"'Matches" is the Israel Defence Force code term for a soldier. Among the troops, it has come to mean someone who strikes, burns and dies.' Nathan Falk is an American Jew who leaves the relative comforts of New York City to serve in the IDF. Patrolling the streets of Gaza in the dead of night, playing a high-stakes off-duty game of Risk with his fellow soldiers, making passionate love to the wife of his best friend, Nathan Falk lives each moment with an increasing awareness of the arbitrary boundary between life and death. ...
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"'Matches" is the Israel Defence Force code term for a soldier. Among the troops, it has come to mean someone who strikes, burns and dies.' Nathan Falk is an American Jew who leaves the relative comforts of New York City to serve in the IDF. Patrolling the streets of Gaza in the dead of night, playing a high-stakes off-duty game of Risk with his fellow soldiers, making passionate love to the wife of his best friend, Nathan Falk lives each moment with an increasing awareness of the arbitrary boundary between life and death. Poet Alan Kaufman writes as only a former soldier could about life in the dark heart of one of the most controversial and unremitting conflicts in the world. In this short, brilliant novel he offers an intensely revealing portrait of the damage war does to the soul of a man. 'Great war writing like this comes along once every fifty years. Kaufman's "Matches" does for Israeli soldiers and the Middle East conflict what Norman Mailer did for G.I.s in "The Naked" and "The Dead". "Matches" is not just terrific war fiction: it's a brilliant testament to the madness of war.' - Barney Rosset. '"Matches" provides us with the same pleasure, pain, and moral compromise that we feel in reading "The Red Badge of Courage" and "Heart of Darkness". A totally transformative reading experience.' - Thane Rosenbaum, author of "The Golems of Gotham" and "Second Hand Smoke".
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Seller's Description:
Fine; Collectible. FIRST THUS PRINTING IN EXCELLENT CONDITION AND LOOKS UNREAD. NEW LOOKING WITH NO NAMES OR MARKS SEEN. NOT AN EX-LIB. COVER IS TO DIE FOR. 9030 SWLS19-118 01.
