Paradise General: Riding the Surge at a Combat Hospital in Iraq
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At an age when most men retire from the military, Hnida became its newest recruit. After the Columbine tragedy devastated his Colorado community, he needed to make a difference. So this general practitioner, whose practice was mostly pediatric, found himself in the sandy trenches of Iraq. What he learned was this: to bond quickly with his fellow doctors, and to use his wit to make it through each day with a forced banter. He joked about the bad food, the military lingo, and the sweltering heat. He developed little daily rituals to bring him luck. He didn't try to make sense of the war, but he did begin to comprehend — at least in part — why his father drank so much after his World War II combat experience. Most of all, Hnida worked his tail off treating very young men. Most of them he saved. Some he kept alive so they could return home to say their final goodbyes. With every decision a critical one, he hoped and prayed he was doing everything right, and worked on those soldiers as if they were his own children. Just three months long, Hnida's stint was nothing compared to the twelve- and eighteen-month tours other soldiers are pulling. His memories are enduring, his new outlook on life remains, and the embrace of his family when he returned home never felt so sweet. "Unforgettable..." —Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run Kirkus Reviews A well-intended but clumsily written view of life on the Iraq front from a physician's point of view. Hnida, a family doctor in Littleton, Colo., had his foundations shaken by three big events: the mass killings at Columbine High School, the rape of a daughter and the attacks of 9/11. As his memoir opens, "in a classic case of be careful of what you wish for," he finds himself at age 48 in a ditch somewhere in Iraq being upbraided by a much younger fellow for his general cluelessness and lack of nimbleness: "You're going to get us all killed unless you get the fuck down and eat some sand, sir." Assigned to a combat surgery team, Hnida, who portrays himself throughout as something of a sad sack, acquaints readers with the many unpleasant ways of dying that the war has to offer, particularly the body-shredding explosive devices that seemed to lie around every corner. Somewhere along these treacherous roads, the author seems to have conceived the notion that the literary model to follow in relating his story was not Richard Selzer, the surgeon author of Mortal Lessons, but Richard Hooker by way of the TV series he inspired, M*A*S*H. As a result, the view is realistic, gritty and full of black humor, as when his much younger commanding officer offers this greeting: "You sure are one old fucker for this job." All too often, however, Hnida surrenders to mawkishness and, worst of all, bad puns, seemingly in an effort to be the Patch Adams of Baghdad: "Hi, I'm Dr. Hnida, the former Sister Mary Elizabeth. That's right, I used to be a nun, but I didn't want to make a habit of it."Certainly not literature, but a serviceable addition to the growing bookshelves on the Iraq War, especially useful towould-be military physicians. Agent: Larry Weissman/Larry Weissman Literary
