THE REAPER

Gung-ho account of a sniper's time in Afghanistan, focused on "the thrill, the rush, the smell of gunpowder in combat."

Raised in a military family, Irving felt destined for service at a high level, becoming an Army Ranger at age 22. His perspective is unabashedly adolescent, portraying combat like a giant video game and entranced by the rituals and comradeship of men under arms. As with other recent books, Irving—writing with Brozek (co-author: The Hurt Artist: My Journey From Suicidal Junkie to Ironman, 2014, etc.)—is adept at discussing the uncompromising minutiae of weapons, tactics and battle staging, the lifeblood of the elite sniper fraternity. He portrays several action-packed missions during a 2009 deployment to Afghanistan, pursuing suicide-vest makers and other high-value Taliban targets in both rural and urban environments. During one grueling daylong firefight, Irving killed so many Taliban that his awed comrades bestowed upon him the titular nickname. Irving would ultimately claim 33 confirmed kills, evoking jealousy in his fellow snipers, described as having been "itching for some trigger time.” Given that the snipers are essentially tasked with shooting any armed military-age males they encounter, this pervasive machismo gives the narrative an unsavory (albeit unsurprising) subtext, especially since Irving rarely considers the larger political narrative of counterterrorism and the Afghanistan War. Despite his enthusiasm, by the end of the deployment, "all I could think of was that I wanted to get the hell out of that country and go home.” Though flattered by his formidable reputation as “this ‘little guy’ who was on a crazy roll racking up kills,” the hostility of Afghan civilians and the injuries suffered by his friends led him "to question why we were putting in so much blood, sweat, and tears in a place where people didn't seem to want our help."

A generic addition to the crowded shelf of post-9/11 special-ops memoirs.