Gallagher - who has been a contributor to the “At War” blog for The New York Times - writes here with the same verve and humor that made “Kaboom” such an engaging read, but the story he tells in “Youngblood” is a tragic one. But “Youngblood” is a novel, written with more distance and perspective on the war than “Kaboom.” It possesses the retrospective knowledge of what happened in Iraq, as the hopeful days of the surge gave way to growing doubts about the war, and, as we know now, to the rise of ISIS after the full withdrawal of American troops in 2011.

Gallagher also provides a visceral sense of what young American soldiers experienced during their Iraq deployments - the camaraderie, the fear, the exhaustion and boredom, and the sheer discomfort of being encased in 60 pounds of body armor, like a turtle, in triple-digit heat while keeping an eye out for snipers and roadside bombs.

By turns thoughtful and irreverent and darkly funny, that book possessed an electric immediacy - a you-are-there sense of what it was like to be a grunt in the hot desert sands outside Baghdad, hunting for I.E.D.’s and bomb factories, negotiating with local sheikhs and frightened civilians, and grappling with the absurdities of military bureaucracy. Like Anthony Swofford's Jarhead, Gallagher's Kaboom resonates with stoic detachment and timeless insight into a war that we are still trying to understand.Matt Gallagher’s 2010 memoir, “Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War,” grew out of a popular blog he wrote while stationed in Iraq for 15 months, beginning in 2007. Based on Gallagher's extraordinarily popular blog, Kaboom is 'at turns hilarious, maddening, and terrifying,' providing 'raw and insightful snapshots of a conflict many Americans have lost interest in' (Washington Post).

Army, there were more than twenty-five congressional inquiries regarding the matter as well as reports through the military grapevine that many high-ranking officials and officers at the Pentagon were disappointed that the blog had been ordered closed. When the blog was shut down in June 2008 by the U.S. His subjects ranged from mission details to immortality, grim stories about Bon Jovi cassettes mistaken for IEDs, and the daily experiences of the Gravediggers-the code name for members of Gallagher's platoon. When Lieutenant Matt Gallagher began his blog with the aim of keeping his family and friends apprised of his experiences, he didn't anticipate that it would resonate far beyond his intended audience.

Kaboom by matt gallagher