# Fall 2008

## Fall 2008

### The War at Home

### Volume 84, Number 4

• Elliott Woods on a suicide bombing in Iraq and its aftermath  
• Joshua Casteel on his time as an Army interrogator at Abu Ghraib  
• Mara Hvistendahl on China’s gender imbalance  
• Blake Bailey on John Cheever’s childhood  
• Another installment of “Jordan W. Lint” by Chris Ware  
• Oscar Villalon on why football is America’s new pastime  
• Poetry by Ted Kooser and Albert Goldbarth  


##### Print:

$14.00 

##### Digital:

$14.00 

###### Fall 2008, The War at Home

## Table of Contents

###  When Janey Comes Marching Home 

By Laura Browder, Sascha Pflaeging

Fall 2008

The first time I heard a woman describe her time in Iraq in glowing terms, I was taken aback. Marine Colonel Jenny Holbert told me that being in charge of public affairs for the second battle of Fallujah was “probably one of the biggest events [...]

####  A Few Unforeseen Things 

By Elliott D. Woods

####  Half the Sky: How China’s Gender Imbalance Threatens Its Future 

By Mara Hvistendahl, Ariana Lindquist

####  The Life and Lonely Death of Noah Pierce 

By Ashley Gilbertson

####  No Memory for Pain: John Cheever Begins 

By Blake Bailey

####  America’s Game, America’s Obsession: The National Football League—Then and Now 

By Oscar Villalon

####  When Janey Comes Marching Home 

By Laura Browder, Sascha Pflaeging

####  Notes from an Uncommon Reader 

By Sydney Blair

####  Combat Multipliers 

By Joshua Casteel

####  Perimeter Watch 

By Brian Turner

####  What Do We Know and When Do We Know It? 

By Maxine Scates

####  VA Hospital Confessional 

By Brian Turner

####  On the Flight to Alamosa, Colorado 

By Brian Turner

####  The Discotheque 

By Brian Turner

####  Leaves That the Wind Drives Earthward 

By Brian Turner

####  Ajal 

By Brian Turner

####  A Poem for the Last American Soldier to Die in Iraq 

By Brian Turner

####  The Iraq Show 

By Charles H. Antin

####  Representing Doris 

By Peter Walpole

####  The Long Road of Lonesome Rhodes 

By J. Hoberman

####  A Conversation with Brian Turner 

By Brian Turner, Patrick Hicks

####  David Hockney: A Return to Painting 

By Lawrence Weschler

####  The Summer after They Crashed and Drowned 

####  Unearthed by Wind 

By Brian Turner

####  Jordan W. Lint, Installment #3 

By Chris Ware

### Editor’s Desk

####  The Price of Aggression 

By Ted Genoways

### Poetry

####  Equinox 

By Honor Jones

####  None Shall Sleep 

By Robert Wrigley

####  Responsibility 

By Robert Wrigley

####  Egrets 

By David Keeling

####  Ruin 

By Todd Boss

####  Advance 

By Todd Boss

####  In the Morning We Found 

By Todd Boss

####  The Plat Book 

By Todd Boss

####  Zinc Lid 

By Ted Kooser

####  Dead Fly 

By Ted Kooser

####  The Polio Vaccine, Chatham, Virginia, 1964 

By Claudia Emerson

####  Spring Ice Storm 

By Claudia Emerson

####  The Medical Venus 

By Claudia Emerson

####  The Lions in His Menagerie 

By Albert Goldbarth

### Criticism

####  Book Notes 

### Multimedia

####  Dead-Eye Comic 

By Ross MacDonald

### Author Profiles

## Elliott D. Woods

Elliott D. Woods is a contributing editor to VQR. His VQR-sponsored website Assignment Afghanistan received the 2011 Digital National Magazine Award for Multimedia Package.

## Brian Turner

Brian Turner’s memoir _My Life as a Foreign Country_ was published by Norton in 2014.

## Laura Browder

**Laura Browder’s** most recent book is _Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America_ (North Carolina, 2006).