PositiveThe RumpusBardenwerper gives the reader a close look at a real-life supervillain, and how easy it is for him to gather minions at his feet. Bardenwerper’s tightly-constructed and engaging book is compiled from court transcripts, historical accounts, interrogation records, and his own interviews. He relates multiple perspectives of Saddam Hussein’s influence and the long shadow he casts over Iraq. Bardenwerper plays the narrative straight, and his own opinion never overshadows his sources.
Roy Scranton
MixedThe RumpusRoy Scranton’s Iraq War-themed novel War Porn is vile and reprehensible. It viciously insults veterans of every stripe and concludes with no character’s salvation, no hint of redemption. The book is brilliant in its repellent execution. War Porn gives no comfort, and readers of Iraq and Afghanistan-related fiction deserve no easily digested narratives of tragic heroes ... War Porn is unforgiving at all turns, and when the plotlines finally intersect and the connections all established, readers are left only the fraud of their own emotions—we want things to work out, for at least somebody. They don’t.
