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Pumpkinflowers  By  cover art

Pumpkinflowers

By: Matti Friedman
Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
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Publisher's summary

Using humor, pop culture, and even musical references, Michael Friedman re-creates the wartime experience in a narrative that is part memoir, part journalism, part military history. The years in question were pivotal ones, seeing the perfection of a type of warfare that would eventually be exported to Afghanistan and Iraq and has come to seem like the only kind of warfare in existence - wars in which there is never any clear victory, but not quite enough lives are lost to rally the country against it. The dramatic events on this one small hilltop sent out ripples that continue to emanate worldwide.

©2016 Matti Friedman (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

What listeners say about Pumpkinflowers

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A well performed thoughtful illuminating memoir

Eric Michael Summerer does a fine job capturing Matti Friedman’s thoughtful and illuminating memoir about Israeli conscripts right out of high school (as opposed to veteran reservists) sent out to the southern Lebanese border to defend Israel from insurgents (terrorists). The fifteen war ends when it becomes unpopular at home and fades without recognition in history. As such, the book finds commonality with Tim O’Brien’s classic, The Things They Carried about American infantrymen in Vietnam.

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Haunting memories of a hill

Strongly suggest for anyone who is perplexed by the Middle East and why peace is the anomaly.

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  • 06-16-16

Amazing Book

I will give a more detailed review on Amazon. If you are interested in the Middle East and war, this book is a must read. The author is an amazing writer and story teller. The story itself was incredible. I'm so disappointed it's over but glad I read the Wall Street journal review. I'm really surprised this is on top of the best seller list.

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WORTH A READ

worth a read.
especially interesting if you have any interest in understanding the tribulations of serving in the IDF.

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funny yet depressing

really loved this book and did a good job at framing the Lebanon war and the "new middle east"

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Israeli Defense Fighter’s Story of War in Lebanon

Canadian citizen and Jew living in Israel, Matti Friedman brings to life the war between Israel and Lebanon in the 1990s. A conflict that few know much about and the western world seem to care even less about, the memoir by Matti Friedman details clearly what a well-funded organization Hezbollah is, and gives us a glimpse into how we got to where we are in Afghanistan and Iraq today. The book was an eye opener for me, as I had always thought that the conflict between Israel and its neighbors was a religious one. But Friedman’s trip (as a Canadian citizen) into Lebanon years after the conflict prove there’s little basis for that. Americans and Israelis are hated (and I’m pretty sure that they can’t tell a person why) and Canadians are not. One thing that was no surprise to me was that the Israeli soldiers were fighting for each other, not so much for their country. The same is true for Americas young soldiers, both my sons included. The book is well written and gives the listener much to contemplate.

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Excellent book

Excellent book from the perspective of an Israeli soldier. people always forget that wars even ones without offical names have a consequence regardless of who wins or looses.

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Good book, missing the other side

It's a great book if you want to view the psychological thoughts of a soldier... very humanizing. More of a story of a person than a war

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