Marine wins National Book Award

The National Book Awards were held on Nov. 19 and a former marine won the award for fiction.

Phil Klay, a former marine, won the National Book Award for fiction with his book of short stories, Redeployment. Klay’s short stories come from his experience from serving as a Marine in Iraq.

“What do you do when you’re trying to explain in words, to the father of a fallen Marine, exactly what that Marine meant to you?” Klay said in his acceptance speech.

Although the stories are drawn from Klay’s experiences, they are all fiction. Some stories are set in Anbar Province where soldiers are fighting, and others are set in the U.S. where they try to acclimate to civilian life again.

“War is too strange to be processed alone,” Klay said. He added that writing the stories as fiction helped him process his experiences.

Klay’s collection of short stories is a tough and easy read. Any stories about war are hard to get through–to me, at least–but it’s also nice because as short stories, you’re given breathers between each event.

I would suggest this book to anyone and everyone. I think it has a very important message about war and those who fight in it, and it’s a book everyone can benefit from.