This is quite a gripping account of some of what went on in Falluja in 2004. I really got into this after watching Black Hawk Down. That got me in the right frame of mine to really picture these scenes from Iraq. It is quite graphic and very intense, but it really gets you into the action. ( )

Just a searing and amazing book.

I saw him giving a talk about his book in a bookstore, on C-SPAN. It was back in 2007, when the book was out in HC. I was so memorized by his talk that I vowed to buy the book when it came out it paper. And I did. I didn't read it until now, because I got one of my RL book groups to read it as the January selection.

The passion and honesty of his presentation made it seem like he spoke for an hour or more on one breath. It was fast and it took you to the events he talked about, the horror of war, the men he fought with, those who lived and those who were lost. That same vitality comes across in the book. I read it in one sitting.

The book is a series of connected stories about their life in Iraq and the battles they get into. There are lots of descriptions of battles, and weapons. It is gory, brutal and quite frank. Not for the faint of heart or those who require sugar-coating. The major part of the book is about his unit going into Fallujah to clean out the insurgents after they killed and hung the bodies of 4 American contractors from a bridge.

He doesn't really go into politics, other than to say he is upset at how the media portrays the war. He is also critical of those in the military who are living a cushy life in the rear area, while the troops are in danger. They get very little in terms of support, comfort, or even basic necessities. He is full of pride for his men and their courage, and unapologetic at the killing and destruction, though he does recognize the enemy as human.

There is a good bit of introspection, but not at the time of the events, and not enough to keep him from acting and staying alive in the heat of battle. He believes in his men, in the US, and in the ability to change the world for the better with a gun in his hand, and our flag on his shoulder.

Not a popular sentiment in the world today. But unlike the scumbags in Washington who believe the same, Bellavia truly believes good will come of it. He didn't lie or manipulate us into this war, and he is willing to put his life and his body on the line to back up what he believes. Unlike the cowards in Washington. ( )

House to House is a frank, personal account by a sergeant of the 1st US Infantry Division (the Big Red One) of small-unit urban warfare during the Second Battle of Fallujah, a punishing expedition started just after the US election in November 2004. The First Battle of Fallujah ended in a draw when the increasing number of US casualties and the devastation caused by US arms turned into a PR disaster. With the election safely out of the way, the US forces could resume their mission of destruction ("pacification" in the Roman sense). The book contains no background on Fallujah, the war and politics. The book is short on reflection and, despite looming realization about the futility of the Iraq War, big on regurgitating propaganda. The author is stuck in a cognitive dissonance of proclaiming to fight a noble war (bringing freedom to the Iraqis, killing terrorists) and the realization of the destruction, cost and horror caused thereby.

SSG Bellavia ("Beautiful Life" in Italian) from Buffalo, NY, is brutally open. I am not sure whether he doesn't notice or doesn't care that he comes across as a mix between Beavis and The Office's Michael Scott. His enlisted men's world is peopled by the lower levels of the US society. He is an equal-opportunity insulter, though: Both his comrades and his opponents are addressed as "shitheads" and "retards".

Like Michael Scott, he is a horrible leader who uses his position to bully his men, go on wild goose chases and torture his men with his lame jokes. It is usually his competent colleague SSG Fitts who has to bring his mind back to the mission and redeem his mistakes. Bellavia makes quite a number of interesting observations but connecting the dots is not his forte: Part of his motivation to join the army was helplessly having to watch thugs rob his home in New York. That the Iraqis might have similar feelings about his actions does not enter his mind. Ranting about the REMF (rear echelon mother fuckers), he writes about the insurgents: "The young (insurgents) were more committed. They have been indoctrinated since childhood and are radicalized beyond reason. They will go willingly when (sic! probably: while) their leaders stay back and order them to their deaths." He then continues his rant about the uncaring photo opportunity visit of his general - without noting that his prior sentence might apply to his men too (apart from the fact that the radicalization of the Iraqis only started when the US occupation went south).

The book features quite a few good battle vignettes. As the US platoons usually face but a handful of Iraqi opponents, the action tends to be one-sided, a tale of supreme US firepower handled by morons. US effectiveness is shattered by miserable coordination from top to bottom. Having had more than five months to plan the operations, Army and Marine units use the same entry point, fire on each other, use interfering frequencies and shatter their night-vision with flares. If these guys had been in command on D-Day, they would never have left the beaches. In the climactic scene, Bellavia abandons his leader role to play Rambo, a stupid action that will bite him in a special place.

Readers even slightly familiar with the topic of urban warfare will not learn much from this book. Bellavia's insights are mostly of a type to question the quality of US army training (A bombarded city does no longer look like its pre-bombardment pictures. Foyer doorways are dangerous places to stay in ... D'oh!). Its glimpses at what is wrong with the current US army could serve as a basis to build the post-Iraq US army. ( )

Not enough praise can be lavished on David Bellavia and the book he wrote, House to House. It is a war memoir that is perhaps unmatched in its imagery and poetic power, Bellavia has a way of connecting the figures he writes about to the reader.

Probably the best war memoir i've ever read, so good that I snatched it all in in one sitting. ( )

This is an extraordinary book about war. It is well written and vividly describes the thinking an actions of a true soldier. As I read it I found myself in the battle with him.