These Heroic, Happy Dead: Stories

by Luke Mogelson

With his harrowing debut, Luke Mogelson provides an unsentimental, unflinching glimpse into the lives of those forever changed by war. Subtle links between these ten powerful stories magnify the consequences of combat for both soldiers and civilians, as the violence experienced abroad echoes through their lives in America.
        Troubled veterans first introduced as criminals in “To the Lake” and “Visitors” are shown later in “New Guidance” and “Kids,” during the deployments that shaped their futures. A seemingly minor soldier in “New Guidance” becomes the protagonist of “A Human Cry,” where his alienation from society leads to a shocking confrontation. The fate of a hapless Gulf War veteran who reenlists in “Sea Bass” is revealed in “Peacetime,” the story of a New York City medic's struggle with his inurement to calamity . A shady contractor job gone wrong in “A Beautiful Country” is a news item for a reporter in “Total Solar,” as he navigates the surreal world of occupied Kabul.  Shifting in time and narrative perspective—from the home front to active combat, between experienced leaders, flawed infantrymen, a mother, a child, an Afghan-American translator, and a foreign correspondent--these stories offer a multifaceted examination of the unexpected costs of war.
        Here is an evocative, deep work that charts the legacy of an unprecedented conflict, and the burdens of those it touched. Written with remarkable empathy and elegance,  These Heroic, Happy Dead  heralds the arrival of an extraordinary new talent.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, War, United States, Military Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2016

About the author

Luke Mogelson has written for The New Yorker since 2013, covering the wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, and Iraq. During the pandemic, he reported from across the US. Previously, Mogelson was a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Kabul. He has won two National Magazine Awards and two George Polk Awards.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is no such thing as "getting used to combat" . . . Each moment of combat imposes a strain so great that men will break down in direct relation to the intensity and duration of their exposure. Thus psychiatric casualties are as inevitable as gunshot and shrapnel wounds in warfare.
- J.W. Appel and G.W. Beebe (Professors of Psychiatry)*

Mogelson presents ten tales about lives that have been shaped by wartime.

The man pokes him with the muzzle of his Kalashnikov. He stabs the metal falsh-suppressor into Healy's sternum. Healy knows what the man wants. He wants Healy to look at him. That is what you do, after all, when you have the questions and the gun. You make him look at you.
-from A Beautiful Country

His taut, gritty stories are presently matter-of-factly. He just lays it all out there - what it's like to come home from another country a changed person, and what it's like to live with someone you no longer recognize.

"Let me talk to Lilly."

"She's afraid of you, son."

"Because of the window incident?"

"The window incident? The window incident? What she says, the window incident was the least of it. Did you tell her she made you want to kill things?"
-from To the Lake

Two of these stories - Peacetime - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... - and Total Solar - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... - are available to read for free from The New Yorker. Try them out and see what you think, then consider buying this book.

He was a recovering crank addict from Georgia, Alabama, or somewhere, and he suffered from such horrible meth-mouth it looked as it he'd downed a shot of nitric acid and chased it with a pint of ink; all that remained were black nubs and splintery fangs clinging like a cancer to his gray, corroded gums. This soldier - I forget his name - was famous in the unit. He'd enlisted for the dental plan, so that he could get new teeth.

I stood there in the doorway watching him - he gripped the armrests of the chair, as if braced against the vision of his orthodontic future - and I was overcome with envy. Here was another one who knew what he was fighting for.
-from New Guidance



*J.W. Appel and G.W. Beebe, "Preventive Psychiatry: An Epidemiological Approach," Journal of the American Medical Association 131 (1946), p.1470

[Jessica (Odd and Bookish) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Bookstr's giveaways.

Like most short story collections, there were some stories I liked and some that I didn't. My personal favorites were "To the Lake," "Sea Bass," and "Visitors".

The author did a good job of showcasing how war can affect people and their families.

Overall, it was well written and I enjoyed it.

[Liz Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.

