Just finished two books recently, one fiction and one non-fiction. The non-fiction book, We Gotta Get Out of This Place, by Doug Bradley and Craig Werner, was an examination of the role music, and particularly the counter-cultural music of the 1970s, played on the lives of soldiers during the Vietnam War. I thought the book was good, although I think the authors decided on the quantity route – gathering as many different stories and comments as they could from as many different soldiers as they could – which inevitably started to make all of their stories blend together and sound similar. I think the book would have been better served had they decided to focus on delving deeper into a handful of soldiers’ stories and the influence music had on their lives and their roles within the war. Regardless, it was an interesting read, with the popular music of the era reflecting the growing racial tensions between black and white not only back in the United States, but in the war as well, the homesickness of many of the soldiers and how music served as a collective lifeline to their lives back home, and finally, how the music reinforced the growing hopelessness and despair of achieving victory in a war that continued to drag on and claim American lives. One of the authors, Doug Bradley, was a Vietnam veteran, so you know they were going to do right by the soldiers and allow them to tell their stories in their own words (what they called “solos” in the book), which was a great touch by the authors. I especially liked the stories of the soldiers at night who used music to unwind – usually as a result of two extremes felt during the day: boredom or chaotic and bloody violence. They would gather in each other’s “hooches” at night and listen to tunes – usually by tuning into any radio stations they could find playing American music. Most of the soldiers disparaged the music played by the Armed Services Network, which tended to shy away from any controversial or anti-war music, so the soldiers would have to rely on rogue deejays or Vietnamese stations playing the rock n’ roll and soul music from back home. It was a fascinating time and the book serves as a reminder of how important music was and remains in people’s lives, especially under such trying circumstances.
The fiction book I just finished, Bird Box, by Josh Malerman (interesting sidenote: Malerman is the lead singer of the band High Strung), was a good book with a solid premise, but ultimately the big “payoff” never came. The apocalyptic story centered on a small band of individuals who had survived some mysterious “creatures” that caused people to go mad and harm themselves and others upon seeing them. The book’s protagonist was a female whose story jumped from the immediate aftermath of the “event,” when she was pregnant, to four years later, as she, along with her child and another child, travel down a river in search of an alleged survivor camp. I think Malerman does a really good job of building tension and generating some scares, but I was a bit disappointed by the climax, which did not explain anything about these “creatures,” where they originated from, their purpose on Earth, and why they caused people to lose their minds. Frankly, I just wanted a few explanations, and I think it would have been fascinating to know the science behind the story, but unfortunately, those explanations never materialized.