Compositions of Light and Literature – JMH

Where's her Bailout? Wells Fargo got theirs.

700 Billion by Jeffrey M. Hopkins

700 Billion is money well spent.

700 Billion is enough money for the rent.

700 Billion buys food for the kids.

700 Billion to buy skeletal babies bibs.

700 Billion while we haggle over scraps and bones.

700 Billion to get denied education and home loans.

700 Billion spent correcting bankers’ mistakes.

700 Billion to say life’s rough those are the breaks.

Everyone gets a bonus for a job well done!

A new Ferrari, stock options and a swimming pool in the sun.

Where’s your bailout? What do you mean your finances are in arrears?

Are you deaf or blind or just plain dumb?  Even Wells Fargo got theirs!

“700 Billion” and the photograph “Where’s her Bailout?” are copyright 2009 Jeffrey M. Hopkins, Hard Oak Press, LLC.

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.

The Cover of the riveting Broken Under Interrogation.

Yo.  Here is the cover of Broken Under Interrogation, written by me, Jeffrey M. Hopkins and published independently (that means by me) using the company Booksurge LLC.

If you want to know what it is about, here it is in a nutshell.

A young man joins the army to run away from a situation in which he is going nowhere, he is well trained and heads off to Iraq to serve his country.  In Iraq, he lives with a group of Iraqi men performing an intelligence functionality.  They teach him much more about life and his job than he could ever teach them.  He loses his innocence in Iraq.  Upon returning from Iraq, and his dismissal from the Army for psychological reasons, he returns to his rust belt hometown to find it drowning in dope and hopelessness.  He takes it upon himself to use his training in the “Iraqi methods” to collect intelligence on, track, kidnap, and torture drug dealers.

Broken Under Interrogation could glorify war.  It does not.  It is a scream from hell.  The hell of the Global War on Terror.  The hell at the periphery of the American dream, that place of white picket fences, SUVs, megastores, peace, freedom, and security – and the American nightmare of prisons, security at any cost, and endless war.

I urge anyone with an inkling of curiosity to read the book for themselves.

Broken Under Interrogation is available at Amazon.com, and bookstores everywhere.