What It Is Like to Go to War

By: Karl Marlantes

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of the bestselling and award-winning Matterhorn comes a brilliant nonfiction book about war and the psychological and spiritual toll it takes on those who fight.

“I wrote this book primarily to come to terms with my own experience of combat. So far—reading, writing, thinking—that has taken over thirty years.”

In 1969, at the age of twenty-three, Karl Marlantes was dropped into the highland jungle of Vietnam, an inexperienced lieutenant in command of a platoon of forty marines who would live or die by his decisions. Marlantes survived, but like many of his brothers in arms, he has spent the last forty years dealing with his war experience. In his first work of nonfiction, Marlantes takes a deeply personal and candid look at what it is like to experience the ordeal of combat, critically examining how we might better prepare our soldiers for war.

Just as Matterhorn is already acclaimed a classic of war literature, What It Is Like to Go to War is set to become required reading for anyone—soldier or civilian—interested in this visceral and all-too-essential part of the human experience.

Karl Marlantes, a cum laude graduate of Yale University and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, was a marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten Air Medals. He has lived and traveled all over the world and now writes full time. He and his wife, Anne, have five children and live on a small lake in Washington.

©2011 Karl Marlantes (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A staggeringly beautiful book on combat…[Marlantes] is a natural storyteller and a deeply profound thinker.” (Sebastian Junger, New York Times bestselling author)

Just great.

This should be required reading in high schools across the country. Thanks for your work Karl. God bless🙏🏽✝️🕊

A must read for anyone questioning his/her sanity

Would you consider the audio edition of What It Is Like to Go to War to be better than the print version?

Mr. Marlantes segues quite a bit in this book, and sometimes I had difficulty switching mental gears. I think I might have understood the change in thought if I'd seen a paragraph break or something. Overall, the listening was enjoyable, but I really could not tell the voice belonged to Bronson Pinchot!

What other book might you compare What It Is Like to Go to War to and why?

A Rumor of War by Phil Caputo. He wrote his book before PTSD became a diagnosis; however, his descriptions of the "blank stare" and the soul-crushing effects of war were right on the mark.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Oh holy cow, yes. PTSD is one of the things that one either associates with crazy vets strung out on drugs and alcohol, unable to keep a job or a home, or a label one hides behind to excuse poor behavior. NOTHING prepared me for Iraq or GTMO. In both deployments I was on a detainee health mission. I wasn't in combat (well, minus rockets fired at us). I didn't experience any of the raw trauma my fellow nurses did in the early years of the war and during the surge. My unit jokingly called what we were traumatized from was the Groundhog Day effect (referencing the Bill Murray movie). However, it was no joke. When I got home, I was lost. I sought help. I answered honestly the millions of questionnaires the Army had us fill out.... over and over and over. Yet, if I wasn't suicidal, which I wasn't, no one cared too much to figure out what was wrong with me. Overloaded behavioral health system, I guess, and I kept getting the, "You're a nurse, you'll seek out help if things get worse, right?" Mr. Marlantes hits the core of the problem of PTSD in that unless one is prepared physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, the effects of war will suck the life right out of you. It was a year and a half after I redeployed (means to go home for you non-military folk, not go back to theater) that I finally got the help I needed. It didn't take much- therapy, meds, and going to church- but I'm finally at peace with Iraq. As I prepare to head to Afghanistan this spring, I know more, but trust me, I WILL be talking about what I'm feeling and I WILL be attending church. This book is a must read for any person who has been to the Gulf during OEF or OIF. Even if you think you don't have PTSD and you're just crazy, you might feel differently after reading this book.

Recommended for everybody

I do not like wars. They should be obsolete by now. But I know they will be around for some time. So, I need to understand what it is like. This book was amazing. It was educational in so many levels. I am grateful that this author survived the war and the post-war condition/environment to tell us what he went through during and after the war honestly and frankly. Also, the narrator was so natural that I assumed the author was reading this until I checked. I will listen to this again.

I wasn't Impressed at all. Sorry I bought it.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This book was certainly not what I was expecting and was a big disappointment. The story was slow and confusing at times.

Haunting, very human

I love books that reveal a reality most people are unaware of, and this is such a book. If you want to know the mental costs and altered states of consciousness that soldiers go through, go no further. Some moments are really difficult to listen to, but it is necessary for the sake of understanding.

Every combat veteran should read.

My uncle recommended this book for me. He was a Marine rifleman in Vietnam and I a Marine with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. This truly is Karl Marlantes' song. I am grateful that he would share some of his experiences and his thoughts about not only what it is like to be in combat but also what it is like to come home. Marlantes introspection is amazing and helped me put together my thoughts about my experiences. Again, it is an amazing book.

Balanced study of the good and bad of war and why war will never go away

Should be required reading for those who go to war, those who send them to war, and those who care for them when they return.

In Depth, Informative and Personal

Every American should know what is said in this book before forming go or no go to war opinions.

beautifully written account about combat

makes the combat experience somewhat understandable for somebody who had never been there.
the author is very honest and thorough about all aspects of it. Even the ones that are surely unpopular.

Not what I expected

This book is not what I expected! It is about some instances of combat during the Vietnam war, but the author goes into much more! Citing Carl Jung, workshops with Robert Bly, whiskey with Joseph Campbell....and introducing the shadow side of ourselves in a more modern way. I highly recommend reading this book. Even if you've never gone to war, you'll find parts of yourself in his narrative