Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Billy Lynn is a member of the US Army's Bravo Company, eight of whom have survived a fierce three and a half minute firefight in Iraq. The firefight, filmed by an embedded Fox News team, shows the heroic and death-defying actions taken by the US soldiers in this skirmish.   One of the men was killed in the fight, another seriously wounded.  The remaining eight (re-christened Bravo Squad by Fox News) have been brought back to the states to be honored and to travel the country on a two-week "Victory Tour" before being shipped back to Iraq to complete their tours of duty.

Bush is President and the war isn't going particularly well (when did it?); the boys  understand that part of their job is to pump up patriotism and reassure Americans that everything is under control.

The novel opens on the last day of the Victory Tour and finds Bravo Squad at a Dallas Cowboys game during which they will be honored at halftime.  The men are in turn exhausted, disillusioned, pumped up and confused by much of what they have seen and heard over the past two weeks.  But most of all, they are incredibly and heart-breakingly young.

Bravo Squad is a cross-section of the soldiers we send to fight our wars.  They are not officers, not college graduates, and for the most part, not from the "middle-class" America with which most of us are most closely acquainted.  These boys are generally from impoverished, rural parts of our country, poorly educated and with limited opportunities yet a strong sense of both Christianity and patriotism.  They are the "grunts".

But for two weeks, they are the most sought-after heroes in America.  They are honored with parties, parades, TV spots, and the company of politicians and millionaires, wealthy "patriots" who count Cheney and Bush as colleagues, and, of course,  Hollywood.  To say they become dazed and confused is putting it mildly.

We see the non-stop hoopla through the eyes of Billy Lynn, a native of a very small town in Texas.  Billy played a particularly heroic part in the firefight and presents a very appealing picture to the adoring crowds of well-wishers.  Innately intelligent, he is overwhelmed with the constant avalanche of cliched congratulations and jingoism while he still struggles with the loss of his buddy in battle and the images of blood, death, and destruction that are part and parcel of war.   He simply can't reconcile these disparate worlds:  "No matter what age or station in life, Billy can't help but regard his fellow Americans as children.  They are bold and proud and certain in the way of clever children blessed with too much self-esteem, and no amount of lecturing will enlighten them as to the state of pure sin toward which war inclines."

Hanging over everything they experience during their two weeks of fame is the reality that Bravo Squad will be returning to Iraq. Billy is terrified that their luck will run out this time.  Surrounded by millionaires who have the money and/or the connections to stand next to Bravo Squad and have their pictures taken, Billy realizes what "he truly envies of these people: the luxury of terror as a talking point..."

We stay with Billy and Bravo Squad as they spend their last day of the tour speculating on their future while desperately trying not to think about it.  Billy comes to realize that the reality of war is not the same reality as the homeland dream of security and safety.

Which reality is the dominant force in shaping policy in the corridors of power?  Billy understands the answer to that question, too.