
"Fobbit," as the cover of the book clarifies, is a pejorative term for those who work in the Forward Operating Base and who avoid combat by virtue of their hobbit-like reluctance to leave their "shire." In other words, they're the people with the (relatively) cushy office jobs. Abrams was, himself, a fobbit and sticks with what he knew -- and skewers it effortlessly. The book focuses on several of the Fobbits, but the central voice belongs to Staff Sergeant Chance Gooding, Jr., a public affairs officer who spends his time at work writing and re-writing (and re-writing) press releases trying to put a positive spin on the latest round of casualties and his free time reading Catch-22 and writing a journal about his experiences in Iraq, (sound familiar?). Other characters include Lieutenant Colonel Eustace Harkleroad, an indecisive, overweight, spontaneous nose-bleeder who frequently writes to his mother imagined tales of his heroism and valor; Lt. Col Vic Duret, who is a good officer and a good man who just wants to escape images of his brother-in-law's death on 9/11 and return home to his wife; and Abe Shrinkle, a platoon Captain whose incompetence and greed do not go unpunished by karma or the US Army.
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