qui a acquis les droits de leur histoire et essaie à grand peine de trouver fonds et partenaires, ils évoluent dans un barnum qui les dépasse, heureux d'être là - ils sont célébrés, vont pouvoir rencontrer les pom-pom girls et côtoyer Beyoncé - mais aussi passablement largués devant les questions qu'on leur pose et les rôles qu'on leur assigne. La focale est plus particulièrement fixée sur Billy Lynn, Texan de 19 ans dont l'intervention a été cruciale pendant l'événement de Al-ansakar : le personnage est idéal au sens où il a commencé un processus de maturation accéléré qui l'amène à se poser quelques questions essentielles, rendues d'autant plus aiguës par les attentes des uns et des autres une fois de retour au pays.La grande réussite du roman de Ben Fountain tient sans doute au fait que, tout en étant justement assez frontal, il a tout de même pris quelques biais nécessaires et soigneusement évité les écueils que l'on pouvait craindre sur la question. Tout d'abord, celui qui consisterait à construire ses personnages pour en faire de simples prétextes à dénonciation. Non pas qu'il ne dénonce pas, mais s'il y a bien une cible, elle se trouve plutôt dans la façon qu'ont les Etats-Unis et son peuple de recycler la notion d'héroïsme jusqu'à plus soif, et à presser le jus de ses héros jusqu'à la dernière goutte (ceux-là comme d'autres). Il ne s'agit pas pour Ben Fountain d'orchestrer des révélations qui viseraient à montrer à quel type d'exactions se livreraient les soldats en Irak ou ailleurs, ou d'opposer de manière un peu binaire la volonté d'aller 'faire le bien' et les résultats peu glorieux auxquels la présence américaine à l'extérieur a pu aboutir. Si tout cela peut émerger ici ou là à l'occasion d'un dialogue ou d'une rumination du personnage, Ben Fountain a pris le parti de montrer ses personnages 'après la bataille' : savoir si leur action a effectivement été héroïque ou non ne l'intéresse qu'en tant qu'elle est reflétée par les soldats eux-mêmes et les civils américains qui entrent en contact avec eux - jamais décrit pour lui-même, l'acte auquel ils se sont livrés nous est restitué par bribes, uniquement par reflet à un moment donné. Le roman ne laisse donc jamais entendre que ces héros nationaux n'en sont pas : si doute il y a, il émane des personnages eux-mêmes, ou du fossé existant entre ce que les soldats semblent avoir fait et la façon dont on les exalte au-delà de toute proportion (mais jusqu'à un certain point). Plongé dans un maëlstrom, ils se retrouvent comme hors sol, alors même qu'ils reviennent à la maison.Attentif à ses personnages et doté comme nombre de romanciers américains d'une bonne oreille, Ben Fountain les fait parler avec une certaine véracité. Il prête également à son personnage principal des moments de réflexion, de doute et de confusion qui lui permettent de faire affleurer à la conscience des liens qu'il n'aurait pas tissés autrement. Si Ben Fountain n'évite pas toujours de donner l'analyse clés en mains et verse parfois dans un certain didactisme (mais sur quelques lignes, jamais en tartinant), il arrive le plus souvent à soulever nombre des traits qui définissent ce qu'aux Etats-Unis on appelle 'the culture' (que l'on pourrait traduire par le contexte / l'environnement culturel). Arrachés un temps à ce bain, les soldats de retour sont plongés dans une lessiveuse qui, comprennent-ils plus ou moins confusément, n'a rien de différent de celle dans laquelle les Américains baignent en permanence : consumérisme, recyclage commercial, récupération tous azimuts par une industrie du divertissement protéiforme, exaltation de valeurs que l'on foule aux pieds dès que son intérêt bien compris n'est pas servi au mieux, etc.Si le roman n'est donc pas exempt de petits défauts - volonté de trop en dire à certains moments, idées un peu plus faibles dans le traitement de la façon dont Billy rencontre l'amour auprès d'une pom-pom girl attendrie, variations sur le thème un peu redondantes - il trouve le bon équilibre entre sa dimension picaresque, ses quelques poussées grotesques et l'examen de son jeune personnage ébranlé. Vendu comme le " Catch-22  / Catch 