War is a foggy subject, it does not only leave people physically scared, but also mentally, leaving pain continually throughout their lives. Hence, it is one of my favourite things to read about. I like to know about people enduring war, and living after war has damaged them, because it offers us a perspective into what the life of people that have laid down their lives for others constantly endure. It is also one of my favourite things when the stories are interconnected in small ways, this one also has this.
The stories are filled with conflict, either caused directly or indirectly by war, yet none are sentimental, but still cause you to feel the sadness of their lives. We follow veterans obsessed with the wife that left them, innocent children carrying weapons, a translator who left home and is confronted with a reunion of the people he translated for, a boy whose father cannot adapt to non-combatant life, a soldier now in prison for a crime committed after returning home. There are paramedics, and alcoholics, and journalist, and immigrants, varied people in varied situations.
It is not as great as other books on the subject that I've read (The Things They Carried, Redeployment), but it is a well-written book with characters that will make you hate them or love them, or despise them, all the way to wanting to throw things at them repeatedly. Yes, this is a good book.

[Taryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars* A short book of ten post-9/11 short stories, each of which is an empathetic portrait of a complex, flawed individual. Luke Mogelson writes from experience. He served as a medic in the 69th Infantry, New York Army National Guard from 2007 to 2010 and then spent the next three years living in Afghanistan as a journalist. He tells each character's story journalistically, with no judgment. The stories come from a range of experiences: combat soldiers at home and abroad, an Afghan-American interpreter, a medic in the New York National Guard, a private contractor, a foreign correspondent, and family members of veterans. Six of the four stories are set in the USA, after deployments. The stories serve as a counterpoint to the romanticization of war and as a reality check about the lives of many soldiers after the fanfare of returning home.

…why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like loons to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead…
-- e.e. cummings, "next to of course god america i"

Many of the stories are loosely threaded together, sharing common characters. Each story stands on its own, but it is a richer work if you can catch the links. We are left with an ominous open-ending in A Beautiful Country, but there is a quick update on Healy's fate in Total Solar. Ben McPherson and Lee Boyle from To the Lake both get a little bit of a back story in Kids and New Guidance, respectively. A soldier briefly mentioned in New Guidance as a man who joined the army for dental work reappears as the main character in Human Cry. I read one story every day or two over a couple weeks, but to catch all the connections I would recommend reading it in one or two sittings. I missed at least one character update when I did not catch that the fate of Jim (the father) from Sea Bass is mentioned in Peacetime. The book is 192 pages so a quick read is definitely doable. (ALSO: There is a mosque incident mentioned in both To the Lake and The Port is Near, but I couldn't see any clues that it was McPherson in both stories or remember a story that referenced this incident. It may be just a coincidence, but let me know if you know the connection!)

The source of my naked-in-a-dream embarrassment was never the nakedness. It was the fact that I alone had managed to get myself into such a situation, while everyone else on the submarine or whatever had managed to avoid it. What did it say about me, the sort of person I was? (Total Solar)

My favorite story was Kids. The stories of an Afghan boy bringing undetonated explosives to the base for unknown, possibly friendly, reasons and a soldier having trouble fitting into the unit intersect in a dramatic way. Mogelson really made me care for the characters through their interactions. The featured characters grappled with trying to find answers when there aren't any and trying to make sense of senseless things. I also enjoyed:
• Total Solar - A journalist is apathetically interviewing a subject, when he suddenly gets caught up in the hazy fog of war.
• Sea Bass - An 11-year-old boy and his veteran father trying to relate to each other during summer visitation.
• Visitors - A mother visiting her son at the prison he was sentenced to after committing a violent crime shortly after returning home from combat duty.

