IWO Blasted Again: Read/Post Comments

"Like the gritty protagonist of Iwo Blasted, Ray Elliott is an American original. In this affecting novel, at turns stark and unabashedly sentimental, Elliott explores the way war is remembered, both by a dying veteran and our culture as a whole. By filtering one of the bloodiest battles of World War II through the shadow-dance recollections and nightmare hallucinations of his central character, Elliott raises haunting questions about how we hang on to, and how we let go of, the past."

— Miles Harvey, author of The Island of Lost Maps, has another book coming out with Random House this fall, was a long-time contributing editor to Outside Magazine,was Managing Editor of In These Times and is free lance writer with work in many national publications, including Rolling Stone.

"Marine veteran Ray Elliott understands American war and warfare as few people do. His work is honest and raw and filled with truth, in the tradition of the great American war novelists who precede him."

— Kaylie Jones, a novelist and writing teacher, James Jones' daughter and a director of the James Jones Literary Society. Her novels include Speak Now, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, Celeste Ascending, Quite the Other Way and As Soon As it Rains.

"Ray Elliott brings home the horror of combat with the searingly descriptive prose of a wordsmith who writes with heart and passion. The sacrifice of an American in war is put squarely in our consciousness by Elliott's Jack Britton. Readers find themselves back in the invasion of Iwo Jima as Britton, on his deathbed, relives his ghastly hours in the assault on the island's 'bloody sands.'"

— Taylor Pensoneau, former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter and the author of the fictional The Summer of '50, and three non-fiction accounts of criminals and governors in Illinois — Brothers Nortorious: The Sheltons; Dan Walker: The Glory and the Tragedy; Governor Richard Ogilvie: In the Interest of the State. He is also the current president of the Illinois Center for the Book.

"It is today, but Ray Elliott takes us back to the horrors, the camaraderie, and the complexity of war in another time. It is the tale of an old man dying, who can't help reliving what happened to him long ago when he was wounded at Iwo Jimo in World War II. It is stark, it is graphic, and it pulls no punches. Elliott masterfully shows how the wounded carry their scars forever, even as to how they interact with those brutally mangled in present day Iraq. Elliott is skilled at narrative. His book is a page-turner.

— John Bowers, author of The Colony, Stonewall Jackson: Portrait of a Soldier, and Chickamauga/Chattanooga: The Battles that Doomed the Confederacy and writing professor at Columbia University was at The Handy Writer's Colony during the 1950s and is a member of the James Jones Literary Society.

"Ray Elliott's gritty and touching story of the last hours in the life of a tough, elderly World War II vet painfully and poignantly reminds us that there is no such thing as a "Good War." Even the best of wars leaves a trail of human anguish and guilt and anger that can never be erased. Wars may be necessary, but they can never be good. The men and women who run our nation and those of us who vote them into office must never forget that searing lesson."

— Walt Harrington, former Washington Post magazine writer now the University of Illinois journalism department chair and is the author of Crossings, The Everlasting Stream, American Profiles, At the Heart of It and Intimate Journalism.

"With this novella and his previous novel Wild Hands Toward the Sky Ray Elliott is making himself a much-needed spokesman for those soldiers who have survived a war, but not the horrifying results of that war. In a culture that celebrates 'support of the troops,' this kind of work is important as a reminder of what battle can do to those innocents who are sent out to kill and be killed. This novella is an important work and deserves to be read."

— Jack Stokes, retired English professor and playwright (Wiley and the Hairy Man and The Incredible Jungle Journey of Fenda Maria) who served in the Army in Europe during World War II.

"Ray Elliott has produced a unique portrayal of two vital aspects of what many combat veterans experience in their lifetime. He presents a vivid, very accurate, graphically true depiction of the horrors the individual encounters and endure in battle. For the remainder of their lives, most veterans extend great effort to blot out or eliminate all thoughts, memories and recollections of their gruesome war experiences. They refuse to discuss them or to make any references toward them. To some degree they succeed, but inevitably it seems that in their latter years of life, these long dormant suppressed memories return with surprisingly haunting clarity. The author's flashback visions of the patient are perfect examples of this unwelcome phenomenon."