22  de la guerre en Irak", ce roman n'est en fait pas une charge contre l'absurdité de la guerre comme pouvait l'être celui de Joseph Heller. Moins crépitant et hénaurme, d'une structure moins élaborée, moins répétitif et plus subtil aussi, il vise avant tout le malaise dans 'la culture' américaine. C'est en cela aussi qu'il constitue une proposition originale, qui a trouvé sa forme propre, caracolante à certains moments et réflexive à d'autres, dont l'ambition est le plus souvent servie au mieux par les choix stylistiques opérés.J'ai hésité quant au nombre d'étoiles à donner à ce roman. J'opte finalement pour 4 en raison de ses quelques petits défauts, mais je tiens à saluer une réflexion et une ambition romanesque qui, sans être fracassantes, sont plus que jamais de salubrité publique outre-Atlantique.Ce livre est traduit, comme son premier, chez Albin Michel :  Fin de mi-temps pour le soldat Billy Lynn . En attendant sa sortie début 2013, les anglophones peuvent se porter sur une des éditions mises en lien ci-dessus. Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: StoriesBrèves rencontres avec Che GuevaraBilly Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A NovelicilàThe WildingLe CanyonCatch-22Catch 22Fin de mi-temps pour le soldat Billy Lynn

Stoked by the prospect of watching a new Ang Lee adaptation just days away and thanks to its curiously scored and edited trailer, hinting at some Narrative within narratives, I snapped up this remarkable source book, an imagined memoir-of-sorts by Ben Fountain-an author I hadn't known about, but what a talent!Good luck to Mr Lee in bringing this cracker of a satire with all its layers of orgiastic, trenchant verbiage to the screen. Playing out over a single day of a 19 year old just-returned war hero who is being honored along with his squad for a successful shock-and-awe mission in Iraq; as our lone hero drags his heels through the pomp and ceremony of the erected theatre of a Cowboys' Thanksgiving home game complete with a Destiny's Child performance, we the readers get to inhabit the amphitheatre of the "old soul" within him.His inner monologue, a rigorous and continuous commentary on the misguided state-sponsored war he is a part of and the industrial fantasy-making culture machine that is erected around it, is often interrupted by the grotesquerie that invades his senses: from the pyrotechnics of the circus erected to the overwhelming pangs of lust for a cheerleader he's fallen for to his doting sister's persuasive pleads to withdraw from the military service to the flashbacks of the explosive incident-the reason for his unasked-for celebrity status-where he lost his best mate to his interactions with overfed, over-entertained squealing zombie-humans and punch-drunk-with-their-own self-importance corporate lizards.There is also a continuous thread of his squad's story being juiced for a Hollywood adaptation that never quite gets off the ground, which brings to fore the book's and the author's concern for the uninvolved millions engaged in this documented, filmed and televised hyper-reality of war, organised sport and propaganda everyday: it has become the new drug that provides a welcome relief from the chaotic, unrewarding and intricate personal realities. It is interesting that this very well articulated, rip-through-every-artifice stance is encased in one giant thought experiment by this talented creator of fiction. He pulls off this young contemplative wartime hero with absolute triumph-with all of Billy's bile spread evenly between the "telling"-his fabulous expositions fashioned into soliloquies-to-self and "showing"- four incidents: a football game, a boy-leaving-home drama, a film deal and a minor love affair that unfold organically with a cast of full-blooded beings I could place and hear.With a terrific sense of time, place and concern, in one long halftime, Fountain manages to give us a hero for the noughties generation, a generation that finds willingly and unwillingly gorging on increasing post-truth scoops of farcical politics, entertainment-on-tap, derivative culture products and virtual realities.

