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A review by kesnit
Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point by David Lipsky
3.0
There are good things with this book and it was interesting. Sadly, it could have been much more.
I was hoping to read a book about cadet life at West Point. This books is more about the lives of certain people who happen to be cadets at West Point. Cadet life is not really part of this book. (There are parts about Beast Barracks, Camp Buckner, Branch Night and base selection, but not much about day-to-day existance.)
It is too broad and too narrow at the same time. A good chunk of the book deals with 4 cadets who are seniors when the author first arrives and follows 2 of them to the Army. I wish the author had not gone into as much detail of their post-West Point life, as it took away from the point of the book. It also focused on a lot of cadets, rather than more detail about a smaller number. It got to the point that I could not keep some of them straight.
Although the author probably did not intend it this way, there is a great example of the West Point Protective Association about halfway through. An officer doing a tour at WP made a pretty big mistake. His boss caught it, called him out on it, and told him what to do to fix it. The officer did not fix it and it blew up. The boss "fell on his sword," rather than force the officer to take responsibility for his actions. The author approaches it as "look at how honorable [the boss] was," which is true as far as it goes. But the lesson from the outside is "who care what you do. Someone will clean it up for you and you will never have to take responsibility for your actions."
I was hoping to read a book about cadet life at West Point. This books is more about the lives of certain people who happen to be cadets at West Point. Cadet life is not really part of this book. (There are parts about Beast Barracks, Camp Buckner, Branch Night and base selection, but not much about day-to-day existance.)
It is too broad and too narrow at the same time. A good chunk of the book deals with 4 cadets who are seniors when the author first arrives and follows 2 of them to the Army. I wish the author had not gone into as much detail of their post-West Point life, as it took away from the point of the book. It also focused on a lot of cadets, rather than more detail about a smaller number. It got to the point that I could not keep some of them straight.
Although the author probably did not intend it this way, there is a great example of the West Point Protective Association about halfway through. An officer doing a tour at WP made a pretty big mistake. His boss caught it, called him out on it, and told him what to do to fix it. The officer did not fix it and it blew up. The boss "fell on his sword," rather than force the officer to take responsibility for his actions. The author approaches it as "look at how honorable [the boss] was," which is true as far as it goes. But the lesson from the outside is "who care what you do. Someone will clean it up for you and you will never have to take responsibility for your actions."