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)

Good read

Though initially it was going to be a victim story of his experiences. Appreciated the ability to bring it back to society and the views of a warrior and how it's needed and requires balance. That balance can't be achieved without understanding the warrior and what's required to win in such an environment. As much as we'd like to polish warfare.

How to recover your morals after war

What made the experience of listening to What It Is Like to Go to War the most enjoyable?

nuggets of insights throughout the book. This book has application to psudo-war situations like business and coaching.

What did you like best about this story?

The deep thought and crisp articulation.

What about Bronson Pinchot???s performance did you like?

clear and emotionally delivered; the author couldn't have read it any better.

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

I would listen to a passage and then have to spend an hour in thought; extemely impactful.

Any additional comments?

Every returning soldier should read plus every politician who votes to send troops into harms way. But it should also be read by business executives as it has as much bearing in this less extreme world.

Well written and thought out

I listened to Matterhorn and could not wait to get Karl Marlantes "What it is like to go to War. I was amazed at the people he referred to in his book, like John Bly. I have read his works "Iron John" many years ago and enjoyed them. I would read anything Marlantes writes he is a thinker and well versed. Well written thanks Marlantes. I even bought the book. Dick from Delta

Brilliant!

Where does What It Is Like to Go to War rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This book was brilliant! Marlantes is one of the preeminent writers of war for our time. After reading Matterhorn, which I loved, I listened to this. There were times I had to stop and take a break because it is quite heavy. Marlantes writes about killing, maiming, death, grief, shame, guilt, courage, loyalty and heroism. He covers Jungian philosophy, Catholic and tribal traditions, Greek myth and classical history. He has killed, been responsible for his own men being killed and has the self-knowledge, education and command of language to express the different states and emotions he has experienced in the past forty years. He is a warrior and a Rhodes scholar, and his scholastic background helps him communicate the experiences that normally transcend words. Marlantes has put a lot of though into this subject for decades now and has chosen his words beautifully.

His brutal self-honesty was shocking, and too me, took more courage than running head on into a barrage of fire. He lays his soul bare for all of us too see so that our society can learn from the perpetual state of war we seem to find ourselves in generation after generation and so that our warriors can return intact physically as well as emotionally and spiritually.

Answers for my generation

Where does What It Is Like to Go to War rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The most enjoyable and informative book I have ever read

What was one of the most memorable moments of What It Is Like to Go to War?

The author's skill at combining personal and acedemic views of experiences.

Which scene was your favorite?

The Mass for the Dead

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

things we should all know for a better world.

Any additional comments?

The Viet Nam War was "my" war, I loved and love the boys/men who journeyed there. I have never understood them (or my father in WW2). I am so much closer to that now and have learned so much about humanity. The reader was perfect

A True Honor For Viet Nam

Would you listen to What It Is Like to Go to War again? Why?

Here is the most powerful, balanced, mature description of the experience of Viet Nam from someone who was there and able to observe and evaluate his own experience in the past and retrospectively. Karl Marlantes brings the wisdom of highly educated man, and the courage of honest self-analysis that Freud would admire. The honesty of James Webb, the personal revelations of Tim O'Brian, the powerful effort a healing, and the drama, heroism, glory and stupidity of combat. Her draws from his contemporaneous experiences written down after and during missions. He exceeds the drama of Matterhorn because he gives us the full context of his life and he owns his own mistakes and vulnerabilities. Marlantes brings the resources of mythology, psychology, literature to bring the power of war and the experience of the returning young soldiers to allow us to feel their experience. No citizen, veteran or not, should vote on going to war without reading this book. We take responsibility for what happens to these young men. We should know what we are doing.

Thank you Karl Marlantes.

Who was your favorite character and why?

All these characters are human beings that did all the things that human beings do. They live through the author's memory and literary talent.

Have you listened to any of Bronson Pinchot’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, excellent as usual.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes

What are we thinking ?

Loved it!! It really made me think about the impact of war on our young men and women. We have got to council our armed forces before, during and after they serve.

the warrior has many psychological wars

This book is one man's experience in going to war with the Marines in Vietnam. It is heart wrenching and yet gives hope in the human condition. As a young and fairly recent veteran, I enjoyed hearing what he experienced and it gave me a chance to ponder my own experiences in the military and civilian d.o.d.

There are many interjections of his current thoughts, ideas, and reflections. He references many texts of greek mythology and German mythology. Overall, it is a book I think most soldiers need to read/hear.

Warning: There is some splitting of male and female or masculine and feminine that more recent vets may disagree with our fall to understand . But, I found it gentle and respectful, as a female. There is also some use of the Judeo-Christian ideas. Same gentleness applies.

The reader has a sort of fitting, older wiser male soldier tone.

Deep meaning of the Warrior

Very insightful, brutally honest and welll researched, this book really made me think and reflect on my own experiences. A must read for any warrior or for any parent.

Not as True as Fiction

When I listened to Marlantes' novel, Matterhorn, it felt like I had just come back from a tour of duty in the jungle. I was an emotional wreck; coming down from an adrenaline rush from sleep-deprivation, hunger and dehydration of combat and disgusted at the brutality of soldiers to each other~on the same side of the conflict. This factual memoir is methodical and mundane, devoid of much of the emotional highs and lows of his fictional account of the same war.

And his foray, here, into eastern mysticism as a solution for PTSD is a distraction, and because it is based on one particular world-view can only hope to work on like-minded individuals; although I did appreciate his first-hand advice on how to reintegrate a soldier back into society. But try to imagine using his eastern techniques on a Muslim or a Christian.

Get Matterhorn and...then...you will know what it is like to go to war.

The story of the Marine named Canada alone is worth the price of this book. See chapter 5.

Pinchot is great. He is always great. He is the greatest when performing fictional charcters; another reason to get Matterhorn.