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| Plot Summary of Blood Brothers |
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"Time Magazine sent journalist Michael Weisskopf to Baghdad in the winter of 2003. He went to collect information so he could go home and write about the American soldier, because that's who Time planned to feature as its Person of the Year. It was a very big deal for Weisskopf to take this assignment. He himself was very excited to get it, even though his pre-teen son worried about his dad's safety in Iraq.
Sure enough, Skyler was right to be worred. One night, Weisskopf and Time photographer James Nachtwey went out on a patrol in a convoy that was searching for insurgents. Weisskopf and Nachtwey were in a humvee with two soldiers. It was dark. Suddenly, they turned into a big marketplace. Something flew into the vehicle. At first, Weisskopf thought it was a rock. But suddenly he knew they were all in grave danger. Seemingly without thinking, he stooped to pick up what was actually a hand grenade, which he went to throw back out. Suddenly, he was in grievous pain, his arm feeling like it was in fire, and then everything went dark.
When he awoke, his right hand was gone and he was being treated by a medic for a loss of blood. When he expressed regret to the nurse for what seemed to him to be an impulsive act, she talked back to him, pointing out that if he hadn't had the quickness of mind to act as he did, he and everyone else in his vehicle would have died.
Weisskopf received some treatment in Iraq but was quickly transferred to a military hospital in Germany and from there to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. He was the first journalist known to have been treated there - and only because of intense lobbying by his friends and family and the intervention on the part of the Secretary of the Army.
The subtitle of this book is Among the Soldiers of Ward 57. This is because a huge amount of it has to do with the time he'll spend at Walter Reed. There he meets other amputees. Together they struggle to come to terms with their injuries and go through rehabilitation. Weisskopf himself tried for a time to use a myoelectric arm, but finally eschewed it in favor of a body-powered prosthetic device that ended in a hook, rather than a fake hand.
Today, Weisskopf has returned to what in many ways is a normal life. His relationship with his children has deepened, largely because they've had to help take care of him. He's gotten re-married, to a woman who forgave him for not telling her when they got involved that he had yet to actually sign the papers that would grant him a divorce from his first wife. And he's back to writing, thanks to voice-activated writing software. Sad to say, some of the injured soldiers he's met are having a much harder row to hoe.
This is a very interesting book. Weisskopf does a great job of talking about this war's wounded in a very matter-of-fact way, which does more to build sympathy for their plight than if he'd written a piece that dwelt more on the tragedy that is war. "
Ann Gaines, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Blood Brothers |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Phys disability/mental struggle?
Yes
Struggle with
- physical disability/sickness
War/Cloak & Dagger story?
- impact on civilian
War/Spying
Yes
Period of greatest activity?
- 1950+
Which war?
- Iraq/Persian Gulf II
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- journalist
Age:
- 40's-50's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Biography of famous person?
Yes
Ethnicity
- White
Nationality
- American (!)
How sensitive is this person?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other people
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Europe
Yes
Desert?
Yes
Misc setting
- fort/military installation
Century:
- 1980's-Present
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- explicit references to deaths
Book makes you feel?
- concerned
Commentary on society?
Yes
Commentary on
- war
Writer's slant towards subject:
- favorable
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of set of events during life
Autobiography?
Yes
How much dialogue in bio?
- significantly more descript than dialog
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 51%-75% of book
How much is philosophy rather than life story?
- 0-25% of book
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Click here for more information about this book
Michael Weisskopf Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 Ann Gaines
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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