Started on: Dec 20th, 2025
Abandoned on: Dec 23rd, 2025
I picked up this book expecting it to tread into the choppy waters of war, ethics of killing and the psychological costs associated, something that the title itself told me to expect. Alas, as I continue reading, two things became clear - 1) Grossman was never going to go against the army establishment, being a Lieutenant Colonel himself and 2) he was trying to package his theories into pseudo-intellectual bullshit and trying to portray it as something profound.
I stopped reading when he made a case for “killing is as natural as sex and we should not fight against the natural order”.
Just watch Paths of Glory or Full Metal Jacket by Kubrick and you’d come away with a far better understanding of war than wasting your time reading this.