August 11, 2006
"GRIM CONFIDENCE":
"The Afghan Campaign": Greek war story echoes today's battles: a review of The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield (William Dietrich, 8/11/06 The Seattle Times)
Steven Pressfield's first Greek warfare novel, 1998's "Gates of Fire," was so different from his novel of golf and mysticism, "The Legend of Bagger Vance," that one wondered if, after his immersion in ancient battle, he'd fly off in a new direction yet again.However, in the years since starting "Gates," Pressfield, a 62-year-old former Marine, truck driver, teacher and screenwriter, has not strayed, writing four more novels that extend and expand a personal, vividly imagined, and singular world: that of the Greek warrior. His era is simpler, more brutal, more personal, and more heroic than ours, and so carefully researched that the reader is never sure where fact leaves off and fiction begins.
As Patrick O'Brien's prose seemed to encapsulate in amber the feel of the Napoleonic-era warship, Pressfield's crisp and eloquent style reconstitutes the ancient battlefield.
His latest book, "The Afghan Campaign," shows his focus growing ever-more intense.