You know when the men are gone

Shameless plug for my former neighbor from the Ft Hood area, Siobhan Fallon.

The title of her book is You Know When the Men Are Gone and she is on a book tour right now.  I went to the reading here in VA, but tried not to listen too much because I hadn't read the book and didn't want to hear any spoilers.  Weird, I know.

It is a good read- a collection of inter-related short stories about the soldiers and families of a unit at Ft Hood, their deployment and reintegration.  While I enjoyed it, I found myself disturbed as well.

Naturally, messed up circumstances make for good stories (like Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary), but I worry that there really is too much adultery committed between the characters. YIKES!!!!  One of the stories recounts the (never confirmed) affair between an NCO and a female soldier while in Iraq.  Because IEDs aren't enough to worry about, now everyone can chew on that until our soldiers return.

I do wonder what type of impression it leaves on the civilians who will read it.  Women whose only knowledge of the military comes from watching NCIS and Army Wives.  Siobhan did a great job of capturing the emptiness felt during a deployment, but I wonder about the other stuff.  Will it give the impression that we are all heart-broken, but easy?  I, and I think this is true for most of us, had an enormously boring, but utterly fantastic, group of friends.  We hung out with each other and our kids.  It could be because a lot of the characters were somewhat (okay, A LOT) younger than me.  Their marriages were younger and less tested through the ups and downs of many years. Some had no children.  But I just can't comprehend some of the choices they made.

Personally, I don't worry.  I think my marriage is strong (right, honey?) and he couldn't afford to divorce me anyway.  ;)

For those not in the military, when a couple has been married for 10 years of the soldier's military service, the spouse is entitled to half of the soldier's retirement if they divorce.  Not to mention child support, etc. And I have heard of spouses asking family court judges deny custody to soldiers just because they are still in the Army. Divorce is such an ugly thing.  Usually only the lawyers come out on top.

Anyway, give it a read.  I'd love to hear what you think.  Did it ring true to you, or trend too dramatic?