The Junior Officers' Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781594484797)

Hailed as a classic of war writing in the U.K., The Junior Officers' Reading Club is a revelatory first-hand account of a young enlistee's profound coming of age. Attempting to stave off the tedium and pressures of army life in the Iraqi desert by losing themselves in the dusty paperbacks on the transit-camp bookshelves, Hennessey and a handful of his pals from military academy form the Junior Officers' Reading Club. By the time he reaches Afghanistan and the rest of the club are scattered across the Middle East, they are no longer cheerfully overconfident young recruits, hungering for action and glory. Hennessey captures how boys grow into men amid the frenetic, sometimes exhilarating violence, frequent boredom, and almost overwhelming responsibilities that frame a soldier's experience and the way we fight today.

Watch a Video

Author: Patrick Hennessey
ISBN-10: 1594484791
ISBN-13: 9781594484797
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Language: English
Published: 09/07/2010
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.67lbs
Size: 8.16h x 5.52w x 0.88d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2010
Booklist 09/01/2010 pg. 31
Entertainment Weekly 09/10/2010 pg. 93
Publishers Weekly 11/15/2010
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2011 pg. 6
New York Times Book Review 01/30/2011 pg. 26