Letters About Literature

To Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman and Melinda Roth,

            The novel that you wrote From Baghdad, With Love was an excellent book to read. I liked how you teamed up with Jay and wrote the book from his point of view and how you put his personality and speech into it. The book really drawed me in whenever it wasn’t in an official format but instead in the words of a Lieutenant Colonel. You were very well at explaining the hardships in Iraq. Since you guys teamed up together to write this you had solid facts to base all of your writings on. It seemed like Jay would basically tell you the whole story of his travels in Iraq and then you would transform that and put it in paper but at the same time still keep it very interesting. I really liked the book because you exposed a lot of the things that are happening in Iraq that nobody ever notices. What really hit me is when Jay explained that going out to a Port-a-potty could be a life or death situation. The littlest things like that most times add up to being the most stressful things. It’s hard to even imagine living on the brink of death every second you’re out in Iraq. In school we always learned about the 911 attacks and suicide bombers but I never really understand and grasped what they did until I read your book. It was crazy how Jay seemed to always be on the alert for a bomb. It seemed like everywhere he planned to go he would have to think about the situation like crazy so he wouldn’t die. Its crazy how much we take to granted in life. Just a simple trip to school could be influenced by a suicide bomber crashing into your car. I have to say the best part of your book is when Jay talks about Lava. It’s hilarious to see how this big tough military man meets his match in a small puppy. I like it when you describe Lava as a means of keeping all of the men in the military sane. It’s awesome how you say that Lava makes the men think of home and make them feel like normal people again. I think everyone deserves that feeling especially those that are fighting the wars for us so that we don’t have to. I think that not many people realize how impacting being in the military lives. After they get into a fight a piece of them dies and never comes back. A lot of veterans in the world today have scars about past wars. Not just physical scars but also mental scars. They still have all the memories of the terrible things that they encountered over the course of the war. Your book really opened my eyes to a lot of the military things that happened. Your book was very impacting and I now have a newfound respect for all the veterans and people now serving in the military.