Sunrise Over Fallujah
with book trailer by Emiliano Castro
Book Review by Emiliano Castro
Sunrise Over Fallujah
In the novel “Sunrise Over Fallujah”, Walter Dean Myers gives insight of contemporary war. The protagonist Robin (aka Birdy) an eighteen year old affected by 9/11, puts his college plans aside to join the Army. Birdy is in the civil affairs unit, and is assigned to Kuwait just before starting an American invasion. The Civil Affairs unit’s objective is to win over the hearts of the Iraqis, and provide a positive image of Americans. Still, Birdy’s unit found themselves in dangerous situations, civilians are mistakenly killed, and infrastructure is destroyed by guerrilla fighters.
In the beginning , Birdy is excited, a patriot, naive, and terrified of the world around him. His first glimpse of his reality, is when he realizes he has killed people. The fact that all of his battles have been at a long range allows him to distance himself from his reality. Until he ends up killing an enemy combatant at close range.
Myers covers the realities of war from Birdy’s perspective. Birdy is a patriot, with nationalist ideals when he joins the army. Throughout his journey he is transformed as he witness the ugliness and brutality of war. His innocence and humanity is shattered as he sees war for what it is and what it has done to him.
This is an exciting and interesting novel that kept me engaged. Thanks to Myers’s ability to capture the harsh realities of war and put them into perspective, this novel is worth reading.