War of the Encyclopaedists

"She wept into her pillow as the crushing futility of a generation descended on her"

Christopher Robinson

Gavin Kovite

War of the Encyclopaedists

This is the best book I've read yet. I don't mean to gush, but, honestly, this book was amazing. And everyone should read it. It is the first novel I've read that focuses on millennials as a generation, and looks into the issues that their (read: my) generation faces. It's extremely well written, eloquent in a dark, humorous, and uplifting way. The characters are real and complex, and their relationships complicated. It looks at the tribulations behind growing up in this day and age, grad school, student loans, deployment, and it deals with them in a wonderfully compassionate way. Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite, I applaud you.

The story follows two friends who are preparing to go to Boston for grad school. As the date approaches one gets deployed to Baghdad, while the other has to wade through a new relationship, and whether or not its too early for his girlfriend to move in with him. Through the next turbulent year, they deal with the outcomes of those decisions. Months later, they find themselves having to deal with their new identities, one trying to make it at grad school, and the other trying to lead is platoon in  the war, which becomes more violent and absurd every day. They keep in touch through a Wikipedia article that they edit (there are screen shots of it in the book), and and they change the document and how they write to each other changes as well.

This book was incredible. From its descriptions of Baghdad during the war to the deconstruction of the Star Wars movies in a grad school class (they're Rebel propaganda, which is why well trained troops never seem to hit a target), the language used is poetic, and right on target. I am so impressed with how it dealt with the feelings of helplessness and ineptitude that the characters faced, and the way it portrayed historical events. The way it described Kerry's defeat in the 2004 election, and how people felt about it was phenomenal. 

This book hit me on such a personal level. I lived through these events. America has been at war for most of my life, and I have dealt the the uncertainty of the future when you owe your soul to the Bank in student loans. I highly recommend this book. I think that everyone should read it.

"We will give up our flesh but not our souls"