The Men Who Stare at Goats - Jon Ronson

[Bern]

"Your wives are back at home having sex with Bart Simpson and Burt Reynolds.”

-Iraqi Propaganda leaflet, to American soldiers in the 1991 Gulf War.

I've only seen the film trailer but the book is probably better. It weaves a lot of what you know is fact (or at least is widely known as fact) with titbits that could only be true because they are so outlandish. The subject is the U.S. Military and its psychological and paranormal experiments. (There are goats but no romance.) For me there are echoes of Catch-22 (the absurdity) but also Borges in that sense that you never know quite where you stand. The book comes out of a three-part TV series broadcast on Channel 4 in Britain, Crazy Rulers of the World.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbXKuwzwfxE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKgilR4rIY0

An easy, entertaining read. Wonder if it's in the Guantanamo library?

[Merilyn]

Did you enjoy this as much the 2nd time round? ha ha

[Bern]

Did you write this book? Your mind games mojo is up there! Maybe "the men who..." is just a red herring.