Awards
- Commended for Minnesota Book Award (Memoir) 2012
Overview
In 2003, after serving five and a half years as a carpenter in a North Dakota National Guard engineer unit, Bronson Lemer was ready to leave the military behind. But six months short of completing his commitment to the army, Lemer was deployed on a yearlong tour of duty to Iraq. Leaving college life behind in the Midwest, he yearns for a lost love and quietly dreams of a future as an openly gay man outside the military. He discovers that his father's lifelong example of silent strength has taught him much about being a man, and these lessons help him survive in a war zone and to conceal his sexuality, as he is required to do by the U.S. military. The Last Deployment is a moving, provocative chronicle of one soldier's struggle to reconcile military brotherhood with self-acceptance. Lemer captures the absurd nuances of a soldier's daily life: growing a mustache to disguise his fear, wearing pantyhose to battle sand fleas, and exchanging barbs with Iraqis while driving through Baghdad. But most strikingly, he describes the poignant reality faced by gay servicemen and servicewomen, who must mask their identities while serving a country that disowns them. Often funny, sometimes anguished, The Last Deployment paints a deeply personal portrait of war in the twenty-first century. InSight Out Book Club selection Bronson Lemer named one of Instinct magazine's Leading Men 2011 QPB Book Club selection Finalist, Minnesota Book Awards Finalist, Over the Rainbow Selection, American Library Association Amazon Top Ten 10 Gay & Lesbian Books of 2011
Full Product Details
Author: Bronson Lemer
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Imprint: University of Wisconsin Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.80cm
, Height: 1.60cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.455kg
ISBN: 9780299282141
ISBN 10: 0299282147
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 30 June 2011
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
Lemer's is a wonderfully descriptive, wryly humorous, heart-crushing story, and I couldn't put it down. . . . If you love a soldier, your country, or both, The Last Deployment is a book you'll want to tell everybody about. -- The Dallas Voice
<p>“An important contribution to this national debate. . . . A book we should have on the president’s desk as soon as possible.”—Tim Miller, author of Body Blows and 1001 Beds
<p> A well-written, often provocative memoir of the author's struggle to reconcile military brotherhood with self-acceptance. . . . Regardless of how you feel about the war, this memoir is well worth reading. -- Lambda Literary
Author Information
Bronson Lemer served in the North Dakota Army National Guard for six years, including deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. His writing has appeared in Blue Earth Review, The Rekjavik Grapevine, and Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers. He teaches English and humanities courses at Turtle Mountain Community College near Belcourt, North Dakota.
