Book No. 31 of 2021
Missionaries skews heavy and graphic (expect detailed descriptions of violence and gore) but it is also a somewhat necessary primer on the where/how/why of conflict around the globe, the ways in which the US has its hands everywhere, and how the luxury of a peaceful existence that so many Americans enjoy comes from intentional ignorance. Before this book I hadn’t given much thought to the fact that the endless wars in the Middle East and Central America are experimental grounds for first world militaries to try different tactics that they then apply elsewhere, for the sake of protecting resources (and not people).
I’m usually not a fan of military-centric narratives, but Klay does an excellent job toggling between the abstracted nature of warfare and governance and the individual tragedy of regular citizens trying to make their ways in a world of impossible decisions. Klay also masterfully demonstrates the sheer interconnectedness of our modern world—the reading experience feels somewhat like tugging at what seem like individual threads, only to realize that they are all entangled inextricably with each other.
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I was reminded frequently of Valeria Luiselli’s Tell Me How it Ends.