Short Story Month - Woman in Uniform by Gabe Hudson

To start, the bulk of this was originally written last night - it was to be my final post on Memorial Day, as I'd finally caught back up to the 3 posts per day schedule.  It was my May 25 Book short story post and it comes from Home of the Brave:  Stories in Uniform (Press 53, 2009) edited by Jeffery Hess.  The story, "Woman in Uniform" comes from Gabe Hudson, author of the story collection, Dear Mr. President.

The story, which involves a small group of soldiers caught up in an Arabian country, current time, is broken into sections, with each of these sections headed by a phrase in big, bold, block lettering:

THE WIDESPREAD PROLIFERATION OF RACIAL PROFILING IN IRAQ

QUELLING THE HUMAN ANTHEM OF SORROW

A SECOND LANGUAGE CAN ENSURE PROFITABILITY WITHIN OUR NEW GLOBAL VILLAGE

WHAT I LEARNED IN THE ARMY

While they almost read as cliche slogans, the sections are anything but.  Anybody that has read Hudson's collection will know that as a former soldier, he's got the goods in terms of knowledge of what he writes, as well as the writing goods to bring both emotion and humor (black, black humor - to the level of laughing and then worrying a bit about yourself for having found it funny) to his work.  He does so within "Woman in Uniform" as well. 

While the writing within the sections does match up with the big headers, it does so in surprising ways, making the story all that more enjoyable.

Home of the Brave is a solid collection with authors like Mary Akers, Pinckney Benedict, Tim O'Brien, Chris Offutt, Kurt Vonnegut, James Salter, Tobias Wolff, and Benjamin Percy.  A portion of the proceeds are being donated to USA Cares, a non-profit that assists post 9/11 military service members and their families to cope with the financial burdens resulting from their service to America.  If interested in it.

Comments

[jessica handler]

I'm looking forward to reading this, and love the idea of donating a percentage of the proceeds to USA Cares.

[georgey bushey]

pathetic, don't support troops or the war