The US Navy Surgeon General, Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham, provides an overview of his selections for his professional reading list on YouTube and the Navy Medicine Live blog.
The complete list is here but what interests us is his choice of a graphic novel -
The Odyssey of Sergeant Brennan (Graphic Novel) by Bryan Doerries - which I must confess that I had never heard of.
Amazon's description reads:
A bold and original graphic novelization of The Odyssey that is both a powerful story for our time—capturing its timeless lessons for returning veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq—as well as a vivid new way into Homer's classic for modern readers.
Jack Brennan is a Marine Corps sergeant whose infantry squad has been cleared to return home from a grueling deployment to Afghanistan. A few years prior, Sergeant Brennan lost one of his closest friends—a young combat veteran—to suicide and has vowed to do everything in his power to keep his Marines from a similar fate. On their last night in-country, Brennan shares his version of The Odyssey to help prepare his squad for the transition back to the home front. By retelling Homer's epic about Odysseus' difficult journey home after the Trojan War, and weaving in the stories of contemporary Marines, The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan powerfully conveys the profound challenges today's veterans face upon returning from combat even as it tells "the oldest war story of all time."
Jack Brennan is a Marine Corps sergeant whose infantry squad has been cleared to return home from a grueling deployment to Afghanistan. A few years prior, Sergeant Brennan lost one of his closest friends—a young combat veteran—to suicide and has vowed to do everything in his power to keep his Marines from a similar fate. On their last night in-country, Brennan shares his version of The Odyssey to help prepare his squad for the transition back to the home front. By retelling Homer's epic about Odysseus' difficult journey home after the Trojan War, and weaving in the stories of contemporary Marines, The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan powerfully conveys the profound challenges today's veterans face upon returning from combat even as it tells "the oldest war story of all time."
I've ordered a copy and am looking forward to reading it.
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