{"id":7650,"date":"2023-02-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=7650"},"modified":"2023-02-03T16:46:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T21:46:30","slug":"a-walk-in-the-bullet-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/a-walk-in-the-bullet-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"A WALK IN THE BULLET GARDEN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I don\u2019t read a lot of fiction, but I make an exception for the work of my friend Stephen Hunter, one of the very few gun-savvy novelists of our time. His latest is \u201cThe Bullet Garden,\u201d the title referring to the bocage, <\/em>the tangled environment of European hedgerows where American soldiers are advancing after D-Day. They are bogged down by a cadre of particularly deadly German snipers, so the Army heads to Parris Island where Earl Swagger, wounded after three island invasions, is now assigned to teach the M-1 Garand rifle to Marine recruits. Earl, the \u201cWWII generation\u201d of Steve\u2019s family of good guy gunfighters, heads to Europe to solve the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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http:\/\/amzn.to\/3DA3iDB<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The complicated plot involves layer after layer of conflict. There\u2019s Allies versus Nazis, of course, but also ally versus ally on many levels. Hunter explores the internecine rivalries of both nation-states and individuals jockeying for power and losing sight of more important goals.  The reader\u2019s emotions will be played with: you\u2019ll come to like a couple of characters, and then have to watch them get killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve\u2019s evocative writing skills have never been better displayed. Example: One character is a mild-mannered Jewish draftee who is uncertain of his capabilities, but in his first real combat with the Nazis rises to the occasion and destroys a German tank.  A lesser novelist might have written, \u201c\u2026and then the panzer exploded.\u201d  But Stephen Hunter writes, \u201cA stab of incandescence pierced the night as the turret of the beast twisted under the strength of the blast, seemed to rise a bit, then fell back, hopelessly askew. The proud gun was useless, smoke and some flame began to bleed from the wounded steel, the smell of burning rubber as the hoses melted in what turned into conflagration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think you\u2019ll enjoy it. Available on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t read a lot of fiction, but I make an exception for the work of my friend Stephen Hunter, one of the very few gun-savvy novelists of our time. His latest is \u201cThe Bullet Garden,\u201d the title referring to the bocage, the tangled environment of European hedgerows where American soldiers are advancing after D-Day. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7650"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7663,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7650\/revisions\/7663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}