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Fives and Twenty-Fives: A Novel
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Published:
Bloomsbury Publishing 2014
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Description
It's the rule-always watch your fives and twenty-fives. When a convoy halts to investigate a possible roadside bomb, stay in the vehicle and scan five meters in every direction. A bomb inside five meters cuts through the armor, killing everyone in the truck. Once clear, get out and sweep twenty-five meters. A bomb inside twenty-five meters kills the dismounted scouts investigating the road ahead.
Fives and twenty-fives mark the measure of a marine's life in the road repair platoon. Dispatched to fill potholes on the highways of Iraq, the platoon works to assure safe passage for citizens and military personnel. Their mission lacks the glory of the infantry, but in a war where every pothole contains a hidden bomb, road repair brings its own danger.
Lieutenant Donavan leads the platoon, painfully aware of his shortcomings and isolated by his rank. Doc Pleasant, the medic, joined for opportunity, but finds his pride undone as he watches friends die. And there's Kateb, known to the Americans as Dodge, an Iraqi interpreter whose love of American culture-from hip-hop to the dog-eared copy of Huck Finn he carries-is matched only by his disdain for what Americans are doing to his country.
Returning home, they exchange one set of decisions and repercussions for another, struggling to find a place in a world that no longer knows them. A debut both transcendent and rooted in the flesh, Fives and Twenty-Fives is a deeply necessary novel.
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
08/26/2014
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781620407561
ASIN:
B00JZP1C9E
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Michael Pitre. (2014). Fives and Twenty-Fives: A Novel. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Michael Pitre. 2014. Fives and Twenty-Fives: A Novel. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Michael Pitre, Fives and Twenty-Fives: A Novel. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Michael Pitre. Fives and Twenty-Fives: A Novel. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 18:38:31
Date Updated:
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      • bioText: Michael Pitre is a graduate of LSU, where, as a double major in history and creative writing, he studied with Andrei Codrescu and Mark Jude Poirier. He joined the US Marines in 2002, deploying twice to Iraq and attaining the rank of Captain before leaving the service in 2010 to get his MBA at Loyola. He lives in New Orleans. Fives and Twenty-Fives is his first novel.
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title
Fives and Twenty-Fives
fullDescription
It's the rule-always watch your fives and twenty-fives. When a convoy halts to investigate a possible roadside bomb, stay in the vehicle and scan five meters in every direction. A bomb inside five meters cuts through the armor, killing everyone in the truck. Once clear, get out and sweep twenty-five meters. A bomb inside twenty-five meters kills the dismounted scouts investigating the road ahead.
Fives and twenty-fives mark the measure of a marine's life in the road repair platoon. Dispatched to fill potholes on the highways of Iraq, the platoon works to assure safe passage for citizens and military personnel. Their mission lacks the glory of the infantry, but in a war where every pothole contains a hidden bomb, road repair brings its own danger.
Lieutenant Donavan leads the platoon, painfully aware of his shortcomings and isolated by his rank. Doc Pleasant, the medic, joined for opportunity, but finds his pride undone as he watches friends die. And there's Kateb, known to the Americans as Dodge, an Iraqi interpreter whose love of American culture-from hip-hop to the dog-eared copy of Huck Finn he carries-is matched only by his disdain for what Americans are doing to his country.
Returning home, they exchange one set of decisions and repercussions for another, struggling to find a place in a world that no longer knows them. A debut both transcendent and rooted in the flesh, Fives and Twenty-Fives is a deeply necessary novel.
reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
      • content: An unblinking, razor-edged portrait of the war . . . [A] deeply moving book.
      • premium: False
      • source: Booklist
      • content: Gripping and penetrating.
      • premium: False
      • source: Joseph Boyden, author of Three Day Road and Through Black Spruce
      • content: A thrilling, defining novel of the Iraq War.
      • premium: False
      • source: Dominic Tierney, author of How We Fight: Crusades, Quagmires and the American Way of War
      • content: [Pitre] uses his superior powers of observation and empathy to maximum effect . . . Everything rings so unshakably true. A war novel with a voice all its own, this will stand as one of the definitive renderings of the Iraq experience.
