The Good Soldiers

By: David Finkel

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it "the surge". "Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences," he told a skeptical nation.

Among those listening were the young, optimistic Army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them. Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel was with them in Bagdad almost every grueling step of the way. What was the true story of the surge? Was it really a success? Those are the questions he grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines.

Combining the action of Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, David Finkel has also produced an eternal tale - not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.

©2009 Dave Finkel (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

100 Notable Books of 2009 (The New York Times)

Best Books of 2009 (Publishers Weekly)

Best Nonfiction of 2009 (The Boston Globe)

Best Reads of 2009 (Slate.com)

Best Books of 2009: Nonfiction (Christian Science Monitor)

"Finkel's keen firsthand reportage, its grit and impact only heightened by the literary polish of his prose, gives us one of the best accounts yet of the American experience in Iraq." ( Publishers Weekly)

"A superb account of the burdens soldiers bear." ( Kirkus Reviews)

The best book on this subject, still not great

This is one of those books that has far too many 5 and 1 star reviews when the correct number is 3.

I feel like too many people, including the author of the book, but also all these professional reviewers (slate non-fiction book of the year...), are viewing the decision of whether or not to read this book, and then whether or not to praise it, as somehow taking a great moral stand in support of the troops. Reality check: it's not. I /support/ the troops, in the sense that I don't really do anything for them, except vote for people who vote to fully fund the veterans administration, etc. Spending your time listening to a discussion of how they clean their uniforms after they get body parts blown into them doesn't really make you any better of a person than not doing so. The writer keeps trying to impart weight to his prose, and frankly it gets really tedious and irritating.

The question should be is this book interesting to listen to. And there I have to say the answer is somewhat. If for some reason you're really interested in the experience of US troops during the counterinsurgency years of the Iraq war, perhaps because you know someone who was there, I don't know of a book that tells this story better. But if you're just looking for something interesting, perhaps something about war, I don't really recommend this. Maybe Imperial Life in the Emerald City or Generation Kill, both of which are about Iraq, but neither about this particular topic.

defines the five star rating

Now I know what a five star rating really is. Before this I gave some 5 ratings. Doubt I will ever give another. This book will let you feel the fear of war. If hou have anything but ice water in your veins it will, you will fall in love with our servicemen and their families and not only those with wounds showing. And most of all it will define your cowardice. You will probably want to go to BAMC or Walter Reed to put your arms around our men and women to show your love, but fnd you, like me, don't have the courage.

At the end you will forget about the idiots that garner all the press, our politicians, and have new members in you mental family of those caught in between who had no ability to make decisions but to follow orders. As a past soldier who sever during Vietnam, but not in that theater, only now do I understand war. I am not sure I like what I found via this book. The reality for there men and women sucked. The reality of my cowardice while living less than 100 miles from BAMC is something I must overcome. We must go put our arms around our warriors and the families or those who came back whole, came back wounded or didn't. Come back.

Beautiful written, magnificently performed, tragic

I bought this on a whim on Memorial Day. I am largely a pacifist and am a harsh critic of the US invasions of the Middle East since 2001. This account neither catered to my priors nor struck me as wrong-headed. It was an account, as pure as they come, and a beautifully written one at that.

Also, the narrator is so good that I looked up other books he's narrated just to hear him some more.

Be aware, there are graphic descriptions of violence and suffering within.

Good but not great

I had read a lot of positive reviews about this book and that was the reason for my purchase. Unfortunately I was disappointed and left to wonder what those other reviewers heard in the book that I missed. I enjoy military related novels and I served in the military so there is a natural attraction to a well written story about war. But this book just did not hold my interest. Some times with a good book you just can't put it down and other times with a so so book you can't wait for the phone to ring, that is this book. At times I thought of just giving up and stop reading but I hung in there to the end, well almost the end.

Interesting read.

At first I had a little difficulty with the authors repetitious writing style. Example: rather than John George, Jack and Jim looked across the street, the author would write John looked across the street, George looked across the street, Jack looked across the street, Jim looked across the street... But ultimately I got used to it and found the book interesting though not the best on teh subject of Middle Eastern combat. Try Carnivore by Dillard Johnson, Eyes of Orion by trybula. House to house by Bruning. Not a good day to die by Cox

Is the sacrifice really worth the outcome?

I read another review in which the reviewer panned this book as being too politically motivated, too anti-Iraq/George Bush. That is a pretty shallow analysis in my view. Though very skeptical about the war from the beginning, I believed that once committed we needed to finish what we started. I don't think this book changed my view. It did, however, clearly show the costs of that policy.
The first war to ever be photographed was the Crimea. The pictures, though far less than graphically disclosing the reality of that war were still quite shocking to the public. The American Civil War upped the ante quite a bit with photos of dead, swollen bodies in lines following the various major battles. For the first time it was impossible to continue to believe that mythos of the glories of war.
In more recent times we have Saving Private Ryan. It, again, upped the ante, and it showed the horrors of the invasion of Omaha beach in realistic detail. The weakness in that portrayal was that the majority of those we saw drop and die or be blown apart were anonymous extras, not the stars.
This book follows a unit of the United States Army formed in Fort Riley Kansas, led by a fine American officer, sent to Iraq for a period of more than 14 months. There aren't any glorious battles in which the 14 or 15 KIAs from the ranks of nearly 300 men die heroically, or the many more are horribly maimed and disabled. The men who died were mostly killed by roadside bombs, IEDs and EFPs while they drove around Baghdad in their Humvees. They are or were individuals whose histories we become familiar with and the circumstances of whose deaths or maimings we also become familiar with.
I don't care what your politics might be. Personally, I consider myself a conservative, but when you read/hear the descriptions of these deaths and terrible injuries which will leave the surviving young soldiers impaired and, likely, in pain for the rest of their lives, you are forced to examine the price they paid for us, for the nation, to achieve what ultimate goal?
This is the most realistic view of the war in Iraq that I have read/listened to. It isn't slanted to one political side or the other. It is telling the story of what happened and continues to happen from viewpoint of the men who are actually doing the fighting, not the generals, not the politicians. It is extremely powerful and thought-provoking. I highly recommend it to you.

One of the best war books

I've listened to a lot of History/war books. This is up there as one of my favorites. The story follows each character for long enough and in great detail so that you are heartbroken when one dies in combat. Many books they have so many characters coming and going that you really don't get an attachment to any of them.

The performance by the narrator is excellent.

Highly recommended!

A Great Story of Tragedy

A Great Story of Tragedy. The book, created from eye-witness accounts and historical documents, provides a complex glimpse into the story of one company's experience in the Iraq war. It does not seek to lay blame on one administration or another. Instead, it reports their experience against the political background from Bush W. through Obama. Don't expect a fairytale ending. It's reporting what happened to these men, not always what we want to see.

Compelling, moving, disturbing

I listened to this book right after " Duty" by Robert Gates ( the latter which, without hesitation, I also recommend). Althought there have been books books and news articles and tv shows and documentaries on the two wars, Gates ( from high above) and Finkel ( down with the troops) give the listener the perspective of the danger, resolution and disillusionment of the men ( as much as any of us safe at home can begin to understand). I found the narrator excellent and fit exactly the sentiment of the book

Excellent excellent book. I recommend

The Good Soldiers

Just a great book on Iraq and the frustration and craziness of the American commitment there. An excellent description of the Loss and Toll taken on our soldiers. Listen To IT!