A depressed writer visits a war torn country and stumbles upon an egalitarian utopia.

I loved the title of this book and wanted to be the one to shine a big spotlight on it, but despite the very promising premise it fell short of expectations. The writing was short on passion, emotion and at times direction. The tone of the book seemed inconsistent as well with humour often unexpectedly replacing despair. The get out of jail card of “this is fiction” was overused and watered down the end result. Nevertheless there were some interesting ideas and lines such as these

“What a society decides to do, what a society actually does, what a society chooses to spend its money on, over time becomes the truth of that society. We can choose to help people or we can choose to kill, and you only have to look closely at the national budget to see how we’ve made our choice.”

Thanks to netgalley for an advance copy!

ARC Review Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim by Jacob Wren
Pub date September 16, 2024

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Thanks @bookhugpress and @netgalley for the chance to preview this book.

This is such a unique and inventive novel. A depressed writer visits a war zone. He knows it’s a bad idea, but his curiosity and obsession that his tax dollars help to pay for foreign wars draw him there. Amid the fighting, he stumbles into a small strip of land that’s being reimagined as a grassroots, feminist, egalitarian utopia. The writing is at times like the narrator stream of consciousness, at other times the writer is talking to you and then himself. It sometimes felt like a conversation. Having the narrator, the friend and the country described all be unnamed was an unusual choice. I loved it because it highlighted the tragic fact that this could be any country.

“I want the freedom you take for granted. All the freedoms. To walk up this mountain and know it’s my home and it will survive….Some people can go wherever they want and others can’t and it’s the worst bullshit.”

The concept of not being able to end a war through fighting but to try and end it by showing everyone that there is another way to live together was so thought provoking. It raised questions if our individualistic nations would ever be ready for that or if only countries that have had to communally rely on each other for survival would embrace this kind of communal respect and care. This was inspired by Rojava which makes me want to deep dive into that. I love books that send me into a research frenzy.

The narrator’s self absorption, “being a tourist in life”, even in his own life really highlighted how little attention most of us pay to the experiences of others or the tragedies occurring in other parts of the world. Our privilege of freedom and safety prevent us from truly understanding these lived experiences. The overarching theme of self awareness without theme is very well done and makes you take a look at yourself.

Overall I thought this was a unique and innovative book that I thoroughly enjoyed. The writing style may not be for everyone, but if you want thought provoking book this is for you.
4m

I believe this book offers a misplaced setting and narrator for reflecting on the brutalities and inhumanity of war. I was a bit nervous going into this one, wary that it would read as a disaster tourist narrative, which is not something that I would readily read. I was please to find that the author was quite talented, but I cannot judge this book fairly given it's central subject matter. I find the narrator's mere presence in a war zone to be a contradition to his anti-war messaging. It does not help that the narrator is male, and maintains a layer of privilidge as he moves about areas of intense conflict. He professes to know better, but makes no action to do better. I think this book misses an opportunity to promote "other voices," and by failing to give character or culture to an unnamed place, further removes us from those in real-world humanitarian emergenices.

Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim-Jacob Wren. Publishing September 17, 2024, by Book*hug Press.

The book blurb reads, “A depressed writer visits a war zone. He knows it’s a bad idea, but his curiosity and obsession that his tax dollars help to pay for foreign wars draw him there. Amid the fighting, he stumbles into a small strip of land that’s being reimagined as a grassroots, feminist, egalitarian utopia. As he learns about the principles of the collective, he moves between a fragile sense of self and the ethical considerations of writing about what he experiences but cannot truly fathom. Meanwhile, women in his life—from this reimagined society and elsewhere—underscore truths hidden in plain sight.”

I usually don’t underline or highlight books, unless they are textbooks. (I’m long out of school). But as I started reading, I felt like there was so much that needed to be highlighted and underlined. The sentences I choose were ones I felt like I would need to come back to. This will need to be a reread to enjoy the layers of the book. At first, the book’s subject matter can feel heavy, but I read on and it was fine. The feeling of the narrator walking among the war, planes above, not knowing if they would drop a bomb, or explode. In addition, the conversations between the narrator and his close friend (airport picker upper) and the walks he goes on with each different person are eye opening. They add depth to an already expansive story about war and anti-war.

Politics, war, guns, death, wonder, colonization. Awareness, revolution. Freedom.

4/5 Popsicles.

Massive Thanks to @bookhugpress @zgreads @netgalley for the Book/ebook.