Colby Buzzell

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Fear & Loathing in the US Army. A self-proclaimed Hunter S. Thompson fan, as well as a once-aimless GenX-er, Colby Buzzell makes his own loathing of many things obvious from the get-go. The fear comes later, and is most vividly expressed nearly 200 pages into this memoir of the Iraq war. Here's his delayed reaction after being in one of the most hard-fought and fierce fire-fight he'd ever encountered on the streets of Mosul -

"I was smoking show more like a chimney, one right after another. My nerves were completely shot and I was emotionally drained and I noticed that my hands were still kinda shaking ... I was thinking how lucky I was to be alive. I've never experienced anything like the fear I felt today ..."

Stryker machine-gunner Buzzell is a curious character in his own story. Intelectually curious, he is a voracious reader of good books, yet he seems to find little to like in this world. Possessed of a wicked and ironically sly sense of humor, he uses it repeatedly to jab at our country's leaders, the war, politics, the media - just about everything, in fact, including himself. I found myself liking the guy in spite of myself. He made me laugh and he made me wince in recognition. His narrative, with its casual attitude towards porno, "spank" mags and masturbation among the troops, brought to mind Tony Swofford's book about the first Gulf war, JARHEAD - although Buzzell himself dismisses that book scornfully, and that first "war" as well. It was also very like Johnny Rico's fine memoir of the current war in Afghanistan, BLOOD MAKES THE GRASS GROW GREENER. It also flashed me back to my own war, the Cold War. Soldiers are the same, regardless of the setting or the era, it would seem. Nothing much changes. Buzzell's choice of a title for his memoir-cum-blog, MY WAR, is certainly not unique. It is the third military memoir I have read with this title. The others were both WWII memories from journalist Andy Rooney and artist Tracy Sugarman, both fine books. And so is this one. The army tried to call Buzzell back to active duty in 2008, but he was found to be unfit for service - PTSD. The physical, mental and emotional casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan continue to mount and multiply, and the ends to these wars are still not clearly in sight. Perhaps books like Buzzell's will help speed their resolutions. I hope so. show less

I've been following Mr. Buzzell since the early days of his Iraq blog. His genius for minutiae is there as always, but his constant references, in any kind of context, to his military service are getting more tedious each year that goes by.

So if you have read some of his articles and aren't bored yet go ahead, but you shouldn't expect anything new ... just the same old complains about PTSD & unemployment with the same occasional brilliant observations about life on the margins of society, show more be that margin SF Tenderloin or Mosul streets. show less

Lost in America: A Dead-End Journey is Colby Buzzell’s response to his publisher’s pitch to update an American classic. Instructed to “retrace Kerouac’s footsteps and paint a contemporary portrait of America” and to write “a love letter to Kerouac”, Buzzell wholeheartedly agrees and immediately cashes the advance check. And also immediately lets the reader know “Like hell I am.” This is no homage to Kerouac or classic American literature.

The book opens with a quote from show more Kurt Cobain and each succeeding chapter opens with yet another in the same nihilistic vein. Very little of the book has to do with the trip Buzzell took across the country. It is more of a travel guide on his road to some semblance of grown-up life as well as a meditation on family. Twin earthquakes struck in quick succession: his mother’s death and his son’s birth. He chose to delay the trip for the first, but not the second. Buzzell remarked on several occasions that he needed to find the plot. Where would the book go? What was the hook? It is easy to see and surmise that this applied to his life as well as to the writing assignment.

For all intents and purposes, the six-month trip ended in Detroit. For Buzzell, this city is Ground Zero for the disaffected and disowned. Suicide is mentioned more than once, and one could argue that his actions in Detroit were a form of passively attempting such. He also used the city to draw a parallel between Kerouac’s Beat Generation and today’s beat down generation. He repeatedly referred to the city, the buildings and occupants as looking as though they had recently suffered a scud missile attack.

Ostensibly travelling across the country looking for and working odd jobs, Buzzell spent a great deal of the book drinking, drunk or hung over. It is hard to imagine that this is the approach someone would take if they were actually trying to pay the rent. In some ways, he’s a very unlikable character. It’s not just the alcohol; this world does that to people. It’s not that he ran from his responsibilities; many have run far further from far less. Perhaps it’s his constant over-justification. A common theme throughout the book is his lack of self-confidence, yet he seems absolutely confident, righteous even, in justifying his actions. None of this makes Lost in America a bad book. After all, America loves her villains almost as much as she loves her heroes.



Available 23 August 2011 show less

One of many first-person accounts of the current War. These books have their place in presenting the raw material of history; unlike previous wars stretching back to ancient times, today’s war is documented in detail and with immediacy unknown previously. There is no need to sit around and wait for Thucydides to jot down what happened anymore, as real soldiers blog in real time about what is going on. The down side of course is Thucydides, by virtue of time and intellect, had a helluva lot show more more to say in his book than guys like Colby do in theirs. This is however, not a cheap shot at Colby, or any others working in the blog/memoir/instant history genre (clears throat). They are honest about presenting what they saw, in words they used, and the reader benefits from the perspective. In Colby’s case, the book offers a realistic view of the slow motion process of deciding to join the military (no parades, no recruitment posters, a series of dead end jobs and suburban boredom), followed by one person’s vision of combat and Iraq in the second phase of the War, around 2004. show less