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        Starred review from June 16, 2014
        Two-tour Marine veteran Pitre’s affecting debut delivers an unflinching portrait of the Iraq war, both through flashbacks to the conflict and stories about its principal characters once they have returned home. The novel’s protagonists are 1st Lt. Peter Donovan, who receives a Bronze Star Medal after defending a downed American helicopter’s crash site under heavy fire in Ramadi; Lester “Doc” Pleasant, a medic dishonorably discharged for developing a dependency on his own supplies after witnessing a roadside IED explosion and the gruesome death of two members of his unit; and Kateb “Dodge” el-Hariti, a former student at Baghdad University who works as an interpreter for Donovan’s team, helping them deal with locals as they clear and reseal potholes containing buried artillery shells. Interspersed with official records and letters between characters, Pitre’s restrained depictions of Doc and Donovan’s wartime doings and their labored readjustment to civilian life—which involves avoiding psychological triggers, drinking too much, and feigning interest in new career pursuits and girlfriends—is praiseworthy. But it’s the nuanced take on Dodge’s divided loyalties—to his family, country, and postwar identity as an activist in Tunisia pressing for President Ben Ali’s resignation—that imbues the novel with depth and integrity. Agent: Rob McQuilkin, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        The corrosive psychological effects-and the dark humor-of modern conflict are hauntingly captured in Iraq War veteran Pitre's powerfully understated debut.Named after a procedure by which Marine convoys maintain the proper distance from a possible roadside bomb, the novel moves in oddly unsettling rhythms between present-day New Orleans, where members of a bomb-defusing unit uneasily reunite, and Iraq, where they had to contend not only with lethal potholes and a nebulous enemy, but also Blackwater-like contractors who couldn't care less about their well-beings. At the heart of the novel is a gangsta rap-loving, increasingly vocal Iraqi translator nicknamed Dodge, who goes to work for the Americans even as his father and brother plot to kill them-not because they hate them but as a way of hastening their exits from the country. Pitre, who served two tours in Iraq, uses his superior powers of observation and empathy to maximum effect; he knows he doesn't have to overdramatize sudden deaths and betrayals and PTSD. And though Dodge's ongoing study of Huckleberry Finn provides metaphoric weight, Pitre plays down his literary aims in favor of a straightforward, even-keeled narrative. Among the many memorable scenes is one in which Lt. Pete Donovan, his nerves already stretched to the max, upbraids a callow young private security officer in an air-conditioned Suburban for exposing his heat-stricken men to a leaking stockpile of toxic chemicals. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Donovan; his drug-addicted fellow Marine, Doc; and Dodge. Though the narrative voices of Donovan and Doc sometimes blend together, and the scenes on the homefront, where Donovan gets a job with a money management firm, are a bit undercooked, those are minor flaws in a book in which everything rings so unshakably true.A war novel with a voice all its own, this will stand as one of the definitive renderings of the Iraq experience. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        June 15, 2014
        A member of the Marines Corps deployed twice to Iraq, achieving the rank of captain, Pitre returned to get an MBA and then write this debut novel about the war experience. It started getting attention when it was picked for the "Summer/Fall Indies Introduce Promotion" at BookExpo America. The platoon featured here is tasked with filling potholes along the highways and byways of Iraq, which sounds like a monotonous task but is filled with constant risk. Every pothole could hide a bomb, and any bomb within five meters will cut straight through armor. Note the eight- to ten-city tour.

        Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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shortDescription
It's the rule-always watch your fives and twenty-fives. When a convoy halts to investigate a possible roadside bomb, stay in the vehicle and scan five meters in every direction. A bomb inside five meters cuts through the armor, killing everyone in the truck. Once clear, get out and sweep twenty-five meters. A bomb inside twenty-five meters kills the dismounted scouts investigating the road ahead.
Fives and twenty-fives mark the measure of a marine's life in the road repair platoon. Dispatched to fill potholes on the highways of Iraq, the platoon works to assure safe passage for citizens and military personnel. Their mission lacks the glory of the infantry, but in a war where every pothole contains a hidden bomb, road repair brings its own danger.
Lieutenant Donavan leads the platoon, painfully aware of his shortcomings and isolated by his rank. Doc Pleasant, the medic, joined for opportunity, but finds his pride undone as he watches friends die. And there's Kateb,...
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