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|  | | Anthony Swofford
Fortunately, most Americans only experience war through their television screens, but this distance from the harsh everyday realities of frontline battle has resulted in a somewhat incomplete image of what war is really like and what it means for those who fight. With Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles, Anthony Swofford has admirably attempted to complete that image.
 Read the interview
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Fact File
| Name:
Anthony Swofford
Also Known As:
Swoff
Current Home:
New York, New York
Date of Birth:
August 12, 1970
Place of Birth:
Fairfield, California
| | Education:
B.A. in English, University of California, Davis, 1999; M.F.A. in English, University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, 2001
Awards:
PEN/Martha Albrand Art of Memoir Award, 2004; Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Award, 2004 for Jarhead
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Swofford's Bestseller
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Our Price:
$
15.00
| | Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
by
Anthony Swofford
From our Editors: "On the surface, Swofford seemed to be the quintessential "jarhead" -- a front-line combat Marine who shouldered 100-pound packs and waded into battle-torn Iraq with little or no hesitation. But, as this harrowing memoir shows, Desert Storm veteran Swofford carried mental baggage far heavier than duffel bags with bed rolls and rifles. Jarhead brandishes the intensity of military life in all its maddening contradictions. From boot camp to post-battle doldrums, he struggles through mental minefields and wartime doubts. Unflinching and revelatory, this memoir has become an instant classic."
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What's Cooking
| "After a hard day of writing I love to cook," Swofford tells us in our interview. "I am currently cooking regularly out of Batali, Boulud, and Pepin cookbooks. I still need recipes. I can walk to the market at four, shop, cook, and feed someone at nine o’clock. Then I’ve spent five hours away from the book, and this separation is good, and I’ve made something that is complete, perhaps, even, with lunch for the next day. And after eating I can revise the day’s earlier work, while someone else washes the dishes."
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An Early Influence
| Reading Recommendations
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Our Price:
$
16.95
| | Hopscotch
by
Julio Cortázar
"This book dazzled me when I first read it in college and still does, any day of the week," Swofford comments on Julio Cortazar's classic. "I will read it again and again until I die. Its inventiveness and cunning taught me that anything is possible with prose, and its intellectual and aesthetic fierceness taught me that a writer should always have lofty goals for her work. Also, it’s highly entertaining and deeply sexy"
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Our Price:
$
16.15
You Save:
5%
| | Omensetter's Luck
by
William H. Gass
"Gass’s acuity never falters, no matter what he writes about, and in this book a small Ohio town comes to life, from the muddy, bloated river to the life-loving Brackett Omensetter, to the preacher burning with Passion and God," Swofford reflects on another favorite read, William H. Gass's Omensetter's Luck. Read our interview with Swofford to learn more about his best-loved books, including:
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