Fobbit

Former army journalist Abrams offers a comic novel about press officers, clerks, and all noncombat military personnel at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) during the peak of violence in U.S.-occupied Iraq. Staff Sgt. Chance Gooding—while counting the days until his deployment ends—methodically translates combat reports and suicide bomber fatalities into bloodless press-release prose. After several fatal incidents of incompetance, Capt. Abe Shrinkle is transferred in disgrace from leading troops, and exiled to folding towels in the FOB gym. From there, his humiliating downward spiral is unstoppable and ends scandalously in the Australians' off-limits swimming pool. Abrams (with a nod to Catch-22) mocks the clichés of military bureaucracy, yet he frequently employs military jargon and expressions to describe the characters' thoughts and schemes for self-preservation. While the author paints with broad satirical strokes, the book offers a unique behind-the-wire glimpse at life at the FOB and the process of "spinning" a war for public consumption.