(As the lieutenant is telling a depressed soldier the more "comforting" version of events) Just as I'd told Feldman one story, another was telling itself. I mean the story in which the kid was exactly who we'd wanted him to be; the story in which he helped us…This story was as plausible as mine, mine as plausible as this one, and who could say how many other variations there might be, or which of them, precisely, Feldman was contemplating then.
It didn't matter. He had the rest of his shitty life to attend to all of them. The rest of his shitty life: and still he'd get no closer to knowing. (Kids, the whole passage is my favorite in the book, but it is a little too long to reproduce here)

This book is more accessible than Redeployment, because I did not need to keep referring to a glossary of acronyms to read it! I did have difficulty maintaining interest in some of the stories because the writing was so journalistic and the stories were so short (about twenty pages each). As a whole, these short stories are snapshots of life and not beginning-middle-end stories. I did have to laugh about my "no-ending" complaint when I got to this passage in Kids:

"That's the end of the story?" I said.
He shrugged. "I got out after that tour and started working for Raytheon."
"Jesus, Murray," I said. "You're telling me you don't know what happened? You don't know if Walsh ever figured out what the kid said?"
Murray looked at me and grinned. What he was saying without saying was: "You dumb son of a bitch, of course he never figured it out."

This book is mostly about men who were broken by the war and men who were broken before it even began. One of the main themes of These Heroic, Happy Dead is isolation. The men in this book have become part of a closed network and have trouble transitioning back into civilian life or relating to their loved ones. Many of them returned to the military after a disappointing stint back home. It's depressing in an "it is what it is" type way. I was struck by the immediacy of this work in the acknowledgments, where Mogelson thanked those "who still live in a country that is too perilous for me to be able to name them here."; a salient reminder that while the war has faded from the news, it is not over. If you liked Redeployment, you might like this one. If you were turned off by Redeployment because of the sexual content or acronyms but like the general idea of it, you might want to give this book a try instead.

Ours was a war that offered few opportunities, aside from getting killed or wounded, to distinguish yourself. There were no hills to charge, peninsulas to hold, bridges to seize. There was only the patrol: a year's worth of mine-littered walks ending where they started.(Kids)

*I received this Advanced Reader's Edition through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. These Heroic, Happy Dead will be released in April 2016.

[Edwina Book Anaconda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

"An unsentimental, unflinching glimpse into the lives of those forever changed by war."

The above sentence is from the back cover of this book and sums it up perfectly.
Hard to read ... and yet, hard to put down.

[Joe M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first discovered Luke Mogelson after reading "Total Solar" in the New Yorker a few months back and was happy to revisit it as the finale to this excellent collection. Mogelson is right at home with Phil Klay and Tim O'Brien in the growing pool of fantastic contemporary writers documenting the war-hardened and battle-weary returning home after fighting in the middle east, with ten loosely connected stories of soldiers, their family and friends, and how they attempt to readjust to their previous lives in the wake of their experiences at war. Mogelson pulls no punches when it comes to the horrors these characters have experienced and/or committed, but his dark sense of humor on the absurdities and ironies of war is always present. Ultimately, it's his empathy and compassion for the lives and on all sides of the conflict which make you laugh out loud while equally tugging at your heartstrings that make this collection work.

[Jessica White · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason, I've been on a short story kick lately and this one did not disappoint.

These Heroic, Happy Dead is a collection of short stories of the war. Soldiers reminiscing about the old days, the days they had everything figured out, the days they can never forget. The feel of the book is that once you've fought for your country, it's hard to live a normal life. I don't want to say it's depressing, but it's a depressing book. It caught me off guard because many of these stories have open endings. For example, my favorite story was To the Lake. The ending leaves so much unanswered, but we can only assume what the ending actually was.

Honestly, the title lets you know this book will be full of death, and it truly is. However, the short stories make death much easier to swallow. Another fun thing I noticed while reading, some of the short stories overlap. There are recurring characters that really helped with the understanding of the story. I highly recommend These Heroic, Happy Dead!

If you liked this and want to read something similar, check out The Things They Carried!

Huge thanks to Blogging for Books for sending this to me!

This review and more can be found at A Reader's Diary!

