Following the success of Jarhead, Anthony Swofford assumed he had exorcised his military demons -- but as every veteran knows, that isn't exactly how it works. In these searing, courageous pages, Swofford struggles to make sense of what his military service meant, and to decide -- after nearly ending it -- what his life can and should become. Consumed by drugs, booze, fast cars and the wrong women, Swofford almost lost everything and everyone that mattered to him. Embarking on a series of RV trips with his dying father, a Vietnam vet, in an attempt to heal their difficult relationship, and meeting a like-minded woman (who will become his wife) in a chance encounter, Swofford begins to grapple with his volatile past and forge a path toward redemption. HOTELS, HOSPITALS, AND JAILS is a must-read memoir that raises essential questions about masculinity, about fathers and sons, and about love.
With the same unremitting intensity he brought to Jarhead, Anthony Swofford describes his search for identity and meaning in the years after he returned from serving as a sniper in the gulf war.
