Reviews
Prayer at Rumayla: A Novel of the Gulf War
| Bleak and disturbing... dead-on-target ...This first novel is a work of pure psychological conflict. Gone are the game-like “smart” bomb videos, computerized reconstructions of death, and bloodless explosion photos from thousands of feet in the air. They are replaced with the gritty, sometimes depressing, sometimes exhilarating, dangerous daily existence of a man who finds that gore and killing in the short term don’t really bother him as much as he thought – but in the long run drive him crazy with guilt, remorse, and self-directed anger. - Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Hanchette, Reno Gazette-Journal, | |
| | |
| Prayer At Rumayla: A Novel Of The Gulf War is as timely as tomorrow's newspaper headlines. Written by Gulf War veteran and novelist Charles Sheehan-Miles, this is the story of a returning Gulf War veteran in the early 1990s who comes home to apathy, estrangement, and loss on behalf of his family, lover and friends. Brutally honest, direct, and meaningful, Prayer At Rumayla is a compelling novel of coming to terms not only with dangers and traumas of the battlefront, but with its aftermath upon the lives of the surviving combatants. | |
| | |
| Charles Sheehan-Miles was an on-the-ground at-the-front grunt during the Gulf War. His honest and unsparing account of that war is one that no American reporters could provide, and the American public could not learn about -- because no reporters were allowed at the front. His memoir is a much-needed corrective about a much-misunderstood war. - Seymour M. Hersh | |
Profoundly moving, raw, exceptionally well executed vision into one man's troubled heart as he deals with betrayal and the complexities of life after returning from the 1991 tour in Iraq....an expertly written psychological thriller...Just when you think that Prayer is about to offer a cheap resolution, something by-the-numbers, you find that the ending is much more nuanced and thought out, evolving out of the story and the characters in it. - The Podler Book Review | |
| | |
| Charles Sheehan-Miles' Prayer at Rumayla is a fast-paced, in-the-trenches Gulf War novel that provides vivid word pictures of the little-known tank war, as well as the war's aftereffects on main character Chet Brown. Sheehan-Miles was a loader on an M1A1 tank during the Gulf War and has been a leader in the Gulf War veterans movement. - Marc Leepson, VVA Veteran Magazine | |
| | |
| ...Exposes the dirty underbelly of war...This book is a must for anyone interested in the Gulf War as it really happened... Cover-to-cover, the author places the reader right with Chet. In his tank and in his thoughts, we are offered an up close look at the psyche of a warrior in America’s TV war. This book is highly recommended and should be on the shelf of every military history fan. - Scott O'Hara, Desert-Storm.com | |
| | |
| Sharp and concise... takes on the simple poesy of a modern day Hemingway... Prayer at Rumayla showed that no war is a victory. - Jeffrey Horton, Prince George's Sentinel (see complete review) | |
| | |
| ...The book's narrative is gripping...Sheehan-Miles has Army lingo and procedures down pat. - Brian Trompeter, Suburban Sun-Gazette (see complete article) | |
| | |
| ...Includes some of the best descriptions of battle from the point of view of a private soldier that I’ve ever read. The ending caught me by surprise, and left me in tears.... blether: The book review site (see complete article) | |
| | |
| Sheehan-Miles has the ability to turn raw emotion into a riveting story... Amy Coffin, The Book Haven | |
| | |
| “This book is only partly fiction … Prayer at Rumayla captures the insanity and the humanity of the Gulf War…highly recommended.” - Patrick G. Eddington | |
| | |
| "Killing is the toughest thing we ask of soldiers in combat. To bear the fury of smoke and fire, to stand your ground in the fight, is much easier than pulling the trigger. 'Prayer at Rumayla' is a dark journey through the mind of a soldier who tries to come to terms with his acts of war. A timeless tale placed against the backdrop of the Persian Gulf War, it is a story of courage, betrayal, and anguish. Charles Sheehan-Miles draws from his own experiences in combat to create a story that delves into the ugliest side of war changing forever those who have been there. This is a must-read for those who have gone to war or have imagined that they want to. Prayer at Rumayla firmly establishes that indeed war is hell." - Lieutenant Colonel David Pierson | |
| | |
| Charles Sheehan-Miles, a decorated Gulf War combat veteran, scores a direct hit with his first novel, "Prayer at Rumayla." His accurate, authentic, and unvarnished view of the shrieks, groans, horrors, and hell of combat between the U.S. and Iraq in 1991 provides a rare and illuminating glimpse into the heart of an M1A1 Abrams tank crewman. With his laser-guided view from behind a 120mm cannon, Charles keeps faith with Gulf War combat veterans by telling it like it was, not only as a master storyteller, but with a gut-level emotional portrayal worthy of comparison with Leon Uris' "Battle Cry." "Prayer at Rumayla" provides large caliber ammunition to the rarely heard voices of front-line Gulf War combat veterans searching for understanding in a clueless and insulated world, and the novel may provide an opportunity for some veterans to come to terms with living life after dispensing death. "Prayer at Rumayla" gives readers the first-hand details left out of other books about the Gulf War. As the U.S. prepares to send hundreds of thousands more young men and women into another war in Southwest Asia, his book is a must-read for potential recruits and government policymakers who never set foot on a modern day battlefield. - Paul Sullivan | |
| | |
| Most Americans still don't understand the mistreatment many Gulf War veterans faced after they came home. A lot of myths developed about that war; it was supposed to have been the perfect little war, the first clear cut US victory since World War Two. That's what the media and the US government wanted us to believe. Charles Edward Sheehan-Miles’ disturbing novel, PRAYER AT RUMAYLA sets the record straight. This chilling novel about the Gulf War will educate you about the true horrors of that war and about the suffering the veterans faced after the shooting stopped. Because the Gulf War lasted less than two months, because the ground war lasted less than half a week, because it was a quick UN victory, people have mistakenly assumed that Gulf War vets couldn't possibly face any problems. Quite the contrary! Gulf War veterans' exposure to chemical warfare, coupled with the VA and Department of Defense telling them that they were never gassed, thus denying them medical treatment, are only some of the problems that many of these veterans faced. PRAYER AT RUMAYLA deals with the valiant Private Chet Brown. Brown was a hero, yet when he comes home, he finds that the USA is so different. People who he thought were his friends turn on him. His fiance and best friend cheat on him. At times, even Chet despises how he changed. This novel also dispels a long lasting myth that Vietnam was the only war where many returning veterans were treated with contempt, when in fact that problem has been present since the end of the American Revolution. PRAYER AT RUMAYLA will give you a greater understanding of what happened to the Gulf War veterans once the yellow ribbons and parades ended and our lives got back to normal. For Chet Brown, returning to a normal life was impossible. After he returned to the USA, his war worsened. With the current war on terrorism raging, a haunting question fills my mind: Will these veterans get the same mistreatment once the war is over and we return to normalcy? For this reason it is important that you read and re-read PRAYER AT RUMAYLA. This novel is long over due. Hopefully some day we will give our veterans a sincere overdue thank you instead of putting them on the back burner until we need them to fight again. - David Block, Freelance journalist and documentary producer | |
| | |
|