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten short stories about soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and veterans home from those conflicts. In “Visitors” Jeanne spends four hours driving each way and each week to visit her veteran son in prison, who got into a fight after he was discharged and the man he fought later died. His mother wonders if he’s glad to be found guilty of something. In “Peacetime,” Papadapoulus, in the New York National Guard, works as an EMT in New York City and lives at the Armory there. He also compulsively steals from many of his patients. I’m glad I read this, in part because it fulfills the Read Harder Challenge #14 Read a book about war. This is an ARC I received from Library Thing and Penguin Random House on 2.16.16 in return for a fair review.

[Jerry Peace · Rating 4 out of 5]

An outstanding collection of subdued stories about people who are both threatening and threatened without, for the most part, meaning to be either. Two themes power these stories. The first, from "Total Solar,"- "'It's a trick,' I told her. It's fake' And here Sue turned on me a look that I recognized immediately. It was the look I'd always imagined God would have were I ever forced to meet Him. 'So what?' she said." And the second, from "A Beautiful Country," describes not only the life and impetus of the stories but also blueprints how to read them-"One does not recognize the thing by looking at it. Resisting the impulse to focus, one lets the thing announce itself."

[Kathrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story collection was a little disappointing. Supposedly the stories were loosely connected, but I didn't see it. I think there is much material here, that just wasn't polished enough to really shine.

[Richard Jespers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each story in this powerful collection falls in line with a long tradition of narratives about war: Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. And there are scores of others, of course, but each of these three epitomize the three major wars of the twentieth century. What Mogelson does is to examine the PTSD-driven lives of men who return from this century’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two of these stories first came to my attention in The New Yorker magazine, and I was stunned at their honesty, clarity, and integrity. Mogelson writes without either judgment or adulation; instead, the characters just are, alive on the page.

“Total Solar” is one of those stories I want both to speed by and yet s-t-r-e-t-c-h, never end, at the same time. An American in Afghanistan narrates his tale about time spent there as a journalist. There is so much to be said for authors who travel, particularly journalists: they never want for subject matter. Mogelson repeats a number of motifs from his Kabulian stew: the brown sky, dogs with tumors the size of cantaloupes, birds, elevated particulates of fecal matter in the air, and people talking on phones about those whom they might assassinate. The story has a Paul Bowles feel to it, except that the narrator is nearly suicidal over his visit to the region, whereas Bowles is perhaps more sympathetic in his day (his The Sheltering Sky is published in 1949). After all, the narrator is in the MIDDLE of a war. He watches as a woman with whom he is acquainted stops to care for a child the narrator knows is faking illness as a lure. She is shot and killed: “That was the end of Sue Kwan,” (173), he thinks, quickly distancing himself emotionally from the event. He portrays himself as nearly a buffoon, one of his CNN pieces having been YouTubed into oblivion for its comic qualities. Finally, he himself is shot, and he momentarily escapes up a mountain, where the air is much clearer. The man he believes is helping him later turns him into authorities, who show up and interrogate him. The story’s ending echoes the telephone motif, as the narrator overhears the planning of someone’s demise:

“That’s when I saw the man talking on his cell phone.
‘No, no one is with him, I can easily grab him,’ the man was saying.
Or was he? I didn’t know. I still don’t” (184).

[Chadwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

UPS delivered my copy in the morning and I'd finished it by the end of the evening. These short stories are that compelling.

I've read much of the best fiction (and nonfiction) that has come out of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and this definitely ranks with the best. But it's also not quite like anything else I've read to come out of those wars. There's a very unique voice in these deeply unsettling stories: dark, honest, and sometimes very funny.

We're kept off balance and are never comfortable reading these stories. I like the unpredictability in here. Characters don't say or do what we expect, and plots (such as they are) don't develop in obvious directions. There are no happy endings, no closure, no easy outs. Heroism (in a traditional sense) is not on display here. These are stories of damage and loss; of lives ended prematurely and lives that will never be the same. Here we see tough lives, bad choices, and things gone horribly wrong. And not just for the veterans themselves, but also those they come home to.

