"I'll be alright, ma."
Young men, and now young women, go off to war; their parents worry behing proud smiles. And all the kids make promises they can not keep, such as "I'll be alright, ma".
"Fatal Light", while fictionalized, is also biographical. In it, the future combat medic makes his mother the promise that so many make, and so many fail to keep. That Currey is writing the book means he kept the promise in the sense that he returned alive. That he writes an angry, disillusioned, painful and proud book belies again the promise: he returned, but he was not alright. Nor will the reader be entirely okay after this journey, be the reader combat veteran or sheltered child of privilege. This short novel carries power, truth and pictures of what war is and always has been. Entertaining and enlightening, provocative and thoughtful, this volume engages the reader, demanding involvement.
