The Heart and the Fist

Yet another of the books I read via Nook when we were in Michigan was The Heart and the Fist. This book is being released in April 2011 but I got a galley copy. This is an autobiography by Eric Greitens, who attempts to find the balance between working as a soldier and working as a humanitarian. The structure of this book is a little chaotic. He starts in the present day in a war zone, then jumps back to an initial humanitarian experience and works forward from there back to his present day work with veterans. For me the most interesting part of this book was the extensive descriptions of the process of becoming a Navy Seal. The description of the training and hard physical conditioning required was fascinating as was finding out just how many prospective Seal candidates don't make it through training. Other than that, I don't really feel like this book answered its initial question- how best to save the world? The author seems to conclude that we need both saints and soldiers, which I think is letting everyone off a bit too easily. Surely there is a balance somewhere between power and compassion, but I would guess that its different for every person. Overall this was a good vacation read but nothing that I'd consider inspiring. It wraps up just a bit too easily for that.