The stories are loosely interwoven, showing us some of the same characters back and forth in time. We see the effects of war, but not in an explicitly causal sense. "To the Lake" is a masterpiece and a hell of a ride. Each individual story is good, but (like all good collections) the power is in the whole. The stories play off each other with cleverness and subtlety.

There isn't an ounce of sentimentality in these stories, but there is a deep empathy. Mogelson isn't beating us over the head with a "message" or a "moral"; but in the end we've been smacked by a 2x4 all the same. This is powerful stuff, but deftly done.

(Thanks to Crown for an advance copy via a giveaway. Receiving a free copy did not affect the content of my review.)

[Regan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories takes its title from e.e. cumming's anti-war poem "next to god of course america i." This fact is significant: a deep undercurrent of antiwar sentiment drives Mogelson's narrative voice as he surveys (with traumatized detachment) what's left of soldiers & veterans after war. The result is grim. There's no happily ever after for any of Mogelson's survivors. They are careening down icy mountainsides, sitting in jail cells with no loved ones to offer bond, beating their wives (if they still have them), living in remote towns all over the USA. When they do have jobs they are terrible (often unpaying) thankless ones: pigs to slaughter, fishing nets to retie & retie.

Mogelson impressively covers extremely varied landscapes (mountains, glades, bays, etc.), and he admirably presents a cast as ethnically varied as you'd find in the army itself. For instance, "New Guidance" is told from the perspective of an Arab-American translator in Afghanistan, and in "Kids" an unnaturalized Latino Corporal leads dangerous night-ops. However, despite all this variation, the characters' voices all sound remarkably uniform. That uniformity could be intentional, i.e. one more way for Mogelson to demonstrate the way the military systematically levels its soldiers. Or it could be that Mogelson, for all his adept physical descriptions, lacks the vocabulary (or will?) to describe his characters' emotional terrains in as much detailed complexity.

Taken in toto, LM's gloss on e.e. cummings "These Happy Heroic Dead" seems to be that only the dead are happy, & only the dead can be heroes. To survive--to be a survivor--is to be neither happy, nor fully alive, nor a hero.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had read a couple of these stories previously in other magazines so I had high hopes for this collection. The stories were not as compelling as I had hoped. But, as I will say in these cases, the stories might well be written well and just not be of a subject matter I clicked with. Still, I have read so much great writing of our modern deployments such as Phil Klay and the fellow who wrote The Yellow Birds I do t think it's subject matter so much as style that does not click as well for me.

Some brief synopses. " To the Lake " introduces us to a veteran who has had his wife leave him. He calls her parents house daily to talk to her but she will not. Evidently there had been some violent incidents, not at her, but enough to scare her. His wife's Father, a veteran of an earlier war, is patient with him, wanting him to get some help, but finally tells him the daily calls need to stop. In a bad decision he decides to go to the lake house where they are staying and we, as a reader, get nervous. This cannot end well. Fortunately, though it does not seem so to him, his truck goes off the road during a sleet storm. He is arrested for OUI, and held while they sort out the loaded gun that was in his truck. He ends up being bailed out by a fellow veteran who was in a cell with him. This man too had been arrested at throwing a hammer at his wife. She does not press charges though. Spending the night with this couple he ends up taking the man out on an improvised sled ( this veteran has lost his legs ). The man and he go out to an isolated lake to shoot rabbits. The man sAys it is so peaceful, " will he leave him for a bit to enjoy it?" Our man goes back to the cabin and ears a hearty breakfast made by the wife. They hear a gunshot out by the lake, his wife says " It sounds like he got something " and we are left to wonder.....

In " Sea Bass " our narrator recalls his relationship with his Father. A veteran who has been erratic he now is divorced from our narrators mother. He remembers spending time with his Father, an accident with a saw that almost cost him a finger. Then after 9/11 his Father was recharged, his life had purpose, he reenlisted. Having dinner with his Father at a restaurant his Dad tells him of a restaurant he will take him to when he visits him. They have a special he will love...a house recipe for " Sea Bass." Our narrator never saw his Father again.

