The Yellow Birds, Netherland - First-person reminiscent narration

Re-reading Kevin Powers's The Yellow Birds in prep for tonight's book group and have to say am even more impressed on 2nd reading - at his tone, his pacing, his acuity, and his wisdom, quite amazing for a first novel and definitely one of the smartest and most economical war novels in many years. What was a little challenging on first read - the narrative fragmentation or disorder, events not told chronologically but in out-of-order chapters, all recollected from a vantage points about 9 years after the fact, by a much older-seeming 30-year-old vet - is obviously less troublesome on second read, and I'm very impressed by carefully and subtly Powers includes hints and foreshadowings of the tragic events the ensue; it is also clear to me that the novel would not work as well had it been told as straight chronology, beginning with enlistment, on through the battle scenes, and the sorrowful aftermath - in that the story would be falsely dramatic, building up to the death of Murph, wheres this way it's more mournful and elegaic, as we know from the outset that Murph will die in a gruesome manner. Also the second half of the novel - Bartle's retreat into isolation when he's back hom in Virginia, and the pressure on him to come clean to an Army investigator about the circumstances of Murph's death (I'm still not clear why the Army is investigating this - re-reading those chapters may answer that) would have deflated the whole story - it would have followed not an arc but a flat plane. The narrative stance - what we might call first-person reminiscent - is exactly right for these materials, a narrator trying to make sense of a trauma - reminds me of the excellent Netherland (O'Neil), but even more impressive in such a young writer as Powers, and in addition to the reminiscent tone he does a hell of a job conveying the sense of a small unit in battle, some very dramatic, even frightening scenes. It's not an action novel by any means, but Powers shows that he is deft at handling dramatic action and quiet retrospective.