Review of "Thank You For Your Service" by David Finkel (Sarah Crichton Books, 2013),reviewed by Donald J. Farinacci, Author of books of political and military history, www.donaldjfarinacci.com.

David Finkel has scored another non-fiction triumph with his sequel to "The Good Soldiers", entitled "Thank You For Your Service." In this series of true individual stories, which taken together read like a novel, the soldiers are home from Iraq bearing deep wounds, and in need of intense treatment & rehab in one or more of the centers run by either the VA or private organizations. The condition of the returning injured soldiers from Iraq or Afghanistan hits their families with the new trauma of coping with the near-wreck of a human being who left for war a strong, capable and well-balanced man or woman. Finkel follows about a half dozen soldiers, most of them suffering from P.T.S.D. or T.B.I.(traumatic brain injury),and their spouses, through a stark and riviting journey into the labyrinth of well-meaning but sometimes dysfunctional rehab programs, from which the soldier does not always emerge whole. Kaplan's superbly crafted story lines carry us, together with his subjects, along the bumpy road to healing--strewn with obstacles such as frightening nightmares, deep depression, personality disintegration, suicide, domestic violence, severe memory loss, attention disorders, loneliness, divorce and alienation from friends and family. As Finkel re-creates actual dialogue between the soldiers or veterans and their spouses and caregivers, one feels like an intrusive eavesdropper; but this is a fleeting sensation only, easily eclipsed by the realization that the reader is experiencing the verbal artistry of one of the greatest depictions ever, of the invisible wounds of war.
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Published on November 24, 2013 12:59
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History's Difference-Makers

Donald J. Farinacci
Being a difference-maker doesn't necessarily mean your name is in a history book. Oscar Schindler was largely obscure before Steven Spielberg made an epic movie about the list. And how many knew that ...more
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