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Jones is an officer in the Canadian Navy deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, as one of the small number of Canadians there taking part in the American-led Operation Enduring Freedom. He is a drone operator, charged with eliminating enemy combatants from afar, guided less by moral restraint than a diligent regard for the rules of engagement. His superior Bell is less cautious and pines to let the bombs fly, almost killing a young boy they nickname Sahar (they nickname most of their targets) for the crime of suspiciously filling a sack with potatoes. Everywhere, Jones sees the ravages of war and violence (he witnesses a woman savagely stoned for her alleged adultery) and wrestles with the toll all of this exacts on his soul. (\u201cI have forgotten how to human.\u201d) He becomes the caretaker of a bizarre man he meets on base\u2014he is not a soldier and resembles some sort of \u201ctremendous gorilla-bear.\u201d Jones nicknames him Bigfoot, though his actual name is Noah. Keeping Noah safe and hidden from the authorities is foolishly imprudent, but it\u2019s an act of moral compassion that feels redemptive to Jones. The author artfully juxtaposes the ugly and the beautiful in war\u2014his protagonist falls in love with Jen, his major, but military rules prevent him from even hugging her; real romance is replaced by discreet \u201cchess games.\u201d Meanwhile, a rapist targets the men on base, tasing the soldiers into submission before he violates them. The author\u2019s prose sometimes falters, trying too hard for some creative amalgam of clever and moving\u2014when Jones encounters a terrible scene, he thinks to himself, \u201cNo\u2014not like this. No. No NO NO NO. Rewind, damnit\u2014rewind!\u201d However, the strength of the novel is its unflinching look at the absurdity of modern war, which reduces the destruction of human beings to a video game; the chilling senselessness of this is intelligently captured. This is a disturbing work of fiction, but a worthwhile one.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jones is an officer in the Canadian Navy deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, as one of the small number of Canadians there taking part in the American-led Operation Enduring Freedom. He is a drone operator, charged with eliminating enemy combatants from afar, guided less by moral restraint than a diligent regard for the rules of engagement. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[5245,63086,31933,63085],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-151441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-creatures","tag-deadlier","tag-predators","tag-reapers"],"yoast_head":"\n