Lone Survivor Book Review
Lone Survivor is written by Marcus
Luttrell with the help of Patrick Robinson. The book follows the story of SEAL
Team 10 as well as what happens when a person goes through the training to
become a Navy SEAL. Training to become a Navy SEAL is tough since out of the
160 some people that were in Luttrell's BUD/S only 30 or so graduated to become
full Navy SEALs. Luttrell also writes about how as a child he knew, along with
his twin brother Morgan, that he wanted to be a Navy SEAL and his father as
well as one of his mentors, Billy Shelton. Through the training that he
received even before he started SEAL training, Luttrell was able to be more prepared
for what to expect. The majority of the book focuses on SEAL Team 10 around
their mission in Afghanistan code word, Operation Red Wings. The goal of the
mission was to go after a high ranking member of al Qaeda that was possibly
linked to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Many things happen during this
mission, from running into a group of sheep herders and letting them go to
their communication equipment completely failing to the point where they were
unable to contact headquarters to decide what to do with the goat herders.
Eventually they let them go and this proves to be a big mistake. It prompts a
large number of Taliban militants to come and attack the 4 Navy SEALs that are
on this mission and it turns out to be a complete and utter disaster. What
happens? Do they all make it out alive? After all, the book is called Lone
Survivor. Read to find out.
Setting is very interesting in
this book and really helps to make the reader feel like they are actually in
the book and at the places that are being described by Luttrell. Due to
Luttrell's vivid and intricate descriptions of the various places in the novel,
the reader feels like they are
witnessing what happened to Luttrell while he is
experiencing the events in the novel. This allows for a very enjoyable reading
experience where the reader feels like they are fully immersed in what they are
reading. There are many different scenes throughout Lone Survivor where the
description of the setting really helps to give the reader an ideal picture of
the surroundings but the various descriptions of Coronado, the SEAL training
base really help to show the picturesque qualities of Luttrell's descriptions.
For example, the description of the O-course or obstacle course at Coronado is
a very good example of this literary talent, "the rope climbs, the
sixty-foot cargo net, the walls, the vaults, the parallel bars, the barbed
wire, the rope bridges, the Weaver, the Burma Bridge. For the first time I
wished to hell I'd been a foot shorter" (98). With the description the
reader is actually able to form a picture in their mind about what how the
O-course looks and how Luttrell must have felt when he first looked at it. For
the first time in his life, he wished that he would have been shorter because
it would have made the O-course just a little bit easier, it was not easy in
the first place, since he was 6 foot 5 inches and 230 pounds and it would be a
challenge for him to complete the O-course. The reader with this description is
able to experience and visualize exactly what Luttrell is seeing. Setting is
able to add many visual qualities to stories that can help to really immerse
the reader.
The way that Luttrell views the
media and how he does certain things based on whether or not the media will
appreciate them are very important aspects to this story. There are many times
throughout the story where Luttrell will be met with a situation that he could
easily use his training to address the problem, like eliminating the problem, instead
he has to think about how his actions could be addressed and analyzed back at
home by people that have never experienced what he is currently experiencing. This
is a constant threat to his well-being throughout the story and it is what
leads to him doing a few things throughout the story that if he was not
necessarily looking out about how the media would react he would have done
things a lot differently. There is really one main example in Lone Survivor that really drives this
point home. After landing in their mission site on pursuit of the high ranking
al Qaeda leader likened to 9/11, the four SEALs of SEAL Team 10 come upon a
group of goat herders and they are met with a dilemma. They can either kill the
goat herders and if the media finds out they will probably go to jail or they
can let them go where they will probably set the Taliban after them. There is a
vote that is held to decide what to do. The following follows, “Just tell me
what to do. …We gotta let ‘em go” (206). Little does Luttrell know at the time,
but this decision probably ended up costing the rest of his teammates their
lives. Through the intricate writing style of Luttrell and Robinson, the reader
is able to feel the frustration that Luttrell faces when he encounters this
particularly difficult choice. It all goes back on the reader interpreters what
is going on in the story where the reader gets their interpretation from the author
so with a good author, there is good interpretation.
The sense of community is also
quite strong in Lone Survivor and it
plays a really big role throughout the movie. With the community and
brotherhood that the SEALs get through working and training together lasts a
long time into the future when they are out on patrol or even in everyday life.
There is also just a sense of community with the family of Marcus Luttrell as
well as everybody that came to the Luttrell’s ranch to simply show their
support for Luttrell. As well as the support that was shown for each of the
fallen SEALs, either the ones who had originally gone out on patrol with Luttrell
or the SEALs that had flown to the aid of SEALs in distress, there was a
complete outpouring of honor, glory, and mourning by the nation for what the
SEALs had done to protect the United States of America and for giving the
ultimate sacrifice for their country. The reader really gets a sense of how
Luttrell felt when he writes about the ranch and the people that were there
simply to support his mother, father, and brothers. That is a true community.
However, the sense of brotherhood among the SEALs is a great feat as well. When
fellow SEALs are in peril, other SEALs will not hesitate to go help them. This
can be seen in the following examples, “My
guys are dying out here…we need help—ripped around our base like a flash
fire. SEALs are dying!” (247). The
sense of brotherhood as well as the sense of loss of a brother is so strong
that pretty much the rest of SEAL Team 10 that had remained at base go to the
aid of their brothers in peril. Unfortunately, their helicopter is struck down
by an RPG which leads the deadliest day in US Naval History over the loss of
Navy SEALs. This sense of brotherhood is what the whole SEAL motto is based on.
To never leave a fallen brother and to always have somebody’s back. This is
instilled in BUD/S training back at Coronado with swim buddies. If either buddy
is not more than a few feet away then the entire class is ordered to get “Wet and sandy!” It is because of this concept
being deemed as the most important that the SEALs reacted like they did for
their fallen brothers. This is what the reader experiences from reading Lone Survivor and Luttrell’s and
Robinson’s writing styles really help to bring the messages home.
Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell with the help of Patrick Robinson
was an excellent book. The messages that both authors were trying to get to the
reader were well received with how they were presented to the reader. All in
all it was an excellent book that really had the reader feeling like they were
actually experiencing what was happening in the book along with Luttrell. From
the SEAL training grounds at Coronado with BUD/S to the mountains of
Afghanistan, there is plenty that happens in the book to keep any reader entertained
and wanting more. It was a thrilling book that could at sometimes be a little
moving. (5 stars out of 5.)
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