We Pierce: A Novel

by Andrew Huebner

We Pierce is the heartbreaking story of two brothers. One brother, Smith, goes to war. The other brother, Sam, stays home and protests against the war. A true believer in his country, Smith leads a tank company into battle in Iraq during the first Gulf War. Sam, an aspiring writer who is as much a rebel as his older brother is a natural leader, is busy demonstrating in Times Square in New York and at the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C. Smith learns about the true nature of patriotism, camaraderie, modern warfare and, perhaps most important, the soldiers' secret that some things learned over there are better not brought back home. Meanwhile, Sam faces his own personal struggles, questioning the strength of his beliefs while losing a battle with alcohol and narcotics. The depth of the sacrifices made at home by their family's commitment to honor and duty to battlefields abroad haunts both of the brothers, despite their disparate experiences.
As he did with his first novel, American by Blood , acclaimed novelist Andrew Huebner draws on his family's long experience with violence and military service and renders a haunting novel of war. From the desert of Iraq to the Lower East Side of New York, We Pierce is about fighting for what you believe in, no matter what the cost to yourself or your brother.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2003

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of two brothers. One goes to war during Desert Storm and the other moves to New York to try to be a writer. The book follows each as they try to make the best of their situations and the decisions they have made. One brother deals with the brutality of war, while the other struggles to give his life some sort of meaning and battles with addiction.

Overall, I liked it. I especially appreciated the new perspective it gave me on the first Gulf War. My memory of that conflict, which I think is similar to most people's, was that we bombed the hell out of the Iraqis and then mopped up. No sweat. Seeing the war through the eyes of one of the combatants, who didn't know it would be relatively painless, and being privy to the fears and uncertainties anyone in that position must feel, completely changed how I see the war. This story removed a lot of the "warfare-via-CNN" filter I remember watching it through. Not even Schwarzkopf's autobiography did that for me.

[Greg Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way this guy writes.

[Jeff Mayo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a mess. It is poorly written, and the editing is even worse. The characters are stereotypes, and there is no development. I begrudgingly finished this.

[Jonathan Briggs · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here's the only way I can figure it: One day, the boss at Simon & Schuster declared, "I declare today is Slush Pile Day. We shall reach deep into the pile of wannabe manuscripts and pull out one book to be published as is with absolutely no editorial interference." And thus, we have "We Pierce," the story of a Persian Gulf War soldier and his peacenik junkie brother. The only alternative to my Slush Pile Day theory would be that a major publisher just decided to chuck all standards of writing and editing as too much trouble. "We Pierce" is a mess. It's like reading an ambitious hopeful's extremely rough first draft of a novel. And somehow it got published without going thru any editing. Now many successful writers have made a stylistic choice to ignore the rules of grammar and punctuation. Take the wonderful and amazing Cormac McCarthy. Andrew Huebner is obviously a devout follower of Cormac McCarthy. But the big difference between the master and the novice is that Cormac knew the rules of writing before he started to break them. Cormac may not use quotation marks, but he writes with crystalline clarity. Huebner shows no such awareness, no such foundation in the fundamentals of writing. "We Pierce" is an often incomprehensible jumble of fractured English and muddled dialog and nonsensical action and military jargon jibba jabba and laughable tough guy posturing (right down to the author's photo on the back cover). The reader stumbles across far too many descriptions like this one: "... an old biker with long greasy hair shot with gray, red eyes." Quite the mental picture. It'd be very effective in a Clive Barker novel, but here it unintentionally provokes reader chuckles. And one measly star.