" New Guidance " relates the experience of an Afghan American, a member of the diaspora if you will, who enlists to serve as a translator during the Afghan war. While he is accepted by his fellow soldiers he is conflicted a bit by his relationship with the Afghan soldiers who are fighting with the United States, and they too of him. Also related is the experience of a divorced middle school teacher who joined the service when the age limit was raised and proceeds to be totally unfit for military service.

The story titled " Peacetime " was one I had previously read. Telling the story of a veteran who has not adjusted to life back in the States well. He is secretly living at the armory, working during the day as an EMT. He has some bad habits. He drinks every night. He has cured hangovers however, he hooks himself up to an IV while he sleeps so that he stays hydrated. He also, on each of his met calls, has made a habit of stealing some small item in each house. A refrigerator magnet, a snow globe, one elderly lady who had died, her false teeth. It is a compulsion his partner, a soon to be police academy student, tells him he will need to get help for before he gets in trouble. Told he must leave the armory he goes to visit his wife. His neighbor tells him she had left months ago with her boyfriend for parts unknown. Finally, at a call for an oxy overdose, a repeat customer in fact, they Discover on the way back to the station that he has left behind the drug box. This, is a major problem.

In " A Beautiful Country " we follow a man delivering payroll to an outlying base. To try to be nondescript they are in a Corolla and unarmed. It does not go as hoped.

" Visitors " describes Jean a Mother of a returned soldier who spends one day a week visiting her son in prison. Sentenced to single digit years for manslaughter from a bar fight which killed a friend he had grown up with she finds herself secretly glad he is in prison, safe, as opposed to at war. She sees the father of the boy that was killed, their family and his were friends growing up, and it is awkward. Finally one day the man comes into the store she works and says that " the letters have to stop. ". Not because he minds but because his wife is very upset. She does not know what he is talking about, but learns her son, who is very non talkative on her visits has been writing letter after letter to this family. Expressing remorse and guilt by the buckets. This story visits again the subject of unwashed guilt many returning soldiers deal with.

" Kids " follows a unit as they deal with a young boy who leaves an object outside their compound each day. It is dutifully blown up each time but they do not know what is. Eventually the boy is killed but their is still concern over what exactly he had been doing. Story centers on the hardship of decision making in war when it is impossible to know who is on your side and who is not.

A returning soldier has found his way by taking a job on a fishing boat with a cantankerous old man in " The Port is Near ". The haul is down, the man wants to retire but no one would buy his boat. He resolves to have an accident and claim the insurance. Our soldier tries to talk him out of it, when that does not work, feeling a sense of duty he aids in the plan.

In " A Human Cry " Tom Mayheux is the caretaker, jack of all trades , at a pig farm. He, at the behest of the woman he works for, tracks a group that is night hunting.on the property. As the story develops we learn that those same poachers were men he had been involved in a dope growing project. His employer/ landlord had lost her husband in an accident with the industrial mower, as we learn late in the story Tom had a role in that as well. If " Tom " is his name at all.

The final story " Total Solar " was featured last year in TNY. It follows a soldier who is in a building that is bombed and attacked. Pretending to be dead he escapes only to be found later by security forces which make him sign a confession of aggression before releasing him. As the story ends he sees a man taking into a phone and fears he is about to be captured again

[Michelle Arredondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

These Heroic Happy Dead by Luke Mogelson. For one I love the title...that's what drew me to the book. Intrigued to know more I requested a copy...

This is a quick read of about 10 post 9/11 stories. Stories that take the readers into the lives of the people that come back from war. The people that have seen and lived through the devastation of war and war torn countries...come home and deal with yet another battle...falling back into "normal" lives. The anguish, angst, inner struggles and trauma. Haunting tales of all too real situations of real people. It's heartbreaking and brilliant in that we get a glimpse of something we so easily take for granted, look past, and most times don't even think about when it comes to the men and women that fought/fight for our country. They come back home...all is well..they should be blessed to be back. How ignorant we are to think that. These short stories tell us so much more....the true impact of war for those "fortunate" to make it back with their lives. It may not always be the case, or the trauma this extreme, but there is a reality in which for some it is.

