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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | 956.70443 LEM | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
In 2003, after serving five and a half years as a carpenter in a North Dakota National Guard engineer unit, Bronson Lemer was ready to leave the military behind. But six months short of completing his commitment to the army, Lemer was deployed on a yearlong tour of duty to Iraq. Leaving college life behind in the Midwest, he yearns for a lost love and quietly dreams of a future as an openly gay man outside the military. He discovers that his father's lifelong example of silent strength has taught him much about being a man, and these lessons help him survive in a war zone and to conceal his sexuality, as he is required to do by the U.S. military.
The Last Deployment is a moving, provocative chronicle of one soldier's struggle to reconcile military brotherhood with self-acceptance. Lemer captures the absurd nuances of a soldier's daily life: growing a mustache to disguise his fear, wearing pantyhose to battle sand fleas, and exchanging barbs with Iraqis while driving through Baghdad. But most strikingly, he describes the poignant reality faced by gay servicemen and servicewomen, who must mask their identities while serving a country that disowns them. Often funny, sometimes anguished, The Last Deployment paints a deeply personal portrait of war in the twenty-first century.InSight Out Book Club selection Bronson Lemer named one of Instinct magazine's Leading Men 2011 QPB Book Club selection
Finalist, Minnesota Book Awards
Finalist, Over the Rainbow Selection, American Library Association
Amazon Top Ten 10 Gay & Lesbian Books of 2011
Author Notes
Bronson Lemer served in the North Dakota Army National Guard for six years, including deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. His writing has appeared in Blue Earth Review, The Rekjavik Grapevine, and Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers. He teaches English and humanities courses at Turtle Mountain Community College near Belcourt, North Dakota.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In a chronicle of angst and self-discovery, Lemer, a member of the National Guard, describes leaving his lover and civilian life behind to serve as a gay man in uniform under the federal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" mandate. Lemer, whose writing has appeared in literary journals and the anthology Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers, recalls feeling like an outsider, fearful that "I'm about to be discovered, taunted, ridiculed, and kicked out." Lemer, who served in Kosovo and Iraq, tells with sensitivity and boldness of his band of unlikely brothers pining after wives and girlfriends at home and single men getting drunk from loneliness. Lemer does not gloss over the violent nature of war and death in Baghdad, highlighting the valor of the men and women risking their lives. He survived seven years of service with honor and resolve, but his silence about his sexual orientation, with a touch of realistic fear, is a bitter testimony to what gays encounter in service to the nation. However, Lemer also emphasizes something positive he learned from his military years: self-respect and the ability to accept himself for who he was. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
One of five brothers, Lemer joined the National Guard on a lark, mostly to stand out and give his parents something to be proud of. Never thinking he would be deployed overseas, he was sent first to Kosovo, then, just six months shy of completing his service, Iraq. In this memoir, Lemer details his interactions with desperate and destitute Iraqis, the tedium of war and the bonding and sophomoric behavior it leads to, and the frustration of not knowing exactly what purpose he was serving in Iraq. At the same time, he struggled with his inability to come out to his fellow soldiers and the still-fresh memory of an ex-boyfriend. Verdict Lemer lays on metaphor and symbolism overly thick, writing with a lofty literary style that is at odds with the banality of his experience. His narrative lacks momentum or direction; ultimately, nothing much happens to him and his comrades, and neither he nor they are fleshed out enough for us to care about them or even differentiate among them. Lemer himself comes across as fairly bland and unremarkable, and the gay aspect of his story is underexplored. Not recommended.-David Gibbs, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Prologue | p. 3 |
| 1 Olympic Hopefuls | p. 6 |
| 2 Last Supper | p. 19 |
| 3 Snow Bullets | p. 33 |
| 4 Even Pawns Have Nice Legs | p. 49 |
| 5 Click, Click, Click | p. 68 |
| 6 The Mustache Race | p. 70 |
| 7 All Sand and Stars | p. 78 |
| 8 Wolves | p. 93 |
| 9 This Is Our Comfortable Hell | p. 109 |
| 10 Icarus in Iraq | p. 122 |
| 11 Baghdad in My Boots | p. 139 |
| 12 Don't Tell | p. 161 |
| 13 If Charles Bronson Were Here | p. 163 |
| 14 How to Build Your Own Coffin | p. 178 |
| 15 Two Toonies and a Loonie | p. 190 |
| 16 Vets | p. 192 |
| 17 Out Came a Spider | p. 203 |
| 18 Dump Gulls | p. 207 |
| Epilogue | p. 216 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 223 |
