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About the Author

Helen Benedict, the author of ten books, is professor of journalism at Columbia University and writes frequently on women, race, and justice. Her work on soldiers won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.
Image credit: Emma O'Connor

Works by Helen Benedict

Associated Works

Villette (1853) — Afterword, some editions — 10,085 copies, 158 reviews
War Is...: Soldiers, Survivors and Storytellers Talk about War (2008) — Contributor — 145 copies, 8 reviews
Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq (2008) — Foreword, some editions — 37 copies, 1 review

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Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1952-11-05
Gender
female
Short biography
Benedict was born in London, England, to parents who were American anthropologists. As a child, she lived in Mauritius and Seychelles, where her parents conducted fieldwork. Seychelles became the setting for Benedict's novel, The Edge of Eden. Her background as a child of anthropologists has informed her work both as a novelist and a journalist. She grew up partly in London, partly in California, and attended university in both England and the United States. She worked for newspapers in both countries, and obtained her master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1979. In 1981, Benedict moved to New York, where she freelanced for five years, publishing short stories and articles in literary journals, magazines and newspapers. She began teaching at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in 1986, where she is now a full-time professor.
Nationality
UK
Birthplace
London, England, UK
Associated Place (for map)
England, UK

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Reviews

33 reviews
Caveat: this book came out in 1992. I almost put it aside due to it being 23 years old, but then I thought it might be worthwhile to see the perspective on rape from the wayback machine. Helen Benedict (Sand Queen) is a phenomenal writer and reporter. This book explores the press coverage (newspapers only, because there wasn't anything else back then) of several rape trials: the Rideout case (marital rape), the Big Dan case in New Bedford MA (pool table), the Levin/Chambers case in NYC show more (Preppie), and the Central Park Jogger ("wilding"). Her primary thesis is that the actual reason for rape, an act of violence and control, was ignored in favor of victim blaming and racism. In New Bedford, it was all Portuguese working class immigrants in the city who were blamed. The wife raped by her husband was actually divorced from him, so she was a fallen woman. And Jennifer Levin was a crazy slut who "asked for it". Most of the tabloids sought only sensationalism, but the august New York Times also fell into the same trap. The five boys, all black or Latino, were eventually found innocent of the Central Park jogger rape by DNA evidence not available in 1989. A serial rapist whose DNA was matched had raped other women during the 3 years it took to prove his guilt. Benedict's main point is that " Rape is best characterized as torture that uses sex as a weapon." This book is especially important in understanding the lack of "intersectionality" of those times - where racism was exploited and explored (Central Park case) but sexism: never. A must read, especially for younger people who might have no idea how bad things were for all women twenty years ago. show less
Sand Queen is the first war (anti-war, actually) novel I've read where the protagonist is a female soldier. The author has also written a non-fiction version of the Iraq war from a woman's point of view (The Lonely Soldier). This is a devastating indictment of the American effort to maintain access to oil and of a country that was already torn apart by factionalism and misrule. Those who survive have lives permanently ruined - the civilians, the "boots on the ground" - everyone except the show more American president and his satanic posse. If I had one wish for this book, it is that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Brenner, et al be forced to listen to a female soldier and an Iraqi woman read alternating chapters to them while they were tied down to a waterboard. The miserable physical surroundings, the never ending heated blasts of grey sand, the constant suspicion and hatred of civilians who certainly don't see you as a liberator - fill the reader's head and are so vivid that it is almost hard to breathe as the chapters roll on. The ultimate tragedy for the US is that working class and poor people see the military as possibly their only path to success. As Bob Dylan said, "there's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all." This is a painful must read. show less
Wolf season, Helen Benedict, author
This book is a wonderful examination of the social, moral, and political conflicts and concerns facing society today. The marvelous cast of characters touches on and exposes the issues with honesty, clarity and a force that will grab hold of your heart and make you look into your own thoughts and beliefs about our enemies during wartime, our friends and family at home, and those impacted by a war they may or may not wish to be involved in, but show more geographically find themselves in the middle of, experiencing the battles, facing the danger, and dealing with the death and loss of property, family, and life as they once knew it.
It is a terribly painful and emotionally draining story to read as you learn of the debilitating effects of the war on the returning soldiers, on their families and on their friends. As you learn of the devastating effects of the war on those who helped America, essentially, those who then became the enemy of their own country, those who collaborated in some way to rid their country of injustice who were then also considered enemies by those who disagreed with the need to rid the country of the tyrants, those who did not see the injustices perpetrated upon their neighbors everyday, but rather turned a blind eye and forced those that helped America to succeed to become the enemy of both, the vanquished and the victor, the weak and the strong, you will feel overwhelmed, at first, but at the end, you will feel the hope that the author has tried to convey, the hope that all people will one day rise above their differences and unite as one, with love in their hearts, rather than harboring hate for and fear of those that are different.
The brutality our own countrymen inflicted upon each other and our enemies is difficult to put on paper, but Benedict has communicated the full force and effect of the battle-scarred complete with the pain they feel when they are in the field of war as well as when they attempt to return home to the field of peace. The distance from their families, the nightmares and their inability to communicate, in contrast, comes across loud and clear to the reader. The victims of this life, these wars, are carefully laid open so the reader can identify with each of them and experience their individual suffering and scars of war. From the child to the adult, the soldier to the wife, we are enmeshed with them in their loss, their pain, their confusion, and their grief. We are in their flashbacks, their dreams and their nightmares. There are several important characters, in this novel, but even the minor ones are dealing with the difficulty of their wounds of war.
