Informazioni generali

Data di nascita: 1963-05-27
Sesso: male
Nazionalità: USA
Luogo di nascita: Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Luogo di residenza: Butte, Montana, USA
Istruzione: University of Oregon (BA|English)
University of Alaska, Fairbanks (MFA|Creative Writing)
Attività lavorative: journalist
Breve biografia: Born in Bloomsburg, PA, in 1963, I grew up in Wyoming. I earned a BA in English from the University of Oregon in 1987 and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska in 2004. After working as a reporter for newspapers in Montana, I enlisted in the Army as a journalist in 1988. During my military career, I was named the top Military Journalist in the Department of Defense for 1993. I retired from the military in 2008 after 20 years of active-duty service. Fobbit, my novel very loosely based on experiences during Operation Iraqi Freedom, will be published by Grove/Atlantic in September 2012. My short stories and essays have appeared in Esquire, The Literarian, Connecticut Review, The Greensboro Review, The Missouri Review, War, Literature and the Arts and other literary quarterlies. I live in Butte, MT, with my wife and twin cats.

Utenti

Recensioni

Fobbit di David Abrams

This satire of life in a fortified army base on the outskirts of Baghdad during the US occupation of Iraq is based on the author's experiences as a public relations writer during the war. The "hero" of the novel is Chance Gooding, public affairs staff, who churns out press releases every day about theater of war activity as part of the Army's campaign to win the PR battle. He knows that his efforts are invariably useless, as by the time the Army's version of a "sig act" makes it way through the chain of command for approval they've been scooped by CNN and the NY Times, and that press release is stale news.

Gooding is essentially the only example of a central character in the novel who is an intelligent, sane person just trying to survive the insaneness. Everyone else is varying degrees of incompetent, however much rank they've attained, whether it's Gooding's fat slob of a commanding officer who trembles and gets nosebleeds in front of his own commanders, or the infantry Captain busted down to towel boy for cowardice and rank stupidity, or the Colonel who spends the novel alternating between paralyzing headaches and dreaming of "his wife's milky tit".

The novel is entertaining, though probably a bit over-hyped.… (altro)

Segnalato

lelandleslie | 18 altre recensioni | Feb 24, 2024 |

Fobbit di David Abrams

It tried to be Catch-22, but wasn't good enough. Halfway thru I lost interest; and 100% of the way thru I was annoyed by the names of the characters. It was distracting from the story and not fun at all.
Nice try, but better luck next time.

Segnalato

kwskultety | 18 altre recensioni | Jul 4, 2023 |

Fobbit di David Abrams

Compared to Slaughterhouse Five and Catch 22 - not a classic such as these. Some memorable characters, though, especially Shrinkle.

Segnalato

ChetBowers | 18 altre recensioni | Mar 10, 2021 |

Fobbit di David Abrams

This was decent but not great. I really like the idea of fiction set in unusual environments (deployed military in Iraq/Afghanistan being a particularly unusual environment —completely routine and well understood to about 1% of the public while being rather alien to most and only slightly known to some), and I love catch-22, but sadly this book is no catch-22. The characters and setting were decent enough, but the core plot just wasn’t very interesting or entertaining. The author would probably be better writing a series of fictionalized short stories of actual events, or coming up with a more interesting story in the same setting. However, as one of the few comedic novels set in Iraq, it still is probably worth a read.… (altro)

Segnalato

octal | 18 altre recensioni | Jan 1, 2021 |

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