Compositions of Light and Literature – JMH

Dear Folks,

This gentleman from Virginia, who holds a PhD reviewed Broken Under Interrogation on the Amazon.com.  This gentleman says:  

I very much enjoyed “Broken Under Interrogation“. While I confess that I read 20 nonfiction books for each fiction book, this one is a thought provoker. It provides the reader with a fairly accurate feel for military training, the war in Iraq, problems individuals face in adjusting to civilian life following a violent war. Our protagonist finds himself surrounded by a neighborhood infested by drugs. The similarities between official war and the drug war between gangs and cartels and the government agencies is uncanny. He finds himself in interrogation whose methods are similar to those used in Iraq. The was a fast read which captured my attention and quickly pulled me into his life. I give it an A- and I’d recommend it for anyone with these interests.

Jeffrey M. Hopkins says:  

Thank you for your consideration.  I hope you all will find Broken Under Interrogation as thought provoking as this gentleman.

Broken Under Interrogation, the realest piece of grease fiction to be released yet on the War in Iraq, the War on the Streets, the prision industrial complex, and the battle for hearts and minds at the rotten guts of mass consumerism has recieved this stellar review from this gentleman.  I think the review is rather positive, but he gave the book one star.  His name has been withheld.

The original review is posted on Amazon.com, where Broken Under Interrogation is available.

“I didn’t like this book. The product description and the other ratings here describe it well enough, so I won’t repeat the description. The book is full of action and never gets boring, but it just isn’t my type of book. If I am going to read a book of fiction, I want a book that has at least one character whom I can admire. There weren’t any here. I also like more uplifting books. This isn’t that type of book–overall, it is kind of depressing. And really, I don’t think the writing was all that great either.

However, I can see why others like the book. It is similar to music. Some people like rock; some like classical, some like country. Most don’t understand why others like the type of music they themselves don’t like. This book is like a type of music I don’t like. Nothing terribly wrong with it; it just isn’t the type of book I like. So my rating of 1 star might not be fair to the author, but I just didn’t like the book.

This is a genuinely nice guy.  I will however comment on “uplifting” and “depressing” fiction in the next couple of posts, with my analysis of the two, because what I feel passes for “uplifting” fiction nowadays (i.e. Tuesdays with Morrie, Five People You Meet in Heaven) is really just a narcotic, and the upliftng nature of the work is similar to smoking a crack rock or banging a pill of smack into your arm – the feeling is nice and warm and pleasant, but wholly unsatisfying.  Not all works characterized as “uplifting” fall into the escapist fare though.  Some grind you through the mud, and build you back up, reaffirming humanity.  A “depressing” work has a grain of reality to it, that if nurtured sprouts a tree of doubt within a person – doubt which overwhelms commonplace notions and allows someone to do what many cannot, that is “think” for themselves.  I would say what we need more of in the modern age is fiction that strips our humanity of all its trappings, and builds back something natural, something which slashes the fear of death and annihilation in the jugular, rather than stupify the brain with joy joy feelings of infinite bliss, that runs on empty in a few short days, until the next fix.

By increasing your capacity to suffer, we are teaching you to experience the profoundest joy at being alive.  I hope you feel it once in your short, mortal life.

Jeffrey M. Hopkins is the author of Broken Under Interrogation, which deciphers the lubrication that the gears intermesh upon.  The grease in the spaces between wrong and right, the good and the bad.  The living and the dead.  The confrontation of nihilism.  Trappings of mass consumerism.  It is the first work of grease fiction.

Jeffrey Hopkins says:  I would say that this lady has come the closest to anyone of understanding the premise behind Broken Under Interrogation.  Thank you.  There are millions of people in the United States of America who suffer under the conditions described in my Novel Broken Under Interrogation.  Millions of human talents, wasted.  Millions of children who go undernourished, both nutritionally and educationally.  Millions of young men who choose the easy wrong of gang banging and drug dealing over the much harder right.  But they are only buying into their own version of the American Dream.  It is high time we started questioning just what that dream is.  By questioning what has gone unquestioned, we can start to repair the foundations of our vibrant democracy.  We can create a true land of the free, and home of the brave.

Jeffrey Hopkins presents his version of the American Dream under guise of his novel, “Broken Under Interrogation,” and it is not pretty. It is ugly and grotesque and obscene and happens every day in every town and city of America. This book is not an indictment of torture or of the military or war. It is a indictment against lost opportunities, against an America that promises what it cannot fulfill. It is an indictment against drugs and the terrorism that propels drug trafficking. It is the story of the voiceless, the powerless. It is the story of Have-Nots.

Hopkins tells his story in segments through the voice of John Powers, a lethargic, but intelligent youth, who gets lost in himself and under the spell of a domineering father. He joins the military, hoping for Intelligence but not Iraq. He gets both. His job is to scope out spies against the US military and arrange their demise. He is returned to the States during his third tour of duty under questionable circumstances.

Through John’s voice, the reader learns about military basic training and the war in Iraq. Both are important background to the last segment of John’s life in the States when he trains “useless” war veterans into an army of heroes who fight the war on drugs incognito. There are no rules, no laws, just justice for wasted human lives.

John conceives the idea of such an army as he sits on a bench, observing the devastation of his drug-infested neighborhood. What caused this underworld of Have-Nots? Military life, even war, gives them purpose until they return home. Those born into poverty can see no way out except through drug-induced stupor or the temporary high of riches through the drug business. John takes the powerless, those who tried to grab a piece of the Dream, and creates an army. He is John Powers.

Things go awry, as they always do when violence, guns, torture, and amoral humans are put into the same chaotic, lawless void. Things go very wrong.
A significant point John tells the reader early on is that during a torture session, either party can be broken. There’s a moment of incandescence during torture when John realizes how the story will end. He could have said what another character in another time and place said: “The horror! the horror!”

This is not a book for the squeamish.

This review was posted on Amazon.com.  It was posted by a young lady who is in college.   

You can read the original review of Broken Under Interrogation or here it is below: 

I have given this book “2 stars” rather than the minimum “1 star” simply because I found the early chapters on Army training and Iraq War operations somewhat educational (though without a doubt fictional). 

“Broken Under Interrogation” follows the intelligent but downtrodden young man John Powers through a short-lived military career as an interrogator which ended abruptly following his third tour in the current Iraq War. At a VA hospital he meets fellow veteran Mike, a drug addict, whom he takes under his wing. Shortly thereafter, the two devise a scheme to rid their crime infested city of drug dealers and criminal scum by undertaking vigilante missions. Before long, they recruit other veterans to be a part of their underground army, operating under the pretense that they are performing noble work by murdering the so-called terrorists. As one might suspect, the police force becomes suspicious after dozens of gang-related murders occur within a short time frame. Now, Powers finds himself being interrogated and tortured and learning the horrible truth behind his underground missions. 

Overall, the pretense of the book was good. However, the execution was poor. The writing was not particularly strong though it was incredibly obscene and depressing. This is without a doubt one of the most disturbing novels I have read to date. It took me days to struggle through to the end where as with most books, I finish them in a few hours. I really can’t recommend this one unless you are really interested in reading ~350 pages of brain-splattering violence and gore.

Jeffrey M. Hopkins says:

This is not like most books.  I would like to thank you very much for enduring this work.  It pleased me very much to write it.  This review signifies to me that Broken Under Interrogation is accomplishing its mission.  War is not a walk in the park.  It is horrifying.  This book was as painful for this young lady to read as it was for me to endure.  Broken Under Interrogation is like the human practice of WAR itself; obscene, violent, and depressing.