My Favorite War

by Christopher John Farley

When Thurgood Brinkman, a young journalist, joins Sojourner Truth Zapader, a columnist for the Washington Post, in covering the story of the Gulf War, his outlook on America is changed

Genres: Fiction

260 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1996

Reviews

[Alex Roma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked that this book was very real and honest. It didn't sugarcoat anything, and it was very thoughtful. I liked that there was nothing in it that was designed to make me, as a white person, feel a little less bad about racism or whatever. It wasn't for me or about me. There was a lot of great commentary about war, as well, especially the Gulf War.

Thurgood had a lot of good insights and I sympathized with a lot of his frustrations, empathized with some of them even, being a twenty-something who often feels like I'm not where I should be at this point, but he could annoy the hell out of me, too. First of all, he was kind of a snob. He talked about the fact that he was a "Naverton man" a lot, an incredibly prestigious and elite fictional college, and I don't think it was necessarily that he looked down his nose at people who hadn't graduated from such prestigious schools, but there was definitely a lot of intellectual snobbery going on there. And the way he treated women was disgusting. Even moreso because he repeatedly considers himself a "feminist" and is generally framed as a good guy, compared to some of his friends. My boss would probably write off a lot of his behavior (which includes impersonating a lesbian online in hopes of having cyber sex with a woman he believed to be a lesbian and fleeing the country when a woman told him he had impregnated her and she planned to keep the baby) by saying, "he's just being a man; he can't help it," but honestly, that's unacceptable and yeah, men can help it. Honestly, one of the highlights of the book was the half a chapter when it seemed like the woman he had rejected and the woman he spent the whole book wanking off about had fallen in love themselves, and the fact that he was so mad about it made it all the more sweet. But that eventually gave way and he went back and forth between the two one more time before the end of the book. I mean, he had a great voice, but I honestly found both Sojourner and Eboni to be more compelling characters (I realize Eboni couldn't have been the narrator since she was uninvolved in the Gulf War coverage, but Sojourner could have, and she seemed to have at least as great of a voice as Thurgood).

The other thing that keeps this book at three stars instead of four or five was the pacing. The chapters were bulky, occasionally pushing the boundaries of what can be read in one setting, and the book is well over halfway through before he even reaches the Gulf. It should be the most important part of the book, but instead, it was a slight, quick read compared to the previous passages about his dissatisfaction working in modern journalism and disasters in dating. But that part was very interesting and taught me a lot that I didn't know about the Gulf War. There's a great cliffhanger about three chapters from the end, it had me freaking out until I was able to start the book again. And it's a good book for the twenty-something who feels a little lost or for someone who wants to read something real about racism (actually written by a black man and starring black characters who have to deal with racism on a daily basis...this shouldn't be notable but unfortunately we do live in a society of "here's an allegory about racism starring white people and magical creatures"). So despite the fact that Thurgood made me want to slam my head through a wall occasionally, I'd definitely recommend it.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay book. Written in the 90's, still a bit relevant. He touches on race, politics, sex and technology in a 'smart- ass' sort of way.