I really enjoyed Kurtz by John Lawson III that highlight the story of a female Marine Annie Kurtz. In this week’s episode I had a chance to talk John about his novel. John is a Marine Corps veteran and journalist/military analyst. He wanted to write a novel about some of the ideas he had been hearing from friends or learned about through his work and has created Kurtz to help get people to think critically and even create discussions about their own experience. I throughly enjoyed Kurtz and highly recommend it.
Novel highlighting a female Marine
John joined the Marine Corps later in life. After being rejected by the military through medical physicals eventually he was able to join in his early 30s. He join the Reserve because he already had a life and family but still had the desire to serve. He never deployed but talk to many of his friends and was involved in military issues through his work as a military analyst.
Why write Kurtz
There were so many discussions about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. John wanted to find a way to discuss these ideas and topics. He wanted to focus on fiction because it gave him the latitude to talk about some specific issues without finger pointing. Fiction gives you the latitude to make up a story to have it fit within the story you want to write. While still giving the author the ability to be inspired by real events.
Why a female Marine
The story though told by a male, Nick, who is not a service member is about Annie Kurtz. She drives the story. John said he wanted to highlight her as the focus because she helps to drive the story by showing a different side of the military and not what they stereotype is.
Challenge of War
One of the main topics addressed is how the military got stuck in group think for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was something that was discussed in various ways. Specifically by contrasting leaders with the people on the ground doing the work. It helped highlight the challenges many service member felt while deployed. I deployed to Afghanistan and worked directly with the Afghan people. Many of the directives given to our team were impossible or unreasonable to carry out. But there was very little if no way to push that information back up to the leaders who were directing our overall mission.
