Honestly, when I first started this I thought meh. Doing the world wars from a western perspective every year in school, then a slap of American Civil Rights as part of A Level history to dash any hope for humanity means that I couldn't imagine what I would really get out of this book. Not that generally I don't have sympathy for veterans, especially those with PTSD, but at first I just sort of saw it as another generic moody noir with a cis, straight white bloke doing the rounds. While the concept of long narrative poetry intrigued, inherently I didn't really see how this would be a particularly interesting or nuanced read.

Hoo boy, was I wrong.

If you get nothing else out of this, this is a master class in writing only what you need. The language, the cadence, the turns of phrase. The sprinkling of dots for the reader to draw together without being abstract or vague. It was in a basic sense just enjoyable to read, but it also led to some stomach flipping but borderline humourous turns of phrase to describe the gore of war.

By the end I had such a firm impression of place, time, the various characters, all within relatively few words. Really lovely work and very glad I've read it.