This We’ll Defend: A Noncombat Veteran on War and Its Aftermath

In this contemplative, occasionally repetitive essay collection, retired Arkansas National Guardsman Crenshaw (This One Will Hurt You) muses on the way war looms over American life. He grew up hearing the sound of bombs and ammunition near Fort Chaffee, a live-fire military base in Arkansas, and the threat of violence hovers constantly over essays such as “The Size of Their Toys,” about playing war with Jedi knight action figures and plastic army men, and “Western Civ,” which juxtaposes learning about ancient Egyptian civilization soon after the start of the First Gulf War with a female classmate’s advances. Like his father and grandfather, Crenshaw enlisted at 18, but his unit was never activated during the First Gulf War, and he retired before the Iraq War. Crenshaw’s most striking essays are often his shortest; “Names,” “No Go,” and “Shock and Awe” immerse the reader in aspects of military life or war (nicknames, the similar sounds of thunder and missile impacts). While themes are sometimes repeated, Crenshaw’s prose is elegant, nicely paced, and carefully constructed. This thoughtful meditation on war is worth lingering over. (Sept.)