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Lee Barnes' new book, Minimal Damage, contains seven stories and a novella that depict veterans of several wars in search of dignity and purpose in a civilian life that has no need for men who were soldiers. Psychically scarred, in emotional crisis, pushed to the fringes of society, or in relentless battle with their memories, many of these men find themselves living "like warts on America's ass."
The characters range from the enigmatic Mr. K, who runs a brutally violent reality television show and once led an escape from a Korean POW camp, to the doomed Billy Debecki, who regains his dignity in the last minutes of his life by remembering that he once willingly risked his life to save an enemy soldier. In one story, a man who was never a soldier finds a path toward reconciliation with his brother, a former Marine. In another, a man recalls becoming a soldier by watching the humanity of a fellow recruit disintegrate in basic training. In the novella "Snake Boy," a homeless Vietnam vet is kidnapped by a snake-handling evangelist. The depth of damage is never immediately apparent in these men, whether they are living proper, upstanding lives or lost, drifting ones. In war, chance, luck, and arbitrary timing conspire to determine a soldier's fate. In civilian life, the same uncontrollable forces influence who finds a place in society and who is doomed to continue searching.