— Col. Gerald Russell, USMC, retired, Iwo Jima veteran who was also in combat on Guadalcanal and in Korea, served 30 years in the Marine Corps, then worked at Penn State University for nearly 20 more. He serves on various panels about war experiences and is often interviewed to preserve his recollections of war and military experiences for posterity. He recently spent four days at Pritzker Military Library in Chicago being interviewed about his service during his career.

“Ray Elliott's Iwo Jima Blasted at Sundown is a riveting account of an Iwo Jima veteran reliving on his deathbed the horror of that storied conflict during an end of life condition known as 'Sundown Syndrome.' As he drifts in and out of consciousness, he reveals to his son a graphic account of tragic loss, love of comrades, and even dark humor on the battlefield. Elliott, a former Marine and author of Wild Hands Toward the Sky, which dealt with long term effects of combat, has constructed a tale of that battle so realistic that Iwo Jima veterans will swear he had fought there himself. As a former Marine who did fight there in 1945, I can attest to the authenticity of his portrayal. All readers will be engrossed in this sensitive account until its final page, and Iwo veterans will identify with the recounted experiences as they, too, relive their time on that Godforsaken island.”

— William B. Madden, retired English professor and Iwo Jima veteran who served in the battalion Colonel Russell commanded on Iwo Jima, a poet and a free-lance magazine writer.

"It takes a Marine to know a Marine. Author Ray Elliott, a former Marine, writes with grit, guts and authority about his big brothers in the Marine Corps. Jack Britton, his prime character, is in a hospital preparing himself for his last day. He has enjoyed a fulfilling life after the Corps days, teaching school, writing poems, fathering his son, but now is plagued with doubts. Did he really fulfill his life's dreams, wishes and anticipations?

"At the end of his life, the frightening battle days in the Pacific are occupying most of his thoughts. He keeps landing on Iwo Jima over and over, and firing his rifle at unseen, unknown objects. Then, he again sees his fellow Marines hoisting the Red, White and Blue on Mt. Suribachi. Where's the end?

"Britton's bittersweet memories control his daily conduct in the hospital. One of his doctors, an Asian, revives murderous hatred for the Japanese who had wounded him at Iwo. He's one of them! Watch out! Watch out for him!

"Elliott does not stop there. He gives us more. Much more.

"Will Britton finally overcome the bad hand dealt him? Or, will he have to accept whatever was dealt him and play the game? His life has been marked by great losses — war, his Marine Corps friends, his wife — and all the while Britton remains standing admist the ruins of his life. He's always done his best to carry on. But, now that his own end nears, he can't help but dwell on these horrors and the greatest puzzle of his life — why him? Why did he get to live? And he's not sure he's worthy but comes to realize that worthiness has nothing to do with it.

"Elliott unrelentingly leads us on and on until we are at the last page and finally share the last days of Jack Britton's life."

— Jon Shirota, Japanese-American novelist, playwright (Lucky Come Hawaii, Pineapple White, both novels, and Leiani's Hibiscus and several other plays), was the last member of the Handy Writer's Colony and Jones society board member currently in Okinawa lecturing and working on a grant researching the immigration patterns of the people who left the island as did his own parents when they went to Hawaii prior to World War II. Well known in Asian theatre and literature circles.

"Captain Garland H. White, the African-American chaplain in the Union army, was present at the Battle of Crater on July 30, 1864. In the trench warfare around Petersburg, Virginia, the Union and Confederate forces were often only 1000 years apart, with firing going on day and night. As a way of breaking the impasse, former coal miners now in the 48th Pennsylvania dug a tunnel under the Confederate gun position and packed it with four tons of powder.

