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)

Won't finish reading it

Would you try another book from Karl Marlantes and/or Bronson Pinchot?

No. He failed me.

Would you ever listen to anything by Karl Marlantes again?

No.

How could the performance have been better?

Leave out the profanity. I am offended by cursing and especially blaspheming the name of God's Son. I don't do it myself and I do not like to hear it directly into my earphones.

Did What It Is Like to Go to War inspire you to do anything?

Yes, to delete it from my library.

Any additional comments?

I was hoping to understand my son's feelings as he has just returned with a Purple Heart from Afghanistan. I get it that moral boundaries are crossed in warfare. I also get it that war changes people and it will take a lifetime of maturing to integrate the changes and come to acceptance of the changes. I was looking for more immediate healing. I only heard Mr. Marlantes venting his own sorrow as lament. I was not stirred to empathize with him and deleted the book disappointed and more needy than when I downloaded it.

The truth of war from a present day warrior!

What did you love best about What It Is Like to Go to War?

I felt the pain and shame of war.

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

Facing the enemy eye to eye and someone must die. In a way we die or part of us dies.

What about Bronson Pinchot’s performance did you like?

Felt like he wrote the book - he was the authors voice.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Too many to single out.

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend reading this one.
PSavage MD CAPT USN retired

war is hell, but ......

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

yes, absolutely

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

page 1-- last page

Which character – as performed by Bronson Pinchot – was your favorite?

karl marlantes

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

all of the above, and a couple of other ones

Any additional comments?

one of the great books you read in a life time

Every Combat Vet Needs To Read This Book

A great essay on what it means to be shot at and to shoot back. My only complaint was that it tended to be a bit long, but it was a great read. I would like to meet the author and shake his hand.

Truely a experience anyone must have

Get a full, real, HUMANE experiance in humanity.
As a survivor of post Tramatic Stress syndrom from the environment within my father from WWII and Korea tours I can not allow anyone not to read this experiance.
Please read, listen and think.

Gets a bit clunky with outdated gender theory toward the end

Halfway through What It Is Like to Go to War, I was making a mental list of people I wanted to send this book to. Three quarters of the way through, however, I’d crumpled up the list and thrown it into my brain’s trash bin. An hour left of listening and I’d totally lost interest and shut it off.

The first half is well written, engaging, fascinating, and intermittently harrowing and funny. The author is obviously knowledgeable when it comes to wordsmithing and philosophy, but eventually the book digresses into long, repetitive rants on outdated gender theory and 60’s era evolutionary psychology. Unfortunately, the book ultimately became so longwinded and elderly-Uncle’s-Facebook-blustery that it became tedious and I gave up on it. Up until that point, however, I think it’s well worth a listen!

Outstanding!

Everyone should read this! Understanding the complex effects of war on veterans and outward on families and societies has never been approached as honestly, intelligently, and therapeutically as Marlantes has achieved in this important book. I wish this was required reading in every high school in the United States as well as by every elected official of our government.

Excellent narration and important narrative.

The narrator was so compelling in conveying the seriousness and emotion of the book as if he himself had written it himself. The subject matter of the soldier's experience and role itself being profound and seldom discussed in modern society.

Honest and Empowering

Loved how clearly the message of this book was conveyed and how vulnerable and heartfelt the theme was.

If you like philosophy…

This book would probably be good for those that want to get in touch with the emotions of war. I wasn’t looking for a story about emotional healing.