First there is Rin, a mentally, battle-scarred soldier who was unbelievably, brutally raped by her fellow soldiers after her husband was killed on the battlefield. She was already pregnant with her husband Jay’s child when she was attacked. She is always afraid for her safety and that of her daughter, Juney. She keeps wolves on what was once Jay’s family’s property, to fulfill the dream she and Jay had once shared. She also believes they protect her, in spirit and in life, and they are necessary for her well-being and her thin hold on her sanity. She protects both herself and her daughter, fiercely. She has hostile reactions to people, and has visions, what I would call “daymares”, that influence her behavior and made her seem bizarre, but was she really bizarre, or were those who attacked her more sinister in nature? Who was really the sick individual, Rin, her fellow soldiers, the sheriff, the Iraqis, the Americans, the war widow? What made each of them tick, and which of them ticked to the beat of normal and which to the beat of the mentally disturbed?
Juney, Rin’s daughter, is 9 years old and blind. She also has some odd behavioral issues that make her susceptible to being bullied, but she is gentle in nature and very helpful to her mom because of her great insight, her ability to feel things, which is essentially a “sense” for her, like sight is for others. Juney is aware of changes in her mother’s moods and is able to calm her.
Naema is a doctor from Iraq. She is a devoted mother who wishes to protect her son from any further violence from the war she was unwillingly dragged into, in Iraq. Her family was killed by American bombs during the war. Her husband was murdered and their son Tariq lost his leg when their car was blown up by those who resented his collaboration with the Americans. He was an interpreter. Naema was working in a pediatric clinic in upstate New York, in an effort to be recertified as a doctor in the United States. Juney and Rin were in the examination room of the clinic, at the same time that a hurricane was raging. In a flood as a result of the storm, Naema almost drowns, and Rin is consumed with guilt because of her part in that tragedy.
Beth is Flanner’s mother. Flanner was Tariq’s friend. While Tariq is calm and gentle, Flanner is angry and has begun to act out. She is an unhappy woman who wants more out of her life and resents her husband’s constant absence and redeployments, but also fears his violent returns on leave. She drinks too much and Flanner has begun to resent her because she often forgets that her first responsibility should be to his welfare and not her own. She is vindictive and takes no responsibility for her own behavior which has caused her decline. Both Beth and Flanner want to hurt someone because they can’t hurt the person really responsible for the pain they feel. Both seem obsessed with hurting Rin Drummond. Both seemed consumed with their own needs and do not try to understand the needs of others.
Louis is another soldier who has survived the battlefield with scars. He is in love with Naema, which is ironic since she is Iraqi and his scars are from that war. He thinks, shouldn’t she be his enemy? Their relationship crosses all lines of conflict and reaches a state of harmony all people may aspire to, but never achieve.
We know that Tariq’s dad, Khalil, was killed in Iraq, Juney’s father was killed in Iraq, and Flanner’s dad is a marine who has been severely damaged, mentally, by his many redeployments. He can be cruel and mean, brutal and violent. His own violent future awaits him in Afghanistan. Louis is a survivor who has learned, with great difficulty, to control his irrational impulses and deal with his war wounds, in ways that the others have not.
The story is filled with the irony of relationships, child to child, man to woman, enemy to enemy, animal to human. The line between enemy and friend is blurred and scrutinized. Through the use of wolves, the reader discovers the meaning of trust and mistrust, safety and danger, fantasy and reality. The reader views logical, common sense responses that are contrasted with impetuous, irresponsible behavior. The interpretation of ideas is paramount. While a wolf may be friendly, its nature is to survive and that comes before your safety, so a wolf may become your enemy, through no fault of its own. In the same sense, in a war, the instinct is to survive, and the soldier sometimes has to cause collateral damage. Friends are put in a position of being the enemy and vice versa. Expedience rules, oftentimes. During the hurricane, there was collateral damage, too. In a confrontation, there is often collateral damage before reconciliation takes place. The line between right and wrong may not often be clear. As the reader continues tp read, the idea of supporting American values or confronting them is imprecise; it feels like America’s actions are being questioned and the jury seems to judge it poorly.
Can your enemy transmogrify into your friend? Are their ramifications for choosing one side over another? What makes a friend or an enemy? What makes a friend of an enemy or an enemy of a friend? Who was the greater friend, the Iraqi Naema or the American Beth? Who had better values? Why must someone be an enemy? Why did it feel like the Americans were the least able to handle the results of the war on their homes and families, while the ones who were different or foreign seemed better equipped and able to deal with the after effects? Was one group more desperate than the other or perhaps more resilient?
The two children who were damaged physically show the reader how different life is when viewed through their eyes or their emotions. Juney saw the world through the colors she made up in her own mind since she could not see. She, in her way, saw more than anyone sighted. Tariq made up for his handicap by treating it as natural, and then by reaching out to someone who had a greater handicap. He recognized that they were both lonely and both bullied. Both of these children were able to view the wolves as beings with power to be respected and admired, not feared unnecessarily, but respected for their strength. Both seemed able to identify with the needs of others and were unselfish. Their relationship with the wolves was spiritual and a bit magical. The book is a tender and tragic tale. It is at once, juvenile and sophisticated, simplistic and complicated, poetic and straight forward. It is authentic and surreal. The author has infused herself into each of the character’s lives and spit out their essence.
It is both anti-war, and pro democracy. It is both anti-American and pro American. All sides of the issues are illuminated and all promote the reader to think about the victims of war everywhere; the communities and the families that are compromised, the families that lose their loved ones, the families waiting for their soldiers to return, the soldiers far from home, the fields of battle, the idea of an enemy and an ally. All have to cope with loneliness, loss, anger, fear, frustration, violence, lack of hope, and broken dreams. Can life ever return to normal for any of them?
My one negative comment is the author’s note at the end in which she specifically casts blame on Trump for the situation of those Iraqis who collaborated with America as interpreters. They are between a rock and a hard place, but to blame Trump, when 8 years of Obama did nothing for them, seemed disingenuous and politically biased. I realize her book is antiwar and anti many American policies, but that is a point of opinion. Blaming Trump is “fake news”.
The book was a Library Thing Early Reviewers Giveaway.
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This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Good book. Sounds too simple, maybe, but I mean it as high praise, because Helen Benedict's WOLF SEASON is just that, a damn good book in fact. It is a sequel to her 2011 novel, SAND QUEEN, which had an Iraq War setting, and juxtaposed the stories of an American female soldier and a young Iraqi woman, Naema, a medical student whose world and family are turned upside down.

