“Daybreak” Confronts US Involvement in Ukrainian Conflict https://ift.tt/xaA0ZW1
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, former soldiers from across the globe flocked to Ukraine to offer their military expertise to the Ukrainian armed forces. The estimated total number of military volunteers ranges between 16,000 and 20,000, and a March 2022 Slate report states that at that time, approximately 3,000 Americans had expressed an interest in volunteering to fight in Ukraine. While it is not illegal for US citizens to do so, it is dangerous, and even though the US State Department issued explicit warnings regarding traveling to and even volunteering to fight in Ukraine, a swath of volunteers put their personal lives aside to defend democracy in Ukraine. Such is the plot to Matt Gallagher’s Daybreak, an emotionally-searing novel in which a disillusioned American veteran volunteers in Ukraine in order to reconnect with a woman from his past.
Daybreak might initially strike readers as a love story. However, readers only have to spend a few moments with thirty-three-year-old Pax to realize the novel has something to say about disillusioned veterans and a home system which leaves many of them drifting and broken. Like many American veterans, Pax’s post-military life has been anything but easy, and readers quickly see that Pax’s military experiences have left him with what they can interpret as PTSD. Pax is haunted by a combat mistake from his past, and as readers follow Pax through the beautiful Ukrainian city of Lviv, they see the irreparable damage caused by Pax’s experience and the guilt he carries. Sadly, this is what shapes Pax’s realness – one that might remind readers of some of the people in their own lives. According to Veterans Affairs statistics, a staggering 23 veterans out of 100 who received healthcare from the VA experienced PTSD at some point. Pax’s friend, Lee, with whom Pax travels to Ukraine after Lee convinces Pax to do so, is also a character representative of the ravages of war. Battle-hardened Lee represents another category of veterans: those who, despite years in civilian life, want to return to battle.
Nonetheless, in Ukraine, Pax’s plans to enlist in the foreign unit are dashed, and Pax finds himself wandering Lviv and reconnecting with Svitlana, a love from long ago that Pax has been unable to forget. Thanks to Svitlana, Pax makes connections with various humanitarian groups, and he receives the opportunity to begin correcting the mistakes which have haunted him for nearly a decade. As Pax interacts with everyday Ukrainians who are simply trying to protect themselves and their families while doing whatever they can to support the armed forces, Pax comes across some interesting, yet questionable characters, including a memorable, dangerous man named Dog.
Dog represents a small category of exploitative, violent figures in the Ukrainian military and society which have, sadly, become the poster-boys of Russian propaganda. As Pax learns, Dog is the ringleader of an underground fringe group which tries to take advantage of humanitarian groups like the one in which Pax becomes involved. Dog’s presence in the novel is unnerving, but necessary, especially since he is the antithesis to Pax. While Pax’s motives are ultimately rooted in his desire to reconnect with Svitlana, his genuine desire is to help others. Dog, nonetheless, desires nothing more than to selfishly capitalize on the war.
Undeniably, Daybreak is inherently a novel about war’s toll on the human condition. Pax views war as “the same everywhere,” a mechanism which “snatched good and not-good alike.” He describes it as “as simple as it was inevitable” and, as a veteran, Pax recognizes war’s transformative power because of how little people and society actually know about its effects. For Pax, war is an entity that “baited those who survived it, seduced them, deluded them, trailing them like an old loyal dog.”
While Daybreak’s plot and setting primarily focus on the war in Ukraine, the conversations about veteran mental health, veteran adjustment to civilian life, and the civilian cost in war-torn countries develop a cruel universality as wars develop and rage across the globe. Daybreak is poignant and necessary, truly a novel for these volatile social and political times.
Daybreak By Matt Gallagher
Atria Books
Published February 20, 2024
0 Commentaires