Fobbit (excerpt)

In his introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading, Peter Blackstock the editor at Grove/Atlantic who first discovered "Fobbit" writes that the author's "pitch was a novel of the Iraq war, but not a solemn, intense war novel, this was a satire. It was dark—very dark in places—and had the gory scenes and sense of futility you’d expect from a novel dealing with one of the most absurd wars in U.S. history, but it managed to bring a completely new perspective to what is a very televised and written-about war. It gave a window into the offices of the Army bureaucrats, the so-called 'Fobbits' who never venture out of the safe confines of the Army’s Forward Operating Bases. The author himself had served in Iraq as part of an Army public affairs team, so it wasn’t surprising that the book rang true. With its distinct voice and scenes that brought home the absurdity of this war—and war in general—in a more direct and more funny way than anything else I’d ever read, I knew that this was a winner."

From "Fobbit":
In his cubicle, Gooding sat holding his forehead in one hand. The glow of his Qatar tan was already starting to fade.
He was depressed because he’d just hung up the phone after learning one of their moneymakers had been hit with an IED, which had sheared off the lower half of his left leg. This meant Staff Sergeant Gooding would have to reschedule all the media opportunities he’d lined up for the guy, a specialist named Kyle Pilley. The specialist’s moneymaker days were over.

About Recommended
Great authors inspire us. But what about the stories that inspire them? Recommended Reading, the latest project from Electric Literature, publishes one story every week, each chosen by a great author or editor. In this age of distraction, we uncover writing that's worth slowing down and spending some time with. And in doing so, we help give great writers, literary magazines, and independent presses the recognition (and readership) they deserve.

About the
David Abrams served in the U.S. Army for twenty years, and was deployed to Iraq in 2005 as part of a public affairs team. He was named the Department of Defense's Military Journalist of the Year in 1994 and received several other military commendations. His stories have appeared in Esquire, Narrative, and other literary magazines. He lives in Butte, Montana.

About This Week’s Guest
Grove/Atlantic is one of the oldest independent publishers in America. It consists of two imprints, Atlantic Monthly Press, founded in 1917, and Grove Press, founded in 1947. Its authors have won every major award, including the Nobel Prize in Literature (including Octavio Paz, Samuel Beckett, Kenzaburō Ōe, Harold Pinter), the Pulitzer Prize (including Samuel Eliot Morrison, John Kennedy Toole, Frances FitzGerald, David Mamet, Kay Ryan), the National Book Award (including George Keenan, Ron Chernow, Charles Frazier), and the Booker Prize (including Penelope Lively, Kiran Desai, Anne Enright). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Grove Press fought the censorship battles that challenged the obscenity laws of the time, and went on to publish works like Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Tropic of Cancer, Naked Lunch, and The Story of O. Atlantic Monthly Press was borne out of the venerable Atlantic Monthly magazine, and has published acclaimed and bestselling books including Mutiny on the Bounty, Black Hawk Down, Parliament of Whores, and Cold Mountain. Grove/Atlantic now publishes around 100 books a year across four Grove Press, Atlantic Monthly Press, Mysterious Press and the trade paperback original imprint Black Cat.