David Finkel is an award winning American journalist known for his bestselling book The Good Soldiers (2009), a recounting the USA-Iraq war, which secured the title ‘New York Times Best Book of the Year’. The Washington Post editor and writer won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 along with other awards throughout his career reporting across the globe, as well as covering the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Finkel’s 2024 release An American Dreamer: life in a divided country is another work of non-fiction following the life story of the Iraq war veteran, Brent Cummings. Finkel previously featured Cummings in The Good Soldiers and is now focusing on the Colonel’s experience during the rise and fall of Donald Trump‘s government.
Finkel brings to life Cummings’ post war experiences and in particular his mixed feelings towards the America he fought for and came back to. A “slipping” America where his wife feels the need to go to sleep with a weapon under her pillow, anxious living in the overly-polite “Pleasantville”. The America of possibility where a black, disadvantaged cadet gets the opportunity of an army contract against all odds and Trump becomes President despite doing everything wrong.
In An American Dreamer Finkel treats journalism as an art form. It is accurate and personal but still doesn’t feel biased or singular in its angle and focus. The use of poetic language, and a reflective flow reminds me somewhat of the fiction works by Eshkol Nevo and Virginia Woolf. Indeed, I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a fiction story, but in fact a recount of a person’s real life. Finkel succeeds in structuring his reporting in such a way that builds relatable characters, creates suspense, and follows an arc all while delivering a satisfying read – as good as a thriller.
With his exeptional storytelling, Finkel masters the delivery of the raw human experience during some of the defining moments in American history: Iraq, the Trump presidency, Covid and the Critical Race Theory era. I found it particularly powerful the way Finkel draws parallels between Cummings and his Trump supporting neighbour, Michael, admiring both men’s worlds. He uses a similar tool to illuminate the life of the Palestinian Tamara and her Israeli parallel, Rinat, both befriended by Cummings during his Jerusalem deployment.
An American Dreamer is an image of a divided America and a divided world where we all share common humanity. Finkel’s focus on details and feelings proves him to be an extremely empathetic writer with a unique offering to the journalism genre. An American Dreamer is a book I could not put down!
FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
An American Dreamer by David Finkel is available now from Scribe Publications. Grab yourself a copy from Booktopia HERE.