This intriguing novel presents the reader with deep and credible portraits of a group of young war veterans and the characters they encounter on a valedictory trip to a Thanksgiving NFL game. This was some achievement given the limits placed on the plot by the static setting in the stadium but the characters are cleverly introduced and laid bare in turn. Even the deceased Shroom, only featuring in brief flashbacks is drawn with such care that it is easy to imagine the impact of his passing.The American public are generally portrayed in an unfavourable light with a succession of boors invoking "nina leven" when paying homage to the gallantry of Bravo squad. Fountain, however, resists the temptation to expand the vista and dwell on the heroic battle that made the soldiers American heroes.The eponymous Billy is more comfortable battling insurgents in Iraq than accepting the affected gratitude of his compatriots and spends the novel in a state of bemusement. Even a hasty liasion with a Dallas cheerleader, America's thanks made real, fails to give him the context he is searching for, leaving him to ponder bigger questions about his own reality and future.For me, the stand-out character was Dime, the patriarchal squad sergeant. Where Billy is naive and out-of-depth, Dime is unyielding in his loyalty to Bravo squad when challenging the slippery Hollywood producer and reptilian Cowboys owner who befriend the squad in order to exploit their heroism.A remarkable work considering it is a debut novel and even more so considering Fountain has never served in the military. I would have guessed that such ease and familiarity with soldierly vernacular could only come from time spent in uniform.

I bought this as an impulse Kindle buy, from an Amazon 'new releases' list. It was a shot in the dark and I struck gold. I really really enjoyed the writing. It is written from the perspective of a US army corps teenager, who has just got back from Iraq, and isn't quite sure about the rights and wrongs of the violence he has seen and been a part of. Billy Lynn has been sent on a 'Victory Tour' by a Government eager to shore up its support, the climax of which is to an American Football match, in Texas, replete with cheerleaders, capitalists, fawning patriotic fans, and aggressive roadies. The group are accompanied by a guy who is trying to cut them a film deal on the back of their 'patriotic' battle where they had mown down a number of Iraqis. Billy lusts after one of the cheerleaders, is on a permanent quest for Advil to deal with his hangover, and is dodging texts from his earnest sister, encouraging him to defect from the army. All this in the gap before they return to their tour of Iraq. I found it a biting satire of the nexus between the American right, Christianity, capitalism, and the 'good-evil' useless depiction of the Iraq war. It was funny, heartrending, and non-preachy, but left me clear that the cavern between the frontline soldiers, and the politicians and the rich in the US, is huge and the bravado-like approach to killing 'Al-Quaeda' doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense if you're the one with your finger on the trigger in the desert.

An exceptionally good read - quite the most enjoyable book I've read for several months.That said, it seems only sensible to point out that this is a Marmite book. If you're unfamiliar with or irritated by American colloquialisms, if you dislike bad language and swearing, if you think the war in Iraq was a good thing and if you dislike or know nothing at all about American football, this book may not be for you. However, the language and swearing isn't that bad and it's never gratuitous. And it's possible you could enjoy the book without knowing anything about American football and its traditions.On the other hand, if you know and like America, if you have contempt for George W Bush and the political thugs who embroiled the US in an unwinnable war for highly dubious reasons, if you enjoy watching the Super Bowl and if you enjoyed Tom Wolfe's "A Man in Full", there's every chance you will love Ben Fountain's book about Billy Lynn and Bravo squad as much as I did.This is a satire and it's clever and very funny. Seldom laugh-out-loud funny, but you'll find yourself grinning most of the time. The dialogue is as good as any I've encountered in a book. Never a false note, crystal clear and true. And it's the dialogue that produces most of the humour. Sometimes satire becomes tedious, when the author starts preaching or laying it on too thick. In this book, the satire is subtle and gentle and Fountain never (in my opinion) loses his sense of proportion. At times the humour and style reminded me of Tom Wolfe, but this is every bit as good as his stuff and one third of the length. It's beautifully written, too.If you decide to read it, I hope you get as much fun and pleasure from it as I did.