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I Am A Soldier, Too The Jessica Lynch Story Let's talk

#1 User is offline   socks_99_us 

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  Posted 03 August 2004 - 09:57 PM

I just got done reading the book and I could not put it down for one minnute, so what did everyone else think?
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#2 User is offline   Soprano84 

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Posted 27 August 2004 - 04:46 PM

It was, at first blush, a simple retelling of the generally understood events. The backstory on Jessica's family and growing up DID serve to show the kind of person she was when she left for Iraw...the kind of person who could survive what she did, both physically and emotionally. The ambush details were enkightening, if scary because they DID happen.

What struck me the most, however, was the deep DEEP connection between Jessica and Lori. An almost perfect relationship...and the true tradgedy (not counting the loss of life) was the sundering of that friendship.
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#3 User is offline   Dilligafst 

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Posted 29 August 2004 - 10:48 PM

I loved the book too. I had to put the brakes on while reading it to try and catch everything that I possibly could. But, as a writer, I also saw gaping holes in it that have, in my opinion and my opinion only, hurt what the book really could have been. Where Jessica's memory is telling the story it is fabulous. I had to check myself while reading through what she said, remind myself to slow down and savour what she is telling. Where Bragg is on his own that is where the book sort of loses ground. The book also skimmed on the Iraqi side of the story, a fascinating part of the story that should have been told more in depth. The problem was, of course, time. Bragg only had a couple months to get the book done.

The other problem was that it almost made Jessica an anti-hero and seemed to ignore the struggle in hearts and minds that she really won over there, and then over here. He starts it with those bone-crsuhing lost three hours but never develops it much. The book seems to compare her to the John Wayne and Rambo myth that so haunts our culture. True, it was done against that backdrop, with all the hoopla about Jane Rambo swirling around. In the end it almost short changes Jessica. But why short change a badly maimed kid soldier that fought with her head and her neck, the only weapons she had left, to save her leg and a prevent a trip to prison in Baghdad -- if she made it. It seems to miss the point that here was a kid out of the mountains that was all alone and thoroughly helpless, yet reached down inside herself despite the immense pain and pulled it off.

I have read the book twice already and will go again in the near future now that alot of it has had some time to sift down. I almost wish that she would do another book, starting from after the homecoming. That would be wild.
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#4 User is offline   mainzman 

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Posted 05 September 2004 - 01:59 PM

I read the book shortly after it came out. I sometimes pick up the book and re-read sections of it. For some strange reason, the book doesn't have the same effect on me now, than it did when I first read it.

I wonder whether Jessica has ever read the book?
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#5 User is offline   mstrunn55 

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Posted 05 September 2004 - 03:04 PM

From what I've heard she read most of the book except the part where it spoke of her treatment (euphemism) in the missing hours, I believe she liked Bragg's style of writing it. I will re-read it myself, it's been awhile, the description of the "hollers" of WV made it sound like a great place to visit. (Mainzman knows that) laugh.gif
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#6 User is offline   mainzman 

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  Posted 05 September 2004 - 04:01 PM

The couple of times I have visited Wirt county, it's exactly the small town we've heard about in the past year and a half. I can certainly understand why the citizens of Wirt County take great pride in their community and each other.
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#7 User is offline   Dilligafst 

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Posted 06 September 2004 - 10:08 PM

I live in the mountains of Vermont and when I saw Mainzman's pictures of the fair and the mountains around it, I thought it could just as easily have been Vermont as West Va. I would feel right at home in a place like Palestine/Elizabeth, except that they speak with a drawl down there while small towns up here still have that Vermont twang that is so pleasing to the ear.
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#8 User is offline   mainzman 

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  Posted 07 September 2004 - 12:39 AM

Spending several years living in New England myself, I spent many summers and winters in the mountains of Vermont and New Hamphire. Indeed, both states do have much in common (except for yaw vs. twang).

Actually, Wirt county is in a valley "dotted" by various hills and mountains. During my trip there a month ago, I drove to one of the mountain tops, sat there, and took in the beathtaking beauty the land has to offer.
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#9 User is offline   randy 

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Posted 07 September 2004 - 02:53 PM

Wirt County is more "hill" than mountain. Shucks, over to the east is where we put mountains on top of mountains. The great Allegheny mountain range! Wirt County is in the rolling foothills of this mountain range, as Vermont is. Wirt County, a small farming county is generally not one of the areas where the "hillbilly" comes from. That is more to the south and east.

Unfortunately, this state is losing many jobs and people because of the government. The work ethics is honorable among the hillbilly, and we are a proud bunch. Jessica's father is a truck driver because of the taxes and government on the farming community. He is a farmer in his heart from all I can tell.
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#10 User is offline   Mommy4Life 

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Posted 23 September 2004 - 01:54 PM

I just finished reading the book and, I too, could not put it down. The things Jessica endured were far more than anything I could begin to imagine. Anyone that goes to war while I sit in my comfy home watching them on TV is a hero to me. Thank you, Jessica!
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