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Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A Novel
by Ben Fountain

Published: 2012-11-27
Paperback : 320 pages
3 members reading this now
15 clubs reading this now
3 members have read this book
Recommended to book clubs by 3 of 3 members

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and a finalist for the National Book Award!

From the PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of the critically acclaimed short story collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, comes Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk ("The Catch-22 ...

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Introduction

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and a finalist for the National Book Award!

From the PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of the critically acclaimed short story collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, comes Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk ("The Catch-22 of the Iraq War" —Karl Marlantes).

A razor-sharp satire set in Texas during America's war in Iraq, it explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad.

Ben Fountain’s remarkable debut novel follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive "Victory Tour" at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.

Editorial Review

No editorial review at this time.

Excerpt

The men of Bravo are not cold. It's a chilly and windwhipped Thanksgiving Day with sleet and freezing rain forecast for late afternoon, but Bravo is nicely blazed on Jack and Cokes thanks to the epic crawl of game-day traffic and the limo's minibar. Five drinks in forty minutes is probably pushing it, but Billy needs some refreshment after the hotel lobby, where overcaffeinated tag teams of grateful citizens trampolined right down the middle of his hangover. There was one man in particular who attached himself to Billy, a pale, spongy Twinkie of a human being crammed into starched blue jeans and fancy cowboy boots. "Was never in the military myself," the man confided, swaying, gesturing with his giant Starbucks, "but my granddaddy was at Pearl, he told me all the stories," and the man embarked on a rambling speech about war and God and country as Billy let go, let the words whirl and tumble around his brain ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

Suggested by Members

compare cowboy organization to military industrial complex.
what did bravos have difficulty with in the game as a result of the war experience?
will billy and faison ever see each other again?
by jolds (see profile) 08/09/13

What did Billy find worth fighting and dying for?
Why did they fear halftime?
Is halftime for the team or the sponsors?
by loghouseJD (see profile) 08/09/13

Notes From the Author to the Bookclub

No notes at this time.

Book Club Recommendations

Iraq Squadron meets Dallas Cowboy Establishment
by jolds (see profile) 08/09/13
24 hour romp through a Dallas Cowboy game from the inside as viewed by the Bravo squadron 0.

Member Reviews

Overall rating:
 
 
by Lesley M. (see profile) 02/13/20

 
  "nookreader"by Jean Ann O. (see profile) 08/09/13

amazing 24 hours elapsed comparing Dallas Cowboys to US Military Industrial Complex. Extremely well written

 
  "America's Team"by John D. (see profile) 08/09/13

Putting the grunts of 2007 in Cowboy stadium could not provide a better view of America in battle. Watching a 19 year-old come to grips with the disconnect between his reality and the reality of a citizenry... (read more)

 
  "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk"by Anne S. (see profile) 07/19/13

This book shows up on many 'best books' lists. I don't get it. While there are many insightful moments in the book - -and I am glad that I read it -- the read was a slog. It is about the press tour... (read more)

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