WOLF SEASON is set in a small town in Upstate New York, where Naema (now a doctor) and her orphaned son, Tariq, have show more finally been resettled after years in refugee camps and other in-between holding areas. This time her story is told along with a couple other women. Rin is a PTSD-scarred combat veteran of Iraq, also widowed (her husband was also a soldier, killed in Iraq), trying to raise her blind daughter on her husband's run-down farm, where she keeps three wolves, along with a varied menagerie of dogs, cats, goats, and chickens. And there is Beth, a local girl, former high school beauty, married to a career Marine, mostly gone away on deployments, so Beth is, for the most part, raising their son alone too. Three women, three children, three wolves, and two wars that grind on forever, radiating outward in an unending pattern of heartbreak, pain and misery. These are the ingredients of Benedict's story.

The misery and pain are important elements. Naema has vivid memories of how members of her family were obliterated by a car bomb. Rin is still traumatized from being brutally raped by fellow soldiers in Iraq following her husband's death. Beth is mistreated and abused by Todd, her war-damaged husband. What has turned him from her high school sweetheart into this abusive monster? Another character speculates -

"Todd could have shot a kid in the face. Watched a buddy explode and get picked over by dogs. Screwed up a command and caused a whole squad to be blown to pieces. All the events of war bleed together into one long parade of savageries that gouge the soul and befoul the heart."

And there is eleven year-old Tariq, who lost a leg to a car explosion in Basra as a small child, and has been shuttled from place to place for most of his life. He finds refuge and comfort in Rin's cluttered farmhouse, where he has befriended her blind daughter, June.

"... he loves this room, so different from the minimal décor of his mother's house ... The blankets and sweaters dangling fuzzily from hooks. The snoring dogs, buzzing cats, hair-matted armchairs, and mutt-brown couch. The books lining the shelves on either side of the fieldstone fireplace, promising long evenings of stories and dreams. The room feels like the safest, most settled place he has ever been, a place of history and family, of everything he and his mother have lost."

In describing this room, Benedict paints a portrait of a kind of long-sought sanctuary, and not just for Tariq, but for Rin and June too. Together, along with the wolves, they have formed a pack, but the comfort they find is more fragile than they can know.

The lives of these three women and their children will intersect in an explosive and unexpected manner that makes this a gripping page-turner of a story. I'll say it again. Good book. My highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

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