Book Review: Anatomy of a Soldier

Anatomy of a Soldier

Written by: Harry Parker

Alfred A Knopf, 2016,

ISBN 9781101946633, 310pp

Reviewed by: Dr Jordan Beavis

Situated within a growing body of creative literature on the coalition wars of the 21st century, Anatomy of a Soldier is a novel that follows the story of British Army Captain Tom Barnes (also referred to as BA5799). A platoon commander operating out of a forward operating base in Afghanistan during the insurgency, Barnes is grievously injured in an IED strike, leading to the amputation of both legs. Throughout the book equal weight is given to recounting incidents during Barnes’s deployment in Afghanistan and subsequent long recovery from his wounds. Frustration is a key theme within this work; in Afghanistan Barnes is unable to influence the human terrain on the ground, while the sometimes tortuous slowness of his recovery is a source of continued exasperation. Out of a praiseworthy desire to show both sides of the conflict and indicate the cycles of violence involved in the war in Afghanistan, Parker also sympathetically presents several chapters from the perspective of Afghan civilians and insurgents, each of whom, according to their own motivations, supports or opposes the Western presence.

Although a novel depicting fictional events and characters, Parker’s book has autobiographical aspects. Himself a British Army veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, Parker suffered similar injuries to the protagonist and wrote this work as a way to think about his injuries and his experiences in the Army.¹ In writing from his lived experience, Parker taps into his own sense of trauma, loss, pain and frustration, but also strength and perseverance. For example, his depiction of Barnes’s semi-consciousness immediately following the explosion of the IED that removed substantial parts of his legs (Chapter 43) is vivid and highly personal, and it requires little imagination on the part of the reader to wholly empathise with both the character and the author.

Beyond the praiseworthy plot the book is laudable for a litany of reasons. Not written from Barnes’s or any other single character’s perspective, some chapters are from the vantage point of an item—as miscellaneous as a bandage, a bullet and a handbag, or as specific as an intubation tube, the IED and an army-issue civilian compensation form. Personification is used to make each item aware of its surroundings while also being privy to the innermost thoughts and feelings of the novel’s principal characters, yet not in an anthropomorphic sense as they have no agency of their own. As items they underscore the different stages of Barnes’s journey; they are used and then thrown away (or set aside), their purpose complete and the plot line advanced. This unusual style can initially be jarring to the unprepared reader but its value as a creative device is all too evident. Parker should also be praised for his clear creative abilities: his chapters are well crafted and his depictions of trauma, pain and ‘force’ are continually vivid (see Chapter 42). The book shines its brightest when Parker is clearly writing from his own experience. Despite largely being a story of an injured soldier, the novel is also refreshingly free of a clichéd romantic plotline between Barnes and a healthcare professional.

Weaker, however, are the chapters presented from the perspective of the Afghan insurgents and civilians. While it is a credit to Parker that he decided to include such viewpoints in the work, they contain little insight into the motivations of civilians or insurgents to support or oppose the Kabul government and Western forces beyond stereotypical monetary, nationalist or religion-based impetuses. Parker does present well-crafted and sympathetic depictions of Afghans, informed by his own service as a company-level ‘influence officer’ during a 2009 deployment to Afghanistan (where he was wounded), but the lack of an actual Afghan’s voice is all too evident. That said, Parker’s presentation is without malice and avoids cultural appropriation, while generally adding to the work’s value instead of detracting from it.

Anatomy of a Soldier would find a happy home on the shelf and in the minds of many. The general reader will enjoy a semi-autobiographical insight into the war in Afghanistan, while the sympathetic treatment of Afghan insurgents and civilians will perhaps change perspectives on the conflict. Veterans (serving and retired) who may also be dealing with post-deployment injuries or trauma will readily empathise with the central character, while soldiers without such experience will perhaps find a greater understanding of the human cost of war. To the family and friends of servicepeople it provides a glimpse into the all-too-real military worlds of their loved ones. Raw in its presentation and impactful in its telling, Parker’s Anatomy of a Soldier offers a very human insight into one of modernity’s longest-running conflicts.

Endnote

1 Harry Parker, interview by Jordan Blackwood, Army@TheFringe, 25 August 2020, at: https://www.facebook.com/armyatthefringe/videos/1693855584098029