Book Review: 'Juiceboxers' by Benjamin Hertwig
Reviewer: Brandon Nadeau
I deployed to Afghanistan around the same time as Benjamin Hertwig and the characters in his debut novel, Juiceboxers. The book depicts the conflict as I remember it, but the account is more than factual, as the plight of those impacted by the violence is portrayed with unfiltered, gut-wrenching clarity.
The story follows four young soldiers from Alberta to Afghanistan and back again. The main character is Plinko, an insecure child of divorce who longs for the camaraderie advertised by the army. He attends basic training in 1999 at the age of 16 and befriends a pair of atypical recruits named Walsh and Abdi. Krug, an older and more experienced soldier, completes the quartet soon after. Krug is a picture of corrosive machismo and a constant source of anxiety for those around him.
Juiceboxers is an unflinching examination of “masculinity and militarism, friendship and white supremacy, loss and trauma and hard-won recovery,” just as the press release promised, but it’s also about childhood. Yes, only legal adults can deploy with the Canadian Armed Forces, but military culture prolongs adolescence, and Plinko is “like a child with a gun in a world of sand and strangers.” He and his platoon of Lost Boys patrol a nightmarish Neverland where their objectives are unclear, and their contributions are questionable at best.
Hertwig’s debut novel evokes the post-9/11 spirit of fear and hatred that infiltrated Canadian life, especially in the military. These social factors realistically impact every aspect of this novel as characters evolve, relationships fray, and prejudice abounds. This book is an important contribution to Canadian war literature and, for that matter, literature in general. Juiceboxers was the last book I read, and it’s the next book I will read. Don’t miss it.
Purchase ‘Juiceboxers’ by Benjamin Hertwig
Brandon Nadeau is a writer and the Executive Editor of MoonLit Getaway.