"At 4:45 on that fateful morning in July, the powder was ignited, creating a crater 170 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 30 feet deep, causing massive death and destruction to the confederate forces. Rev. White describes the scene: 'The earth began to shake, as though the hand of God intended a reversal of the laws of nature. This grand convulsion sent both soil and souls to inhabit the air for a while, and then returned to be co-mingled forever with each other.' Union troops then charged, rushing into the crater itself instead of going around it, and the surviving Confederates slaughtered the Union troops caught in the crater.

"Though he was an observer, not a the Union and Confederate survivor of the Battle of the Crater, some maimed, some unhurt, must also have carried psychological scars of the rest of their lives. The same is true for survivors of battles across centuries, across continents.
"In Iwo Blasted Again, Ray Elliott explores the subject of war and its aftermath in a realistic novel written in the powerful tradition of James Jones' masterpiece, The Thin Red Line.

"Jack Britton, a former Marine and retired high school English teacher who survived the battles of Iwo Jima, lies dying. He moves between the nightmarish world of the hospital, the nightmarish world of Iwo Jima, and the many good and bad years after the end of World War II. He faces all these worlds honestly, bluntly and profanely.

""Never able to explain why he survived and others perished, he nevertheless returns to that existential question time and time again as he also remembers his recovery from war wounds, his marriage, the birth of his son and the death of his wife, his teaching. His memory is rarely distorted. He declaims poetry lines correctly by misremembers Robert Frost's name as Jack, no doubt thinking of the nursery rhyme he read his young son.

"Jack Britton, all his long adult life proud to have been a Marine, was part of the ‘band of brothers’ as spoken by Henry V the night before the Battle of Agincourt:

From this day to the ending of the world
But we in it shall be remembered —
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother, he ne'er so vile
This shall be gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England, now a-bed,
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here.

"Just as Col. Russell, the white commander of Rev. White's unit, was ready to order 'Fix bayonets; charge bayonets!' at the Battle of the Crater, he said to the chaplain, 'Brother White, good-bye. Take care of yourself — for today someone must die, and if it be me, I hope our people will get the benefit of it.' The colonel crossed racial barriers to include White in the band of brothers. Rev. White's letter about the Battle of the Crater calls on us to remember it, and re-live it, and fantasize about the early lives of the dead and the later lives of the survivors. Ray Elliott through Jack Britton has called on us, once again, to remember Iwo Jima, those that died there, and those who survived. Brothers."

— Dr. George Hendrick, English professor emeritus at the University of Illinois where he was department head for several years, was first president of the James Jones Literary Society, and was editor of To Reach Eternity: the Letters of James Jones, co-editor of The Selected Poems of Carl Sandburg, Fleeing for Freedom: Stories of the Underground Railroad and Two Slave Rebellions at Sea and co-author of James Jones and the Handy Writers' Colony, Katherine Anne Porter, The Creole Mutiny and Why Not Every Man?: African Americans and Civil Disobedience in the Quest for the Dream.

"Iwo Blasted Again at Sundown plunges the reader into an immediately impacting journey of a war-torn and suffering soul. Through an uncanny interweaving of psychology and time, Elliott has vividly captured the essence of the sundown syndrome and has done so with intricate characterization, while inviting the reader to ponder the deeper meanings of life, love, war and death. This work is one of hidden hurt and truth, reminiscent of Hemingway."

— Thomas Hollowell, a young freelance writer and Jones Society member who has served as volunteer in Costa Rica, a teacher for at-risk youth in the States, and was with the Peace Corps at a university in Morocco. He's now living on an island in South Korea, working as a full-time writer, writing for publications such as Combat Magazine, Cooking Smart, Computer Edge, Learning Through History, Stellar Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Hustler and Backpacker.

"Sixty years after the devastating battle on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, Ray Elliott's story has tricked me into learning of an American soldier's fighting in the Pacific and of the years of living with what happened there.

