In his brutally honest memoir, “Eat the Apple,” Matt Young grapples with his experiences in the corps.
EAT THE APPLE
A Memoir
By Matt Young
251 pp. Bloomsbury. $26.
The trouble with writing the unvarnished truth in a memoir is that it requires you to be hard not only on others, but also on yourself.
Matt Young’s inventive, unsparing, irreverent and consistently entertaining “Eat the Apple” is that, but it is also a useful corrective to the current idealization of the American soldier — or in this case a Marine. Patriotism and respect for the military is so high in this country that we have lately held a national debate over whether professional athletes should be required to stand for the national anthem. Men and women in uniform are given preference in boarding airplanes, and are so routinely thanked for their service that the expression has become rote. Each new season brings a crop of movies and glossy TV serials dramatizing the heroics of our Special Operations.
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