Here, Bullet

By Brian Turner

Book Overview

A first-person account of the Iraq War by a solider-poet, winner of the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1882295552
• ISBN13: 9781882295555
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Alice James Books
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Must Read

Just as Michael Casey's book of poetry on the Vietnam war, "Obscenities," was must reading, so is Brian Turner's book of poetry on President Bush's ongoing war in Iraq. There's something intimate and yet at the same time instructive about these poems, as if the narrator takes you by the arm and serves as your personal guide. This is not the stuff of pundits and op-ed writers, thank goodness, but a private, honest, and haunting view of the war. "2000 lbs.," on the effects of a 2000 lb. bomb going off in an Iraqi city, should be read by every American, regardless of political party or stance on the war.

The Tim O'Brien of Iraq War Poetry

Brian just spent two days at Virginia Military Institute as a guest of the Institute and the English Department where I teach. His reading last night and his readings in my classes today were among the best poetry readings I've ever heard. The poems in this collection can alternately sear themselves into your memory with their startling, and yet inevitable, images of the heartbreaking carnage of war, or transport you to a ruggedly beautiful landscape of delicate flowers, quiet night skies and the redemptive power of rain. This collection brings the war home in an urgent and slightly different way than we are accustomed--not the snapshots of the photojournalist, the terse dispatches from correspondents or even the handheld video of the networks. It works its magic by engaging our imaginations and our humanity, and for that everyone should be grateful.

Here, Bullet

This author has an uncanny ability to place the reader next to him. I was forced to put the book down a couple of times due to the pictures Brian's words painted. Awesome and moving are inadequate. Hope to see more nonfiction from this author, I'll definitely read anything he writes.

A book that will join the canon of great war-related poetry

After learning about Brian Turner in The New Yorker, I purchased a copy of "Here, Bullet." I have just finished reading it cover to cover, and it is one of the finest collections of poetry--especially pertaining to warfare--I have ever read. For Publisher's Weekly NOT to give this book a starred review is astonishing; indeed, their review above demonstrates, once again, how profoundly ignorant they are concerning modern poetry. (Everyone in the poetry world knows that while PW's fiction and non-fiction reviews are quite solid, their poetry reviews are embarrassingly pedestrian.) As with any collection, there are some works in "Here, Bullet" that are stronger than others, but many of these poems are absolutely breathtaking. Turner has an exceptional gift for bringing images vividly to life, and his poems, overall, transcend the subject of war and capture emotions to which all readers will be able to relate. I highly recommend this book, and I believe that Turner--like Brooke, Owen, Sassoon, and McCrae before him--will become one of the most celebrated literary voices of his generation.