Rating: 
Summary: great read
Review: As an Army veteran of the same era, I could resonate with much of the content of book. This isnt a whitewash of anti or pro military, but a recollection of one person's experience in the Marine Corp, and one that I find based much further in reality, than say, the white washed Fox News reports. The author is not a typical grunt, and logically it would follow that his story would not be typical. This book tells a story of a young man coming of age, trying to reconcile the childhood idealogies of the US with the brutal, ugly reality of war. This was a very fast read and well worth the time. The book isnt for someone who is a neo conservative Rightwinger, nor would it please the anti-war leftists--it is for the people who have a clear understanding of the nature of the political beast, namely propoganda and power struggles.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing could be further from the truth
Review: I am a Marine officer candidate and I know quite a few Marines. Not a single Marine who's read this book likes it the very least, not because this book makes us "look bad", but because he is not telling the truth. He's simply telling a story that he knows some civilians want to hear. It's almost funny when he tried so hard yet unsuccefully to establish a relationship between the Gulf War and oil companies. He knows some people just are dying to read that part. If you want to learn about the Marine Corps, this book is definitely NOT what you want. Most of it is about his own reproductive organs or constant swearing. When it does mention the Marine Corps, it simply paints a false picture.
Rating: 
Summary: worth reading, but a bit esoteric
Review: Let me start by saying I enjoyed the book. Swofford manages to tell the story of his experiences in Desert Shield and Desert Storm while at the same time using those months in the Gulf to tell his life story, pre- and post-war. He combines it all in a narrative that is at once poignant and riveting. In the portraits of his youth, we sense that joining the Corps is almost his destiny--he's the son of a Vietnam vet and the grandson of a WWII vet; he wants to prove he's part of that line, prove that he's a man. After the war, we feel the aimlessness, the lack of direction, the inescapability of the Marines--it's always with him. The war itself, though it has moments of fear and danger, is for him and his friends mostly anti-climactic. Swofford conveys these events and emotions well.Often, though, I got the feeling that Swofford was trying far too hard to write a "literary" memoir in the vein of a Graves or Manchester or Caputo or O'Brien, to write something more than a simple retelling of war. The result is writing that's very self-conscious (and maybe that's the point, I don't know); it feels as though he is constantly looking over his shoulder. The style does have one benefit: he makes clear that we only see what he saw, that his is only one sliver of the whole story. And he was a unique soldier, to be sure. What other enlisted Marine--what other soldier, enlisted or officer, for that matter--read Camus and Homer while in the desert? I see the point--one captures the existential despair that pervades the book and the other is the classic poet of war--but these references are sometimes annoying, almost as though he's broadcasting his intelligence and uniqueness. One particularly odd reference was an allusion to Kobe Abe (Kobe who? yeah, me, too, until I looked him up), when describing the desert sand. In sum, even if Swofford's style somewhat puts one off (it did me, at least) and tries to be something it isn't or can't, it is a gripping portrayal not simply of men at war, but of what comes before and after. It deserves a place on the military reader's shelf. (3 stars; worth reading, if a bit esoteric)
Rating: 
Summary: I read this book years ago . . .
Review: . . . when it was called the 'The Short Timers' and was written by Gustav Hasford. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. Maybe the book isn't a pure copy of Hasford's novel of a grunt in Vietnam, but it's so similar in tone that you get the sense that Swofford may have read Hasford's book a few too many times before writing his own memoir. In fact, other than a little splash of the literary all-my-problems-are-the-result-of-a-family-trauma motif, you can find virtually everything in 'Jarhead' in other, earlier, war memoirs of Vietnam-era writers (and, frankly, I'm not sure that Swofford didn't swipe the traumatic military childhood angle from 'The Great Santini'). Ultimately 'Jarhead' reads like the intense, exaggerated and pretentious musings of the very drunk guy sitting on the next stool at a bar outside a military base. Can we believe his tale? I dunno. I'd argue that it reads too much like a novel to be taken at face value, and he's lucky Bush decided to confront Saddam when he did. Otherwise the publication of this slightly lame memoir would never have received the massive free publicity it received in the media during the runup to the invasion.
Rating: 
Summary: Touch of truth
Review: This is one of my first military reads and it totally captured me. Being in the military myself, I can identify with the sarcasm and dark humor that Swofford has woven in this book. I think it is a great read for anyone, regardless of age or occupation. Swofford uses enough military jargon to make "us" smile and enough explanation for civilians to capture a glimpse of what it really means to be a marine on the front line. His love-hate relationship with the corps, the struggles of military vs. civilian life and the reality of war; this book has it all. As bold and as rude as the language gets, it is equally humane and touching!!
Semper Fi Swofford.
Rating:
Summary: Poor story, by a poor Marine
Review: After the first couple of pages I was ready to throw the book away. If you are looking for a story that regales the Marines this is not it. I was going to send it to a friend of mine who is a true Marine serving with a Scout Sniper Platoon; he had already read the book along with several other Marines in his unit, every one of them disliked it. It is unfortunate that the author did not have a more positive experience, maybe its because he hasn't had a positive experience with life yet. You get out of the Corps what you put into it. Obviously he didn't put much into it, it shows in his book.
Rating:
Summary: Good read if...
Review: Marines generally have a love/hate relationship with our Corps. I've been in for now 1 year and I can truly understand that - as Swofford tends to show. I say that and I plan to be a lifer. This book, tells the events preceding up to and throughout the 1st Gulf War through the eyes of Lance Corporal Anythony Swofford. Swofford is fairly cynical, was abused in boot camp (fairly common then, but fairly uncommon now), and has a troubled life. He IS somewhat whiny, but what he has to say is mostly good. In short, it's a good read, but only if you get past the whining enough to actually hear what he has to say.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful, if Flawed
Review: Right at the beginning of Jarhead, Anthony Swofford warns us that what follows is not true, not false, but just what he remembers. I think those words of warning are important for anyone reading this powerful, flawed memoir. From reading other reviews, it seems many are upset by his version of being a marine, but I think it is important to remember that this is as he remembers his experience. What he did experience--the Gulf War, a difficult childhood, death of close friends--is enough to warp the mind. What Swofford has given us here is a powerful memoir, a look into a world that many of us do not have a chance to see. He lets us into his head and helps non-jarheads to understand, at least to certain extent, what his experience was. Swofford is honest with us--he and his friends are far from perfect and he doesn't try to sugar coat anything. The writing at times can be a bit uneven--it's not all as powerful as it could be. That being said, this is an interesting look into the life of one jarhead.
Rating:
Summary: Shaky at first, but give it time
Review: The first time I tried reading this I gave up a few chapters in. This guy is really whiny. I decided to give it another shot a few months later. Okay, he still seems whiny in some parts, but it pays off. The chapters at the end, and his descriptions of the end of the conflict especially, whoa. Powerful stuff. Very stylish, too.
Rating:
Summary: False Pretense
Review: This book is sold under the pretense of being the memoirs of a jarhead. I found it to be the memoirs of a person who is unhappy (who happened to be a jarhead). He was unhappy before he was a jarhead, he was unhappy while he was a jarhead, and he is unhappy after he was a jarhead. Furthermore, he had problems with his father, his mother, his sister, his brother and with God. Should it be a shocker that he problems with the Marine Corps? As the father of a Marine about to leave for Iraq, I would be blown away if my son had an outlook on life like that of the author. Only buy this book if you enjoy reading the misery that some people choose to live in.
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