Again, a brilliant, haunting read. I personally think this book should be required reading for the high school level youth....required reading for the home.

A big thanks to the peeps at LibraryThing and to the author Luke Mogelson for my free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review to which I gladly and voluntarily gave.

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to receive an Advanced Reader Copy of this novel, which is ten short stories by Luke Mogelson. Each of these short stories give the reader a glimpse into the psychological affects soldiers endure from war, and how it affects those around them. After spending a semester studying United States foreign policy, I was interested in reading personal stories about soldiers and have a better understanding of how soldiers deal with the reality of life after being overseas and experiencing the terrors of war. I was not disappointed, Luke Mogelson clearly knows his stuff. The novel was well written with interesting stories that were different from each other but fit the central message of the book. My main complaint, however, is that I wish each chapter had been just a little bit longer. The novel is only 185 pages long and just when I was about to become really invested and interested in someone's personal story, the chapter would end and the next chapter would be about someone new. I would've liked to spend more time with a character before switching to the next. However for fans of The Things They Carried, I would recommend picking this novel up if you are interested in war and the issues the soldiers endure when they return from war.

[Malli (Chapter Malliumpkin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The following review is based off my own opinions, thoughts and reactions. So in other words brace yourself. *There may be inappropriate words such as curse words.* You have been advised in advance.*

I'd like to give a big thank you to the author for holding the giveaway for this book. Thank you so much for allowing me the chance to read this book and review it! Thank you!



I really enjoyed this book. It really represents the men and women who fight for our country. As someone who has friends and family who have gone overseas to fight for for this country. It's nice to see a book that keeps things honest when it comes to our men and women who sacrifice their lives for our freedom in the foolish wars this country creates. This was a really good read and I highly recommend taking the time to read this book.

[Anna Gallegos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luke Mogelson, a journalist and former Army National Guard medic, offers glimpses into what it's like for servicemen returning to their civilian lives and vignettes on combat in Afghanistan in his ten short stories. Mogelson shows his breadth by writing from the perspectives of a soldier battling alcoholism while trying to win his girlfriend back, a mother with a son in jail for murder months after returning home from his tour to an Afghani-American translator trying to decode a language and culture for a platoon.

Threaded through all of these stories is a sense of conflict, whether in the battlefield or inside the characters as they try to navigate their places in non-military lives. The characters are hyper-aware of their surroundings as they realize that they are an imperfect piece in what was once a well-adjusted community. Some of these stories (Peacetime, Kids and Vistors) are much better at this and at presenting carefully crafted plots, while others (A Beautiful Country and The Port is Near) seem have been muddled together to fill space.

Overall, these stories provide a fresh perspective on the modern war story.

[Veronica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a serious problem with this book in that it only shows the stereotypical violent, maladjusted veteran/soldier type. There is no denying that there are people who have bad personalities or who find it difficult or impossible to adjust to civilian life but that isn't the only type there is! There are also veterans/soldiers who retire or decide not to re-up and adjust perfectly well to civilian life. It's books like these, ones that only acknowledge the ugly side of military life, that perpetuate negative stereotypes! As an army brat, and a future soldier, this really bothers me. You should represent the good with the bad. [Side note; I realize the author is a former soldier, but that doesn't mean his representation of military life isn't skewed.]

As for the writing, it was good in its form. The stories flowed well and the open-ends were very attention grabbing. The only story I actually liked was Kids.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

[Amy Neftzger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of stories about veterans. Each story is unique in that we catch a glimpse of how the individual is adapting to civilian life after service or coping with changes that took place while they were away - changes in American society, changes within themselves, or changes in the lives of their loved ones. There's some very strong writing in this book, and stylistically I enjoyed the prose. It's concise and moves the story along well. However, this book is not for individuals with a weak stomach - there are some graphic descriptions of injuries and I found myself cringing more than once (and I have a fairly high tolerance). Worth the read if you're interested learning a little more about the aftermath of combat.

