Soldier's Heart

I just finished reading Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature through peace and war at West Point by Elizabeth D. Samet. Professor Samet, a Harvard graduate, teaches English at West Point. Her civilian viewpoint provides a fresh and interesting view of service academies. I think that West Point (and all of the service academies) are a very misunderstood phenomenon. The book provides a great look into the day to day life of cadets. I've read a variety of memoirs written by grads of service academies, but this book was different in that it had an outsider's perspective and was combined with a great literary memoir.

Most interesting to me were the glimpses she gave of her extensive email correspondence with newly minted lieutenants, deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, in which they discuss literature and war.

In some ways, her experience parallels the experience of the military spouse; she has a birds eye view of military life, and is in many ways subject to it, but not a member of the military. Despite the parallels, she never claims equality with the experience of a military family member, and her experiences are different enough to provide a fresh look. Just as a room looks different when viewed through different windows, her outsider viewpoint both reinforced and made me re-evaluate some of my observations and beliefs about military life.