"I was almost sixteen when World War II ended, so I knew how much was paid for Iwo Jima, that stepping stone toward Japan. Yet I never had the chance to listen to any soldiers relate their own story.

"Ray Elliott has a gift for empathizing with soldiers of war and getting their story to a reader.
"I, who will not watch unpleasant TV local newscasts or read trauma-filled stories, was coaxed by this author's unusual presentation of a soldier and a battle for life."

— Don Sackrider, a founding member of the James Jones Literary Society, is a past society president, was the second member (after James Jones) of The Handy Writer's Colony, and was co-author of James Jones and the Handy Writers' Colony and Writings From The Handy Colony. A short story writer, he is now writing a novel.

"Since I retired from teaching, I seldom read books about war or other unpleasant situations. I have confined my reading to books that I would enjoy and I certainly did not expect to find Iwo Blasted Again to be one of those. I was amazed at how I was captured by its honesty, strength and positive message. I found myself captivated by Jack Britton and his search for meaning in a life that he cannot understand. I had friends who were Marines and fought at Iwo Jima and who never quite got over the experience. I was an adult during WW II and I remember the publicity the island received and the importance of the fighting there. Ray Elliott has captured the attitude of these men.

"I have a brother-in-law who was a career Marine and I asked Ray if I could share the novel with him. He agreed and Ron was very influenced by reading it. For the first time he is discussing Vietnam and things that happened there as well as Iwo where he received part of his training. I believe the book has done much to help him accept the past. Ray has made an important contribution with his book."

— Helen Howe, retired English professor, an early friend of James Jones and wife of Jones' boyhood friend, was a founding member of the James Jones Literary Society, and is co-author of James Jones and the Handy Writers' Colony and Writings From The Handy Colony.

"Women are not a typical audience for the traditional combat novel, but Iwo Blasted Again at Sundown is different. It uses the more accessible and familiar situation of elderly care giving to allow women into the rather closed fraternity of the combat veteran’s world. Men and women tell their life stories differently, depending on who’s listening. This book affords women an open window into what war is really like without betraying some unspoken male code – especially of the WWII generation – that women should be spared knowing the real truth about such things.

"After surviving not just one horrific life experience, but two, Jack Britton has spent his life trying to be both father and mother to his only son, Jim. So now, as the end of Jack’s life approaches, the roles are reversed, and the child becomes the parent in a way. And as the physical body begins to shut down, it triggers psychological hauntings of the past with intense and sorrowful detail. You just want to gather up both characters tightly in your arms and tell them it’s going to be all right."

— Vanessa Faurie, a past board member of the James Jones Literary Society and editor of Illinois Alumni magazine, long-time journalist and feature writer.

"Ray Elliott's Iwo Blasted Again at Sundown truly captures the emotional hold that impacts the men who fought on Iwo Jima and is a stark reminder of the price of freedom."

— Jack Lucas, Medal of Honor recipient, Iwo Jima, Hattiesburg, Miss., entered the Marine Corps at 14 years of age, stowed away on a ship in Hawaii on the way to Iwo Jima and was awarded the Medal of Honor at 17, the youngest man to ever receive the medal. His memoir is titled, Indestructible.

"One enters the mind of Jack Britton, a WWII Marine Corps survivor of the battle of Iwo Jima, as he reaches the end of his life many years after the battle. Severe illness impairs his consciousness during the remaining hours of his life spent in the Intensive Care Unit; his reality fluctuates between his surroundings and his experience spent on "The Rock" - an eight square mile island of forlorn volcanic black sand 600 miles from Tokyo of great strategic importance in the final days of the war. Britton is delirious. His mental capacity waxes and wanes along with his vital functions. It is here that the reality of the war, a constant brush with death, and the remainder of his time on this Earth, as it was forever changed by the experience, is relived in the final moments of his life."

— Joseph E.C. Rogers, MD, San Francisco, Calif., is the son of an Iwo Jima veteran.

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