Matt Young (1)

EAT THE APPLE, by Matt Young, is ... what? I mean holy crap, what a book this is! It's like a gut punch you didn't see coming. It's an uneven mixture of horrifying and hilarious. It's a very frank and uncensored look at life in the ranks of today's Marine Corps that may make the high command squirm some, but the guys who served under them, who did all the dirty work, and lived through the terror, the dirt, the blood and the boredom, will most likely nod their heads in recognition and agreement - and probably laugh their asses off too.

Young's life before the Corps is dismissed in a few lines -

"The backstory: suburban childhood, chubby kid who got picked on, broken home, drugs and drinking, poor choices, s**tty jobs, mounds of self-loathing, the decision to make a change, basic training, etc., etc."

But later Young shows us how a young recruit is re-fashioned into not a man, but a "person-thing," which demands "that we lose not only our own humanity, but remove that of our enemy as well." He tells us too that "it is good to at least warn our loved ones of the person-thing." In training on how to interact with the enemy civilians, "We are told to treat everyone with courtesy and respect but always have a plan to kill them." In yet another perhaps forbidden revelation, Young talks of the homophobic, homoerotic "brotherhood" that permeates the Corps, and how they "poke fun at the effeminate because we've learned to fear those intimate feelings, those intense moments of love that swell inside us." Years later, he will wish he could warn his "past-me" - his younger self, and others like him - and tell them "horror stories, make the boredom and jackassery a reality, show them loss and suicidal sadness, but it won't matter, just as it never has."

I was often reminded as I read Young's story of a couple other military memoirs of the modern era - Anthony Swofford's JARHEAD and Johnny Rico's BLOOD MAKES THE GRASS GROW GREEN, both nearly as irreverent, shocking and laugh-out-loud funny. But Matt Young has created something unique, mixing that horror, pathos, shock and hilarity with yet another layer, made up of cartoonish line-drawings, crude illustrations and his own after-action multiple choice mental health questionnaires that will probably make you wince. He has, in fact, given us an almost indescribable sort of war memoir, one that I predict will be hanging around for a long time. Thanks for all of it, Matt. My highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA… (mere)

This is an interesting look at what it means to be a soldier today by a man who joined the Marines and served three tours in Iraq. It is an honest look at what serving really looks like as well as what our soldiers actually do and think while fighting for our country. It was an eye opening look but not in an expected way as the author describes a great deal of time spent doing nothing of value - watching TV, smoking, drinking, masturbating and shooting stray dogs. From reading many other versions of life at war, I have read tales that differed a great deal from this one, but the honesty was definitely here. Fortunately, our author also describes how he changed and grew from these experiences, making this a valuable resource for anyone thinking of serving.… (mere)