Note: I was given a free ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was just something missing from these stories. They all seemed unfinished to me. I certainly don't need to be spoon-fed content, but I was unable to intuit what the author's intent was in his writing. I just finished this book and I can honestly say that I can't remember any one of them that made a lasting impact on me. Shame, a lot of potential material to draw from but Mogeleson just didn't quite get there.

[wade · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion this is an uneven collection of short stories some being very good and others not so much. A particularly strong story is "Visitors" about a lady who visits her husband in prison which gives great incite into that experience. The very next one called "Kids" I thought was very confusing. On the whole, the stories stateside are better than the stories set in the Middle East. I have read many other books by vets portraying those wars in more coherent way.

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mogelson webs a series of tales that intertwine throughout this collection. At times, a few of the stories were hard to follow, but overall, I enjoyed this collection enough to give it 4 stars and recommend to my reader friends who enjoy this genre. Worth the read!

[Ayelet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written- these were quintessential short stories. They took you into characters' lives and then you were out. There were some slight overlaps and inter-connectivity here, but the common thread is obvious- war changes you but it also changes your family.

[Verkakte]

I'm thrilled to have won a copy of this book from Goodreads Giveaway. Honest review to come.

[Viva · Rating 1 out of 5]

I rated this 1 star which means "I did not like it" according to the GR rating system. I'll admit I only read the first two stories. The writing was quite well done, easy to read and follow. I actually liked both beginnings but neither story had a point. They just ended. I felt they were pointless and I felt it was pointless to read the rest of the stories, it was a waste of my time to read the first two. I got this book free as a review copy.

Edit: I read some of the other reviews. According to the showcased reviews, the writing is supposed to show how war affected these veterans but I did not get a feel of that at all. I felt the writing was too shallow to depict any of that. There just wasn't enough depth in the writing to portray that, which is why I gave it a 1 star.

[Susan Kinnevy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked quite a few of the stories in this collection, but I failed to find the thread that was highlighted in the marketing material. Some of them seemed linked through war and PTSD, but others didn't really make much sense or failed to have what I presume was the desired impact. I think there may be a problem with too much of the wrong kind of detail and not enough of the right kind. What I mean is that I never felt situated in a particular setting and the writing was not evocative of a sense of place. I wanted to be transported to war zones, but didn't feel that. Still, a few of the stories worked for me.

[Neal Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminiscent of a transcript from a story telling podcast. I felt like I was reading the stories from The Moth or something similar. I really appreciated the short and impactful anecdotes shared from different folks. War is something that is becoming ever more the experience of a diminishing population in our country. The impact that war has, the way it affects the lives of people, and other human tolls of armed conflict aren't very accessible to most citizens.

Fired through this book in a few hours. The stories are gripping and vivid. Touches on a lot of the issues that confront veterans once they return state side and assume civilian roles. Definitely worth a read.

[Mike Cunha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories inside Luke Mogelson’s “These Heroic, Happy Dead” draw the reader in because almost each one is connected with another story. The main character in one is a minor character in another short story, yet these connections help shed more light on their backgrounds.

These stories are gritty and harsh, each one connected to war and the damage it does to human beings. None of the characters can escape the devastating psychological effects conflict has had on them, and as a result the reader sees the butterfly effect these characters have on the world and lives all around them. Like many of the books coming out of the nation’s long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Mogelson’s stories are important reads. People need to know that sending off the country’s young--and even older--folks to war is not without deep consequences.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories about soldiers returning from (mostly) post-9/11 wars. I can't say I "liked" the book, but I thought it was meaningful and well-written. My heart breaks for those who have to reintegrate in a society that doesn't understand (or want to understand) what they have been through.

Short stories are not my favorite format because I always want to know more. These are appealing because they are somewhat interconnected and for some characters you do find out what happens to them or see another little glimpse into their lives.