Eric Hollen > Recent Status Updates

88 pgs in and nothing is happening. Don’t understand the acclaim for this novel. It’s not good.

70 pages in and nothings grabbing me so I may set aside. A shame because I love her other work. The first person present tense is not doing the novel any favors - rightfully clouded with sorrow, but, clouded.

A far cry from “Gringos” which is a brilliant novel. I’m shelving it as a DNF at page 58.

I love this book. The man’s writings are a treasure.

Stone cold masterpiece. A book I could’ve gone on reading for a lot longer. Cracks my top ten of the year list.

Not sure why, but I’m so incredibly bored with this book right now and am loathe for the remaining 400 pages. Enjoyed it my first time but my second read through feels lacking. He’s just not that good a writer - unnecessarily long dialogue, poor sentences, banal descriptions. Feels like an unnecessary long time with bright spots of insanely good philosophy. For me it’s a DNF at page 390.

“Hunt was as different as could be from most black soldiers of that time and place, because his own loyalty was unequivocally to the Army and not to any soul brother.” Pg 530

Hastings discusses rampant drug use and racial strife, then proceeds to give examples of only black soldiers drug use and disobedience and flagging of officers…

Provides no context to racial problems. Pretty cringey.

I love this book. It’s a slow burn at first but once it gets going it’s really good. Top 10 of the year for me, can’t wait to someday revisit.