Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
19歲的大兵比利，因一場擊潰敵軍戰役的畫面，恰巧被福斯新聞網捕捉，成為家喻戶曉的國民英雄。他和他的小隊受邀從伊拉克返國接受總統布希授勳，一時間祖國鄉親、媒體記者、啦啦隊辣妹和好萊塢製片都等著見他，還要在德州感恩節大賽現場與碧昂絲和天命真女同台表演。
如夢似幻的凱旋之旅，全因為他們打了場勝仗，而他的同袍們，一個戰死，一個被炸斷了雙腿...... 一場虛偽的榮耀之旅，九天如嘉年華會般的奇遇，讓比利有所改變──他學會分辨這個世界，什麼是真的，什麼又是假的。
Aferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents at "the battle of Al-Ansakar Canal"—three minutes and forty-three seconds of intense warfare caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew—has
transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America's most sought-after heroes. For the past two weeks, the Bush administration has sent them on a media-intensive nationwide Victory
Tour to reinvigorate public support for the war. Now, on this chilly and rainy Thanksgiving, the Bravos are guests of America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys, slated to be part of the halftime show
alongside the superstar pop group Destiny's Child.
Among the Bravos is the Silver Star–winning hero of Al-Ansakar Canal, Specialist William Lynn, a nineteen-year-old Texas native. Amid clamoring patriots sporting flag pins on their lapels and
Support Our Troops bumper stickers on their cars, the Bravos are thrust into the company of the Cowboys' hard-nosed businessman/owner and his coterie of wealthy colleagues; a luscious
born-again Cowboys cheerleader; a veteran Hollywood producer; and supersized pro players eager for a vicarious taste of war. Among these faces Billy sees those of his family—his worried sisters
and broken father—and Shroom, the philosophical sergeant who opened Billy's mind and died in his arms at Al-Ansakar.
Over the course of this day, Billy will begin to understand difficult truths about himself, his country, his struggling family, and his brothers-in-arms—soldiers both dead and alive. In the
final few hours before returning to Iraq, Billy will drink and brawl, yearn for home and mourn those missing, face a heart-wrenching decision, and discover pure love and a bitter wisdom far
beyond his years.
Poignant, riotously funny, and exquisitely heartbreaking, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is a devastating portrait of our time, a searing and powerful novel that cements Ben Fountain's
reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation.
★本書中譯版《半場無戰事》由時報出版。
