Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I love reading, and I also love to post a brief review when I finish a book I’ve enjoyed. Those reviews however never exceed 140 characters. Having just finished American Sniper, I knew that 140 characters wasn’t enough, so here’s my take on 2 themes from the book (more a brief lesson than a review if you like!)
I’ll start by being honest. I had massive preconceptions before I came to this book, even though I knew very little. I must be one of the few people who hasn’t seen the movie yet (I’ll be watching it this week) as it had been placed firmly onto my ‘I’m reading the book first’ list. That said I’d heard plenty about it from other people, and it wasn’t all great. Many people had shared with me their negative opinions of Chris Kyle, and I came to the book with these in mind (overwhelmingly believing that I was about to read a book in which the author came over as arrogant).
Why did I want to read it then? Who isn’t drawn in by the thought of reading about America’s most deadly sniper ever? I figured that this would be an interesting read, even if not one I could wholeheartedly agree with at the end.
I’ve never read that much about the military, but my athletics has meant that I’ve been fortunate (if that’s the right word) to meet numerous ex-servicemen and women, however for the wrong reasons – I’ve come across them when I’ve been participating in disabled sport, due to their war injuries. I’ve had nothing but total respect for them and the sacrifices they’ve made for us, and yet I don’t feel like I understood a whole lot about war.
And so having now read American Sniper, I want to tell you that my preconceptions were misconceptions, and that if you haven’t read it you should make it your next read. It’s an immensely powerful book, and I honestly don’t remember having cried so much when reading a book (embarrassingly I even found tears rolling down my cheeks on the train last week so maybe don’t read it in public!) I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been on the phone to my best friend and said “you need to hear this” and I pretty much ended up reading the last section of the book out loud to them in full!
I don’t want to ruin the book for you, it’s a journey I encourage you to make on your own, but let me pull out 2 quick points that for me, make this a book worth reading.
- It will help you to understand the full cost of war, and how brave our military are
As I mentioned previously, before reading this book my understanding of war was pretty limited. I’ve seen the physical cost of war on people I know – injuries and disabilities that will be with them for life, however I guess I was guilty of not thinking beyond that. With the help of additional material from Taya Kyle (Chris’ widow) the book explores the horrendous mental cost that war can have. Chris and Taya discuss the strain that war put on their marriage – the struggles that Taya faced alone as she fought to bring up their children essentially a single mother, through to the internal war Chris faced as he struggled with the betrayal he might feel leaving the war and where that meant his priorities lay. Chris also talks in great length about something else I’d never really considered – guilt. He talks in enormous detail about the loss of 2 of his colleagues and close friends and the mental struggles that followed as he was racked with guilt that he couldn’t save their lives.When you read a book where the overwhelming message is that the author doesn’t care about the number of people that he shot – he’s more interested in the number of people he saved – it makes you realise the passion and compassion of our military heroes.
It makes you realise what these men and women go though as they fight for what they believe in, are separated from the ones they love for unbearably long periods of time, and struggle with all they see.
- You must read the memorial edition
So the copy I’d picked up on my kindle app was the recently released memorial edition. It’s not a spoiler to tell you that tragically, after the completion of the American Sniper book, Chris Kyle was murdered whilst doing what he loved – supporting veterans. In this edition of the book the last section is devoted to a series of beautiful tributes from friends and family, including his wife Taya and handwritten notes from his young children (who he never named in the book as he didn’t want them to be exposed to media pressure). When you read these tributes you can’t help to be moved. See to many people Chris Kyle is simply the deadliest sniper in US history. A proportion of those will then have a bit more of an opinion – their views on the war will colour their opinion of him (he’s either a hero regardless what he did, or something much worse for being involved in the war efforts).
When you read the tributes to Chris Kyle at the end of this book it’s hard to think that way anymore. It made me realise something about the people we send into war. They’re not the ones who make the political decisions. They’re not the ones who even got us into the war. They’re ordinary folk who have signed up because they want to protect me and you. Because they want to do what they believe is right. They’re often filled with love, faith, humility and all those virtues that society values in people. And they’re putting their lives on the line everyday. In concluding I can honestly say that if people can say stuff half as nice about me when I die, I’d be happy.
So with those 2 points I encourage you to pick up a copy of American Sniper. Try and approach it with an open mind, but even if you don’t, I challenge you to not have come to these same conclusions by the end of the book.
I’d like to finish this post by pointing you to a song I came across whilst reading this book which was worked on by a friend of Chris Kyle, after conversations with him. I won’t say any more than that, because I think the lyrics speak for themselves. It’s called ‘Valor’ by the Scooter Brown Band and you can find it on Apple music here
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