Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

A Novel

By: Ben Fountain

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

A re-release of this award-winning, critically acclaimed novel just in time for its major motion picture release, directed by Two-time Academy Award® winner Ang Lee, screenplay by Jean-Christophe Castelli and featuring Joe Alwyn, Kristen Stewart, Chris Tucker, Garrett Hedlund, with Vin Diesel and Steve Martin.

A ferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents--caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew--has transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America’s most sought-after heroes. For the past two weeks, the Bush administration has sent them on a media-intensive nationwide Victory Tour to reinvigorate public support for the war. Now, on this chilly and rainy Thanksgiving, the Bravos are guests of a Dallas football team, slated to be part of the halftime show.

Among the Bravos is Specialist William Lynn, a nineteen-year-old Texas native. Amid clamoring patriots sporting flag pins on their lapels and support our troops bumper stickers on their cars, the Bravos are thrust into the company of the team owner and his coterie of wealthy colleagues; a luscious born-again cheerleader; a veteran Hollywood producer; and supersized pro players eager for a vicarious taste of war. Among these faces Billy sees those of his family--his worried sisters and broken father—and Shroom, the philosophical sergeant who opened Billy’s mind and died in his arms.

Over the course of this day, Billy will begin to understand difficult truths about himself, his country, his struggling family, and his brothers-in-arms-soldiers both dead and alive. In the final few hours before returning to Iraq, Billy will drink and brawl, yearn for home and mourn those missing, face a heart-wrenching decision, and discover pure love and a bitter wisdom far beyond his years.

Poignant, riotously funny, and exquisitely heartbreaking, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is a searing and powerful novel that has cemented Ben Fountain’s reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation.

Motion Picture Artwork ©2016 CTMG.

©2012 Ben Fountain (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

Five Stars for Story AND Performance

This is a sharp, hilarious and heartbreaking satire, beautifully performed (not just read) by Oliver Wyman. I enjoyed every minute of this book.

This is my favorite Audible book.

There will be a movie released this year that can't possibly be as good as the book. I have listened multiple times because the reader and the material are a perfect match. The imagery and undercurrent here are humorous in a cynical way. It's Texas, the Bush years, patriotism of the saddest kind, Cowboy football, good 'ol boys, and the young, handsome Billy Lynn, a pawn of the machine along with his compatriots from Alpha Company. Great novel, and great reading. Please write another novel, Ben Fountain!

Not what I expected - in a good way!

Any additional comments?

Usually war books don't do it for me. But this story is so wholly different, I not only enjoyed it, but recommended to to several people. The entire story takes place on Thanksgiving Day, when Billy and his crew are attending a Cowboys game before deploying back to Iraq. Although everything unfolds over one day, the author manages to weave in a lot of other threads - about their time in Iraq, about the friendship the guys share, about the family drama on the home-front. It's a cleverly constructed story, but what I enjoyed most was the humor - both in the form of dialogue between the soldiers (which may offend some because it's f-bomb heavy, but it rang true and hilarious to me), and the more subtle humor, which the author used to deliver an almost-under-the-radar political commentary.

Would give 10 stars if I could

I loved everything about this book...excellent writing, funny as heck, great narrator (off the charts, in my book), great pacing, great characters. This book is a huge winner all the way around.

A must read

A beautiful satire of how misguided American cultural values have become. I was amazed one reader provided all the parts

living in two worlds

This seemed a more realistic interpretation of a soldier's experience back in the "real" world while still navigating a war. Billy was way too mature for his years, but using him for the insight the author was trying to deliver was poignant.

Fortunate Son

Nearly 12 wonderful hours of audio about a day at a Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game which allows the author Ben Fountain to masterfully provide us with a sometime-satirical panoramic view from the seat of Billy Lynn, a U.S. soldier who is flying back to Iraq the following day. He and the fellow members of the heroic Bravo Squad are being recognized as halftime.

We get a cinematic look at

a pro football game;

the war in Iraq and its impact on these young men's lives;

how heroes may be treated after all the hubbub or exploited;

and

our culture generally, and specifically, in movies and the entertainment (movies and music) industry, big time sports, billionaires blow-hards, the overwhelming emphasis on sex in advertising and television and how our society has reached the point that our press covers no-talent trog-GLAM-mites like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton while ignoring legit stories.

There's a bonus: a near-fantasy sequence when Billy meets a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

Maybe you hadn't heard of Ben Fountain before this brilliant book was published. Pay attention. I'm not capable of quickly using the vocabulary needed to heap worthy praise upon Ben Fountain and "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk."

So I'll say:

DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK!

Know what you are getting

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I am scratching my head over this one. I think it is more a misconception over what I thought I was getting, and the new paperback cover depicts that story better. This is really not a war / military book, it is a Dallas Cowboy Thanksgiving Day book which centers on the experience from the point of view of some US soldiers who are stateside for a short publicity tour. It is not a bad book, just not a good choice for me.

Great performance, ordinary book

While there were flashes of insight and some well-turned phrases, the majority of this book was a bit of a tedious read. Same old, same old relevations about war, America, etc., with a bit of cheerleader fantasy added in. I really did not like the story itself, but I loved the narrator's delivery. He was able to capture each character with an entirely different voice and persona, which made this a far more tolerable listening experience.

Need determination to continue book

It is a good book overall, but the beginning is slow and there's a lot of testosterone driven male conversation which can turn off a woman's interest. if a person can push past that, the author delivers a clean, deep insightful look at how the trauma of war affects a soldier's perspective in society; where he questions the value and worth of the mundane or the values/interests of the common people (who live without the effect of trauma).
The author also puts too many heavy ideas and thoughts, ruminations onto the perspective of the young soldier of 19 years. some of the ideas are possible but authorpushez it too far for it to be believable.
the writer is crisp and deep and has written amazing prose.