Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Oh my, this novel is the real deal, so good that I predict it will become a classic, alongside Catch 22, to which it has been frequently compared.

I somewhat indiscriminately read many books, and only once in a while do I come across one which I believe has no positive merits to offer. Also only once in a while do I come across one in which I perceive no faults, one which seems perfect in all aspects. This is one of those.

Billy Lynn is one of the eight surviving members of Bravo Squad who become transformed into media heroes after an intense firefight in Iraq has been captured on camera by Fox News. Brought back to the U.S. for a public relations tour to bolster support for the war, the squad members end up on their last day before returning to the war at the Thanksgiving Day Dallas Cowboys football game. Told in third person through Billy Lynn's eyes, the story follows them through one event-filled day.

Bravo Squad attempts to deal with a movie producer who is shopping their story with Hollywood movers and shakers, the ultra-powerful of Texas who all know George and Laura, the Dallas Cowboy players and cheerleaders, and an over-the-top halftime extravaganza complete with Beyonce' and PTSD-inducing fireworks--all as they are mourning their absent brothers in arms and dreading the return to Iraq, trying to behave publicly in a way that will bring honor to their training.

Author Ben Fountain includes black humor here, but the overwhelming tone is one of empathy and understanding for the young men who actually do our fighting for us. He gives us deeply believable characters that we grow to care about, and the writing in spot-on perfect.

Perhaps the only aspect of this novel that seems contrived is Billy Lynn's brief romantic encounter with one of the Cowboy's cheerleaders, but by this time I was believing in his actual living existence so much and rooting for him so strongly that I felt that I willed it to happen myself.

The comparison to Catch 22 arises because this, too, concerns war and warriors, and this, too, is a satire. However, the comparison is somewhat misleading, because, unlike in that book, the target here is not the military and its bureaucratic nonsense. In fact, the military seems to be the only solid and dependable aspect of young Billy Lynn's life. The target of satire is rather American society and its well-intentioned jingoism and obsession with spectacle. War has become for the country just another reality show, with its heroes, "as seen on TV," treated as media celebrities.

Also, this novel is just barely satirical, since much of the technique of literary satire depends on exaggeration; here the various surreal absurdities of American life are barely exaggerated, sometimes not at all exaggerated, I would venture to say. America today seems increasingly to be an unusually weird place. And unlike in Catch 22, the hero is not bitter about his situation so much as he is puzzled and confused. What satire that is expressed here is much less caustic, much more sympathetic, much less pointed at any one target, except possibly (indirectly and somewhat slyly) at Dick Cheney and the Dallas Cowboys franchise owner.

This novel was a finalist for this year's National Book Award, beaten out by The Round House by Louise Erdrich. I am reading that one now, and so far I don't understand why she won the award, but I will try to reserve judgment until I have finished that book. But as for this novel, I don't see how it could get any better. Most highly recommended.