Synopses & Reviews
Based on Captain Matt Gallagher's controversial and popular blog, which the U.S. Army shut down in June 2008, Kaboom is a sardonic, unnerving, one-of-a-kind Iraq war memoir. "At turns hilarious, maddening and terrifying," providing "raw and insightful snapshots of conflict" (Washington Post), Kaboom resonates with stoical detachment from and timeless insight into a war that we are still trying to understand.
Review
Military Review, March/April 2011
“Insightful, colorful, and at times irreverent…An excellent snapshot of a junior officer embroiled in a counterinsurgency fight…An exceptionally engaging read.”Entertainment Weekly Online, 4/7/11
“Simultaneously blisteringly funny and dead serious.” Smoke, April 2011 “A sardonic, unnerving, one-of-a-kind Iraq war memoir…Kaboom resonates with stoical detachment from and timeless insight into a war that we are still trying to understand.”Cleveland Plain Dealer, 5/13/11
“Gallagher's writing is raw and uncensored, and also very good. In the midst of a war we're still struggling to understand, it's a privilege to understand very well at least one person's part in it.”
WomanAroundTown.com, 6/5/11
“Irreverent, terrifying, and very humorous, Gallagher’s book will make some people angry, and will validate the suppositions of others.”
Bangkok Post (Thailand), 8/14/11“Gallagher’s compelling work…offers the reader an unfiltered, brutally honest look into the life of a young lieutenant struggling to bring some semblance of security and stability to a very unsecure and unstable place.”
Review
Military Review, March/April 2011
“Insightful, colorful, and at times irreverent…An excellent snapshot of a junior officer embroiled in a counterinsurgency fight…An exceptionally engaging read.”
Entertainment Weekly Online, 4/7/11
“Simultaneously blisteringly funny and dead serious.”
OnViolence.com, 4/7/11“Kaboom is filled with banter, humorous nicknames and jokes…But this humor doesn’t take away from the sadness of the whole thing. Gallagher has a keen literary eye and he picks up on the heart breaking details…One hell of a first book.”
Relaxed Fit E-Zine, 4/12/11 “[Gallagher] clearly understands the complex horrors of the War and the military ordered to fight it, and he clearly identifies with the soldiers at the pointed end.”
Review
Military Review, March/April 2011
Insightful, colorful, and at times irreverent
An excellent snapshot of a junior officer embroiled in a counterinsurgency fight
An exceptionally engaging read.”
Entertainment Weekly Online, 4/7/11
Simultaneously blisteringly funny and dead serious.”
Smoke, April 2011
A sardonic, unnerving, one-of-a-kind Iraq war memoir
Kaboom resonates with stoical detachment from and timeless insight into a war that we are still trying to understand.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer, 5/13/11
Gallagher's writing is raw and uncensored, and also very good. In the midst of a war we're still struggling to understand, it's a privilege to understand very well at least one person's part in it.”
WomanAroundTown.com, 6/5/11
Irreverent, terrifying, and very humorous, Gallaghers book will make some people angry, and will validate the suppositions of others.”
Bangkok Post (Thailand), 8/14/11
Gallaghers compelling work
offers the reader an unfiltered, brutally honest look into the life of a young lieutenant struggling to bring some semblance of security and stability to a very unsecure and unstable place.”
Portland Book Review, 9/17/11
Gallaghers unbridled candor recounting his time in Iraq is shocking, frightening and at times, deals with the mundane rigors of army life, but is ultimately to be commended
A compelling read
Kaboom allows the reader to ride alongside an officers day to day life in a war zone.”
SmallWarsJournal.com, 9/19/11
Gallaghers Kaboom, simply stated, will likely be remembered as the quintessential memoir of his generations combat experiences, particularly in Iraq. Not only does it successfully combine the finest authorial innovations of blogging with finest aspects of traditional memoir writing, but it easily and slyly avoids the traps of each as well. It is unabashedly self-centered and self-aware, but manages to sound anything but self-absorbed. It is full of pop culture references, clever writing, and the cynicism that accompanies his generation without sounding for a second like it is contrived or flimsy. In a word, his work is authentic, a rendering of wartime experiences that has been experienced by nearly his entire generation of warriors but has not been matched by his generation of writers
Mostly, though, this is just a beautifully written book that speaks for many who share Gallaghers experiences.”
Blogcritics.org, 2/13/12
Gallagher pins down the modern-day experience of war and its maze of contradictions
A gutsy, keenly observed tale.”
New York Times, 12/25/14
Radiate[s] a powerful you-are-there immediacy. Mr. Gallaghers book underscores his love of language, acquired as an avid reader, and his elastic voice as a writerhis ability to move effortlessly between the earnest and the irreverent, the thoughtful and the comic.”
Synopsis
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. 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 the blog was shut down in June 2008 by the U.S. Army, there were more than twentyfive 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.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). 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.
Synopsis
"[A]moving commentary on the power of war to transform."--Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Matt Gallagher joined the Army in 2005 and left in 2009 following a fifteen-month tour in Iraq. Originally from Reno, Nevada, he now lives in New York City.