The Forever War by Dexter Filkins - Book Report/Review Example

He was born in 1961 and attended the Universities of Florida and Oxford. He has won several awards including the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, George Polk Awards and three Overseas Press Club Awards. This paper takes a look into his book The Forever War which he wrote in 2009 and which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Non-Fiction Book. The book was also named the best book of the year by the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe (Davidson, Cassidy & Borowitz 1).

The book is divided into parts. He wrote Part One when he was reporting the Afghan war from Kabul while Part Two was written when he was reporting the Iraqi war from Baghdad.The captivating story takes the reader through varied land forms from deserts to mountains and to the streets. Numerous characters are also met in the course of the narrative. Filkins talks of his experiences without primarily relying on secondary sources. He does talk of how he witnessed the death of a US soldier who was guiding him.

He also does talk of some Iraqis that he was hiring to bring him stories of what was happening around at a time when things got rough to the extent of not being able to leave his office. Furthermore, he laments of how he became numb after seven dangerous years that nearly cost him his life. His numbness he says made him to develop a-don’t-care attitude since he no longer feared anything (Filkins 294). At one point in 342-page book, he describes the horrific B-52 bombs. He says despite the bombs being frightening, the bombers too acted in an unprecedented manner always letting the bombs from far away and without any clear warning (Filkins 48).

He also talks of one occasion when he was being shot at and he had to run for his dear life but was rescued by US Marines (Filkins 8). Such descriptive scenes of events clearly shows the kind of endurance that he underwent in his line of duty as a journalist. Another thing that can be noted of