Episode 104 — David Abrams

Summary: David Abrams is the guest. He's the author of the debut novel FOBBIT, which is now available from Grove/Atlantic. Publishers Weekly, in a starred reviews, says "Abrams’s debut is a harrowing satire of the Iraq War and an instant classic....Abrams, a 20-year Army veteran who served with a public affairs team in Iraq, brings great authority and verisimilitude to his depictions of these attempts to shape the perceptions of the conflict. [His] prose is spot-on and often deadpan funny, as when referring to the 'warm pennies' smell of a soldier’s 'undermusk of blood,' or when describing one misshapen officer: 'skull too big for the stalk of his neck, arms foreshortened like a dinosaur... one word came to mind: thalidomide.' This novel nails the comedy and the pathos, the boredom and the dread, crafting the Iraq War’s answer to Catch-22." And Library Journal raves "This darkly comic novel is a slice of awesome...a true dark comedy in that it reinforces how unpleasant life can be for soldiers, and how ridiculous, funny, and stupid life can be." Monologue topics: letters, praise, criticism, Twitter glibness.