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

Somewhat Disappointing

Typical story of combat vets dealing with the ridiculous civilian world. Army dialog is always amusing and gets to the real nature of things. Implausible story about a Dallas cheerleader.

Good but...

So did he come back home. To his girl , guess not . So many unanswered questions. For me anyway. But good book.

Disappointed

I had heard so much buzz about this book, I expected to love it or at least laugh out loud at moments. Billy Lynn is ok. Fountain wants us to believe that Billy Lynn is really struggling with returning to Iraq after coming back to the US on leave after a significant skirmish victory. The problem is that there really never seemed to be a question as to whether or not he would return with his squad; just that he is getting some pressure from his sister to act a certain way. That said, the main conflict was not believable for me. What was more intriguing was 19 year old Billy's observations of successful businessmen and what it took for them to succeed. This seemed to provide impetuous for Billy, perhaps for the first time, to think about his long term future, not just day by day living. Billy Lynn is not a bad book; I just think that it was overhyped.

Not sure on this one

As a solider that did his time overseas I understand some of this book but was just expecting alil more I guess out of it.

Guys on Teams

This book just kept getting better. The novel takes place in one day, at one football game. The more I listened, the more surprises and turns of plot. The author has a great feel for 2004 and life in Texas and football and film agents and guys on teams and, yes, young love. The narrator was very strong, good with his characters' voices. I will read The Yellow Birds next, the other highly praised Iraq war novel--but this one was entertaining and insightful. Very sympathetic characters too.

It turns out to be lots of fun

It's fun to watch these "soldier/kids" deal with the absurdities of their brief exposure to civilian life as "stars." The author paints them clearly, does a particularly good job showing Billy's ambiguities. Can't help but like him and wish him well as he navigates the perils of corporate sharks and stays alive during the remainder of his tour.

Genius, punishingly funny

The story of a day. A troop of soldiers home on leave from Iraq, are dragged around the country on a hero tour, wind up in a stadium on Thanksgiving for a Dallas Cowboys game. We see this surreal afternoon through the eyes of Billy Lynn, 19, who aches with longing for a girl, with loss for a fellow soldier, with horror at his fellow citizens grazing on platitudes and branded-merchandise -- and with a headache, for which he vainly seeks an Advil amidst the adulation. ''Legal liability,'' explains the Cowboys equipment manager, turning him down. People mostly want to feel better about themselves and are not too interested in what hurts Billy. Fountain is a wonderful writer, delivering his own hybrid of Joseph Heller's wit and John Updike's pinwheeling language. Brilliantly performed by Oliver Wyman.

Not an inside look into the war

What I thought I was going to get was an inside account of the war and some first hand experiences. If you are looking for that, here is what you will really get. A very detailed account of a cowboys football game, a physical and emotional infatuation with a cowboys cheerleader, a ton of crude language and humor, an account of the bravo squad trying to negotiate a movie deal, and the anguish of the main character trying to deal with the fact that he will be deployed in 2 days after returning for a short time. If you are interested in hearing about the emotions experienced by a member of the front lines in Iraq then you may enjoy this book. It still held my attention but I wanted to hear objective play by play of the war and that is not at all what this book is about.

Excellent

A very good book about the absurdity of war. Not Catch-22 quality but the vivid descriptions were excellent and the story was powerful. I highly recommend reading.

A modern-day Catch-22. Brilliant, thrilling.

If you could sum up Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk in three words, what would they be?

That is impossible (three words, right?). The publisher's review of this book says it much better than I can. This book is a masterpiece. Billy Lynn is a 19 year old Army grunt, one of the heroes of the Bravo squad. They found themselves in a firefight with Iraqi insurgents. Billy's closest friend, Shroom, catches fire near Billy, who rushes headlong into the middle of the battle to haul his fatally-wounded friend back to a trench. Shroom dies in Billy's arms. The entire moment is filmed by the embedded Fox news "medias," and the squad, with Billy its face, is squired around the country by a Bush administration determined to use them for all the desperate PR they can possibly muster. This amazing novel takes place mostly in one day at the end of the tour, when they are shown off by the slimy owner of the Dallas Cowboys. The writing is brilliant, the narration so completely right that you are glued to your position. This book is why we read.

What other book might you compare Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk to and why?

Catch-22 is what comes to mind. The book deserves to be as wildly popular as the story of Yossarian. It is also hilarious, with wise humor that draws you in with the Bravos, and makes you understand their truly brave dedication, and yet the country's deep ambivalence about the war cannot be denied. Everywhere they have gone, they have been patted on the back, hand-shaken, heartily toasted by everyone who wants a little piece of them. They are deeply embarrassed by the entire production. I had no idea that the book is being released soon as a movie. This is art trumping life. The Cowboys owner, Norm, acclaims to the world that he loves them and is going to make a grand movie of their heroism. But just as in Hollywood, they are first seduced by the idea of getting paid $100K for their roles. Norm, a repulsive insect, makes one offer to them: $5500. Dime, their loving and off-the-wall sergeant, says in the middle of a meeting with himself, Billy, and Norm's forty yesmen that, "Norm loves us so much that he's gonna fuck us in the face!"

What about Oliver Wyman’s performance did you like?

Every word. Every phrase. Every joke, with every double- and triple meaning that each one contains. Possibly my favorite is Billy's instant romance with a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, Faizon Zorn. Billy and Faizon fall spectacularly in love, with bombs bursting, ripped-off clothing, and breathtaking dry humping, all in the middle of the half-time spectacular. This scene, starring Destiny's Child, is everything humoungously tacky about the United States. It features the mandatory cast of thousands, choreographed like a Broadway production, selling the Cowboy brand with every sort of trash that the human mind can create. Mr. Wyman has a talent that makes you want to leap out of your seat and cheer.

If you could rename Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, what would you call it?

This is another horrid question. I believe that Mr. Fountain can call his book anything that he wants to call it.

Any additional comments?

I am not a big fan of war novels. They do make good movies, as Steven Spielberg masterfully showed us with Sophie's Choice, and once again with Schindler's List. I don't know what other writing Mr. Fountain has done, but I will listen to it immediately. I will wait a while, and then listen to Billy's story again, since you can't possibly hear every wonderful, deeply felt word on your first listen. Bravo!!!