Fives and Twenty-Fives: A Novel

Michael Pitre

Aug 2014 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

About this ebook

It's the rule-always watch your fives and twenty-fives. When a convoy halts to investigate a possible roadside bomb, stay in the vehicle and scan five meters in every direction. A bomb inside five meters cuts through the armor, killing everyone in the truck. Once clear, get out and sweep twenty-five meters. A bomb inside twenty-five meters kills the dismounted scouts investigating the road ahead.

Fives and twenty-fives mark the measure of a marine's life in the road repair platoon. Dispatched to fill potholes on the highways of Iraq, the platoon works to assure safe passage for citizens and military personnel. Their mission lacks the glory of the infantry, but in a war where every pothole contains a hidden bomb, road repair brings its own danger.

Lieutenant Donavan leads the platoon, painfully aware of his shortcomings and isolated by his rank. Doc Pleasant, the medic, joined for opportunity, but finds his pride undone as he watches friends die. And there's Kateb, known to the Americans as Dodge, an Iraqi interpreter whose love of American culture-from hip-hop to the dog-eared copy of Huck Finn he carries-is matched only by his disdain for what Americans are doing to his country.

Returning home, they exchange one set of decisions and repercussions for another, struggling to find a place in a world that no longer knows them. A debut both transcendent and rooted in the flesh, Fives and Twenty-Fives is a deeply necessary novel.

Ratings and reviews

Really enjoyed this book. The story of the lives of both US Marine veterans and an Iraqi interpreter who struggle to realign their lives after the profoundly unsettling experience of war, seeing friends and family die, is a poignant read. Pitre delivers the narrative of a Marine Lt. whose seen as a priveleged "College Boy" inexorably changed & hardened by his experience of being part of a bomb squad removal team in Fallujah. That part of the story was both enlightening and terrifying. Pitre relays the minute, disturbingly vivid and unforgettable images of that war, the affects and after affects for Pleasant, Dodge, and Donovan. For me, the initial chapter portraying the Marine Sargeant's death by ambush in a field littered with grenades is seared into my consciousness. Picking up live grenades one by one. The grey curbside block that was different from all the other curbside blocks. Although American, Pitre's development of the Interpreters character, narrative, and Pov is outstanding

This book took me all over the place. I'm not a vet, but I've had the privilege of being a friend to a few. It gave me a little more insight into what they can go through and why it can be a challenge to be a good friend to them. Thank you, Michael, for writing this book.

About the author

Michael Pitre is a graduate of Louisiana State University, where he was a double major in history and creative writing. In 2002, he joined the Marines, deploying twice to Iraq and attaining the rank of Captain before leaving the service in 2010 to get his MBA at Loyola. He lives in New Orleans.