Canongate £16.99

Bill Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, By Ben Fountain

The American way of love and war

Billy Lynn is 19, from a hick town in Texas and a member of Bravo company on leave from the war in Iraq. Bravo company are heroes of a frenzied firefight against insurgents and, wouldn't you know it, Fox News captured the whole bloody mess. It's now a YouTube sensation. So this isn't R&R: the boys are on a nationwide "victory tour", a shameless piece of boosterism after the non-appearance of WMDs.

Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk takes place on the day of Bravo's final meet-and-greet, at a football match in the Dallas Cowboys' stadium, before they're shipped back to the front line. They joke, they cuss, they brawl, they dream of hooking up with a cheerleader or, even better, the half-time entertainment, Destiny's Child. But before that unrealisable fantasy, they must be paraded one last time before the crowds who love them, who need them, who ask them what it was really like. Anything but acknowledge that they are killing machines.

Amid this outpouring of infantile emotion, Ben Fountain's brilliantly drawn Billy emerges as the lone sane voice: "Billy suspects his fellow Americans secretly know better, but something in the land is stuck on teenage drama, on extravagant theatrics of ravaged innocence and soothing mud wallows of self-justifying pity." He knows his life is worthless, and war is hell, but he "sees no great appeal in these tepid peacetime lives".

But Billy is not a vehicle for an exposition on the idiocy of US culture, but a real young man. He doubts, he rails, he lusts. (The scenes at home in which he's trying not to get turned on by his sister in a bikini are a gorgeous vignette of dysfunctional domestic life.) He wants real love and the telescoped romance with a cheerleader, Faison, is convincing and heartbreaking.

The book is lit up by verbal pyrotechnics, although there are times when you feel machine-gunned by half-formed metaphors, sandbagged by similes. And while Fountain's observations are generally sharp, a pronouncement such as "Somewhere along the way America became a giant mall with a country attached" is sophomoric and trite.

That aside, this is an exhilarating ride; funny, oddly touching, written with garish clarity. If Billy has a conclusion, it's that there are no answers. "Silence [is] truer to the experience than star-spangled spasm, the bittersweet sob, the redeeming hug, or whatever this fucking closure is that everybody's always talking about. They want it to be easy and it's just not going to be."

Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk is not the "Catch 22 of the Iraq War" as the book's jacket screams: there's no paradox – the characters are under no illusions about the sanity of the undertaking. It's about the American way of watching war, brought to you by General Motors. And in Billy we've found a hero for our times.

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
News in pictures
World news in pictures
Arts & Ents blogs

Game of Thrones ‘Second Sons’ – Season 3, episode 8

Even though there was a complete absence of our favourite odd couple Brienne and Jaime, we got anoth...

Made in Chelsea – Series 5, Episode 7

If you had any doubt where Binky gets her brilliantly brassy disregard for social graces, episode se...

Kate Simko: A picture paints a thousand notes

Kate Simko is a lady who has constantly worked towards to pushing herself musically. Though she make...

       

ES Rentals

    'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'

    Masculinity in crisis?

    'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'
    Have US shock jocks gone too far?

    Have US shock jocks gone too far?

    An incendiary remark from Rush Limbaugh may be the beginning of the end for outspoken right-wing US broadcasters
    The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey pays more income tax than big cities of the North

    The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey

    Elmbridge pays more income tax than big cities of the North
    Heavenly Bodies

    Heavenly Bodies

    Michael Landy's artistic marriage made in heaven... and hell
    'He will always be a friend': Jackie Stewart backs Polanski

    'He will always be a friend'

    Jackie Stewart backs Roman Polanski
    The price of pacifism: Refusing to go to war is finally being recognised as a brave act

    The price of pacifism

    From the Second World War refusenik to the 19-year-old Israeli, Holly Williams talks to five people who risked shame and suffering to take a stand as conscientious objector.
    'It was mass hysteria': Jason Isaacs on groupies, theatre bores and snogging James Bond

    Jason Isaacs: Groupies, theatre bores and James Bond

    To millions, Jason Isaacs is one of Harry Potter's arch enemies – but his wife prefers him as a Scottish TV detective.
    Notes from a small island: Is Sealand an independent 'micronation' or an illegal fortress?

    Sealand: 'Micronation' or illegal fortress?

    Thomas Hodgkinson spent a week at the tiny platform off the Suffolk coast to find out.
    Not a bad bone: Mark Hix cooks with cutlets and ribs

    Mark Hix cooks with cutlets and ribs

    If you ignore cutlets and ribs, you'll risk missing out on some delicious and easy meals, says our chef.
    The experts' guide to summer: From getting fit for the beach to recreating that Olympic buzz

    The experts' guide to summer

    From getting fit for the beach to recreating that Olympic buzz
    Sex, drugs and fast cars: The legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing

    Legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing

    Early glimpses of Ron Howard's film Rush suggest it will portray Hunt as a high-living lothario, with an insatiable appetite for partying.
    Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation when using drugs and alcohol. It was hurting my life'

    Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation'

    The next Vanilla Ice or the next Eminem? Macklemore doesn't have a record contract – but he does have the UK's biggest-selling single of the year.
    Don't be shy: Bill Granger's Sri Lankan recipes

    Don't be shy: Bill Granger's Sri Lankan recipes

    Sri Lankan cuisine is light, sunny, wonderfully spiced – and so easy to cook from scratch. Just as soon as you've broken into the coconut, that is.
    Sir James Dyson’s latest project: Cleaning up hospitals

    Sir James Dyson’s latest project: Cleaning up hospitals

    Doctors are hailing the revamp of a Bath neonatal unit, where babies sleep more and feed better, as the model for patient care
    One man returns to Argentina's town that drowned

    One man returns to Argentina's town that drowned

    Epecuen was submerged under 10 metres of water in 1985. Now the floods have gone – and 83-year-old Pablo Novak has moved back in