Fobbit \’fä-b?t\, noun. Definition: A U.S. soldier stationed at a Forward Operating Base who avoids combat by remaining at the base, esp. during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2011). Pejorative.
In the satirical tradition of Catch-22 and M*A*S*H, Fobbit takes us into the chaotic world of Baghdad's Forward Operating Base Triumph. The Forward Operating base, or FOB, is like the back-office of the battlefield where people eat and sleep, and where a lot of soldiers have what looks suspiciously like an office job. Male and female soldiers are trying to find an empty Porta Potty in which to get acquainted, grunts are playing Xbox and watching NASCAR between missions, and a lot of the senior staff are more concerned about getting to the chow hall in time for the Friday night all-you-can-eat seafood special than worrying about little things like military strategy.
Darkly humorous and based on the author's own experiences in Iraq, Fobbit is a fantastic debut that shows us a behind-the-scenes portrait of the real Iraq war.
Readers looking for an excellent novel about the inner workings (and follies) of Operation Iraqi Freedom will find much to enjoy here; Fobbit may well be considered a classic of the genre by future readers, and it's a must-read for fans of war fiction. (Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
Time
A retired veteran whose 20-year career in the Army included a 2005 tour in Baghdad, Abrams is comfortable and convincing locating the action in Iraq...Fobbit is a vicious skewering of this surprisingly large military subculture of war avoidance.
Men's Journal
Using diaries he kept as a public affairs man in Iraq in 2005, Abrams makes comedy from the clash between positive spin and personal terror.
Montana Standard
If Vonnegut and Heller were the undisputed chroniclers of the madness of World War II, Abrams should be considered the resounding new voice of the Iraq War.
Library Journal
A funny, hard-edged satire about recent history and modern war-making, suitable for adult general fiction readers.
Kirkus Reviews
Sardonic and poignant. Funny and bitter. Ribald and profane. Confirmation for the anti-war crowd and bile for Bush supporters.
Booklist
First-novelist Abrams punches up the grittiness of war with the dark, cynical humor that comes from living it (he served as a Fobbit in Iraq), crafting images that will haunt readers long after they pry their grip from the book.
Publisher's Weekly
Starred Review. This novel nails the comedy and the pathos, the boredom and the dread, crafting the Iraq War’s answer to Catch-22.
Karl Marlantes, author of Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War Fobbit is hilarious, but the subject matter is deadly serious. The protagonist is a 'fobbit,' the term used by the grunts for the non-combatants ensconced inside well-protected forward operating bases, oases of junk food, air-conditioning, and all the comforts of home. But throughout the book, the fobbits are shadowed by the presence of the infantry who live in horrible conditions and are the smelly, dirty, haggard reminders that there is a real war going on just outside the gates. This is a remarkable book because it was written by a man who served as a member of an army public relations team in Iraq, i.e. a fobbit himself. It is the rare writer–indeed, the rare person–who can step outside of himself and see with cold clarity the humor and pathos of his situation and then bring the reader to the same understanding. David Abrams is such a writer.
Jonathan Evison, author of West of Here Fobbit is fast, razor sharp, and seven kinds of hilarious. It deserves a place alongside Slaughterhouse Five and Catch-22 as one of our great comic novels about the absurdity of war.
Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng and Half a Life
i>Fobbit, an Iraq-war comedy, is that rarest of good things: The book you least expect, and most want. It is everything that terrible conflict was not: Beautifully planned and perfectly executed; funny and smart and lyrical; a triumph. David Abrams has taken up Joe Heller’s mantle - or not mantle; more like his Groucho nose and his whoopee cushion - and so his debut marks the arrival of a massive talent.
Forward Operating Bases and Their Place in Military Strategy
David Abrams' novel Fobbit is set primarily at Triumph, a fictional Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Baghdad, Iraq.
Almost always very close to the action, FOBs are secure areas where military operations are planned and front-line soldiers are fed and housed when off duty. FOBs can be low-tech: generally tents or bunkers surrounded by minimal defenses. Others are made up of reinforced boxcar-like containers, and all are more heavily fortified. A typical modern FOB will be surrounded by high blast-resistant walls – often topped by concertina wire - and have multiple guarded entry points (at least two, one for vehicles and one for personnel). Large stone-filled gabions (mesh cages) or smaller barricades are placed around the base to prevent a vehicle from being able to ram personnel-filled structures. "Hedgehogs" – spiky metal objects that look like huge children's play "jacks" – are frequently chained together and used to impede free movement around the base. Bunkers may also be covered by a shell of high density polyethylene to protect them from...
A searing coming-of-age story and a novel for our times—one of the most powerful, visceral portraits of the horror, camaraderie, and absurdity of war in modern fiction.
A big, powerful saga of men in combat, written over the course of thirty-five years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran.
These are 2 of the 5 readalike suggestions for Fobbit. Members have full access to all readalikes. If you are a member, please login. To find out more about membership, click here.
A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
read more
Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
read more
Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
read more
British Parliament asks Amazon to clarify why it pays $9 million in income tax on $23 billion of UK sales.(May 20 2013) Amazon will be called back to give further evidence to members of the British Parliament "to clarify how its activities in the U.K. justify its low corporate...
Full Story
BookBrowse
(1201 words).
Karl Marlantes, author of Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War
