介绍:
To be honest, when I first got my hands on Ben Fountain&`&s award-winning novel, Billy Lynn&`&s Long Halftime Walk, I was slightly disappointed. Its cover, a camouflage-wearing solider with his back to us, gives off a vibe of platitude.
Don&`&t get me wrong. Contemporary war novels surely have their charm. Books such as Evan Wright&`&s Generation Kill and Kevin Powers&`& The Yellow Birds, are all soul-touchingly brilliant. But you have to admit that&`&s been thirteen years since United States, under then president George W. Bush, invaded Iraq. During the past decade, thanks to Hollywood&`&s wanton exploitation on this subject, war stories, especially pro-peace ones, have gradually lost ground. The scorching struggle, raw pain, and harrowing journeys of those young men and women in uniform hardly move today&`&s fastidious readers.
Yet Ben Fountain&`&s writing has turned out to be an awl in the gut.
Unlike most military fictions that visualize the day-by-day experiences of soldiers at the front, Billy Lynn&`&s Long Halftime Walk merely skims over the bloodshed and intense firefight on the battlefield. Instead, it&`&s a full-length story set in the homeland. Here, we follow the Bravo squad. Their minutes-long fierce skirmish with Iraqi rebels was captured on camera by an embedded Fox News reporter, which turned the eight surviving members into national heroes overnight.
Lionized as the symbols of American valour and military might, the soldiers are brought back home to join a propaganda parade mandated by the Pentagon, which begins at the White House and ends at the halftime show of a Dallas football team. Their two-week-long circuit is labelled as a victory tour, despite the fact that they just lost a fellow comrade during the combat.
But the real story follows Billy Lynn, the novel&`&s protagonist and namesake, a nineteen-year-old Texas native who joined the Army right after trashing the car of his sister&`&s ex fiancé. For a thoughtful and pensive mind, nineteen is a difficult age, not old enough to drink alcohol, yet is presumed ready to kill and get shot for his country. Surrounded by fanatical patriots mumbling "SUPPORT THE TROOP" "PAYBACK", ravenous media personnels that covet for any juicy details of their story, as well as the rich and powerful who are "all gnashing for a piece" of his soul, the young man is bewildered and perplexed. As the most sought-after member of the squad, he feels like being "passed around like everyone&`&s favorite toy". Trapped inside an abyss that separates the brutal battlefield and the war projected in the eyes of American public, Billy desperately reaches out to those around him.
Yet his hunt for role models seems end in vain. Albert, the award-winning movie producer who tries to sell their story to Hollywood, is way too cunning and sophisticated. Along with a pastor who constantly texts Billy in order to make himself look good and a wheelchair-bound father who is distant, eccentric and cold, Billy&`&s self-questioning endeavour is in a dire state.
Everyone wants something from Billy, except for his dead army buddy Shroom and his cynical elder sister Kat.
Following Billy&`&s acute observation, readers are dragged into "the general insanity of American life" as the author provides an almost minute account of Billy&`&s psyche and mind. Don&`&t forget, my friends, the story is set in 2004, when the presidential election was at its crucial stage and the delirium of patriotic frenzy was at an all-time high. Yet the irony reaches its culmination, when the heroes are shoved onto the stage during a Dallas Cowboys halftime show, right after Destiny&`&s Child. Billy and the rest of the squad members are required to march along with their pulsating song, despite the PTSD-triggering fireworks and sound effects.
By then, readers will understand why the book is titled "Billy Lynn&`&s Long Halftime walk". You may come to the same conclusion with Billy that these appointed heroes are merely "angelic warriors of America&`&s crusader dreams".
But the author doesn&`&t spare his readers from misery right there. By the end of the story, these overproduced, under-rested soldiers are shipped back to Iraq right after the show. One line from a solider is particularly heart-breaking: "Take us someplace safe. Take us back to the war."
However, the book is not without flaws. Carrying on the good old tradition of some classic stream-of-consciousness novels, such as Ulysses and Mrs Dalloway, Fountain sets the whole story in the course of one day. He does have a knack for synesthetic details. But sometimes, readers may feel a little bit suffocated, since the plot could be too intense, angry, and pugilistic. As for our protagonist, his inner voice sounds too mature and trenchant for a nineteen-year-old.
Nevertheless, Billy Lynn&`&s Long Halftime Walk is a book worth reading and be reflected on.
In 2016, Academy-award-winning director Ang Lee adapted the story to the silver screen. When asked why the book appealed to him, he provided an answer that some readers may resonate with.
"Well, it&`&s understanding soldiers, coming of age - I&`&m 61, reaching 62, I still feel like I&`&m coming of age. Really, the story from the book really attracts me. It puts a young soldier&`&s sensation from the battlefield to a halftime show. It&`&s a great dramatic setup to examine humanity, to examine society. I think it&`&s very timely subject matter too."
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