Ahmed Omar Omar من عند 37013 Pesina VR, إيطاليا
** spoiler alert ** On the positive side I got my copy and finished reading it in one day, so it is needless to say that the book was able to hold my attention. The friendship between Caleb and Jackson is aother high-point. That they had the ability to look beyond their differences and respect each other for the competent and capable men they were instead of hating each other because of archaic steryotypes, sends a positive mesage to everyone who reads it. Some of the terms used, however, (homosexual/heterosexual, etc.)seemed rather toned down considering the situations they were used in and it made the conversations between the Marines seem less realistic and thus less poignant. I was also put off a little by the fact that only Caleb was represented like a respectable gay man. The other two gay men (Stacey and his current boyfriend) were both portrayed in a very negative light. I realize their characters were intentionally unlikeable I think that perhaps a positive portrayal of another gay man could have been included. As it was, it seems as if Caleb is being shown as a rare exception to the gay stereotypes. The postscript also threw me for a bit of a whirl and I think perhaps had a stopped reading right before that I would have enjoyed the ending better. Although the last few lines proir to the postscript, discussing a particular crime against a character not being a "hate crime" because the character was Christian did not sit well with me. Religious differences are protected by the Hate Crimes Act and they do not need to be a "minority" religion for it to be covered.
Cute! I liked the commentary!