Anatomy of a Soldier

By Harry Parker

Anatomy of a Soldier is the debut novel of British Army veteran Harry Parker, and for me, it's earned a place among the GOAT for changing how I look at the "war novel." I've never liked them, typically finding that they glorify war even while claiming the opposite. However, I count this (along with Slaughterhouse-Five, of course, deserving its own post) as a notable exception.

The novel follows a Captain Tom Barnes in an unidentified, but guessable, war zone and on his return to England after a near-fatal injury. Simultaneously, we follow two boys growing up in the war zone and their relationship with the local insurgency. The truly fascinating element though, is that the story is told from the perspective of inanimate objects- a different one in each chapter. As odd as it might seem to read a story told by boots, armor, even an IED, the objects provide both a depth of emotion and objective clarity that unreliable, human narrators can't. War is seen in both the clinical detail of an aerial drone and the brutal reality of a boy's sneaker.

Truthfully, this is a difficult book to accurately describe without giving too much away (a perfect choice for a review). What I will say is that by following one soldier and local boys, the book humanizes all of the participants in war, both voluntary and coerced, while questioning the utility of prolonged campaigns and occupation. The hyperrealism of the storytelling isn't always for the faint of heart, but I think it's an important read in our time of unending wars. Anatomy of a Soldier pushes against the temptation to think about armed intervention as an abstract, political concept, reminding us of the perfectly real human consequences. Best of all, there's no glorification in sight.