Audiobook12 hours
Crossings: A Doctor-Soldier's Story
Written by Jon Kerstetter
Narrated by Paul Woodson
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
In Iraq, as a medic and officer, Jon Kerstetter balanced two impossibly conflicting imperatives-to heal and to kill. When he suffered an injury and then a stroke during his third tour, he wound up back home in Iowa, no longer able to be either a doctor or a soldier. In this gorgeous memoir that moves from his impoverished upbringing on an Oneida reservation, to his harrowing stints as a volunteer medic in Kosovo and Bosnia, through the madness of Iraq and his intense mandate to assemble a team to identify the remains of Uday and Qusay Hussein, and the struggle afterward to come to terms with a life irrevocably changed, Kerstetter beautifully illuminates war and survival, the fragility of the human body, and the strength of will that lies within.
Related to Crossings
Related audiobooks
White Hot Light: Twenty-Five Years in Emergency Medicine Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Healing Hearts: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where War Ends: A Combat Veteran's 2,700-Mile Journey to Heal—Recovering from PTSD and Moral Injury through Meditation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDiary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front 1914-1915 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBreathing the Fire: Fighting to Report---and Survive---the War in Iraq Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Divided by Terror: American Patriotism after 9/11 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhistles from the Graveyard: My Time Behind the Camera on War, Rage, and Restless Youth in Afghanistan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Story of One Boy's Gift to Medical Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cancerland: A Medical Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived: A True Story of My Family Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOperation Ugly Truth: A Nurse's Firsthand account of the NYC Pandemic 2020 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNasty Politics: The Logic of Insults, Threats, and Incitement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCode Red Fallujah: A Doctor's Memoir at War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Occupied America: British Military Rule and the Experience of Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInside the Jihad: My Life With Al Qaeda, A Spy's Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Triage: A History of America's Frontline Medics from Concord to Covid-19 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPower, Prime Ministers and the Press: The Battle for Truth on Parliament Hill Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForever Prisoners: How the United States Made the World's Largest Immigrant Detention System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Scientific Revolution: Ten Men and Women Who Reinvented American Medicine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeer Money: A Tale of the Iowa City Beer Mafia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Wars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Taliban Safari: One Day in the Surkhagan Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSuppressed: Confessions of a Former New York Times Washington Correspondent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPolicing Ferguson, Policing America: What Really Happened . . . and What the Country Can Learn from It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Happy: A Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Be Bold: How a Marine Hero Broke the Glass Ceiling for Women at War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Military Biographies For You
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Code Name Blue Wren: The True Story of America's Most Dangerous Female Spy—and the Sister She Betrayed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scars and Stripes: An Unapologetically American Story of Fighting the Taliban, UFC Warriors, and Myself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unbroken Bonds of Battle: A Modern Warriors Book of Heroism, Patriotism, and Friendship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lives of the Twelve Caesars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Clear Thinking: A Stealth Fighter Pilot's Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Seven Pillars of Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SEAL of God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary: Can't Hurt Me - Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Killing School: Inside the World's Deadliest Sniper Program Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Napoleon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Are Worth It: Building a Life Worth Fighting For Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Impossible Odds: The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for Crossings
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
7 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book moved me, showed me the inner feelings of someone I might never have given attention to, let me know that there is a place in a soldier's heart for caring and thinking. Yes, there were horrific descriptions of some of the injuries and inhumanity, but reading this horror was necessary background to understanding his own healing journey. While he mourns the loss of his ability to be a physician, I would use the word ‘healer’ to describe Kerstetter's current writing. This is one of only a few books that compelled me to write a message of appreciation to the author.I picked up the book for several reasons. First, I have a friend who’s son returned from Afghanistan and still sturggles with PTSD, and I thought this might give me (and her, after sharing it) some insights. Also my grandson, recently graduated from high school, announced he was signing up for National Guard. As someone who has difficulty understanding how war can bring about peace, I thought the book might show him that his desired training in cybersecurity may not guarantee that he won’t be assisgned to be personally engaged in combat. I don’t know yet if I’ll share this book with him, as he has his own trajectory to follow.Finally, my impulse to get the book is because I have worked as a nurse so medical experiences are of interest, and I worked 5 years with the Oneida Tribe and like to learn how different people’s life experiences are impacted by their cultural heritage. From this perspective, I appreciated Kerstetter's thoughts on the different approaches of therapists and the sense of caring he felt from different personnel, and the importance of the blessing (as I see it) of the Oneida elder when he was young. And I was laughing out loud with the sentence on grammar “the difference between a comma and a colon ...is one could get cancer.” (p.318)When I first read the book jacket, I wondered how a person so impacted by a stroke could write a book. I imagined Kerstetter having a strong oral tradition background and using that avenue to speak his story to a tape recorder and then transcribing it. And he does indicate that his first writing instructor had him retell his poorly written paragraph orally (p.319). Yet the chapter on writing indicates he did it mainly on computer, and was a very enlightening description of coralling a distracted/disjointed thought process.For me, the most personally affecting sentence was “I felt badly but had no remorse. I was not sorry for things I could not yet control” (p.301). My 35-yr old son has autism with language deficits and has aggressive outbursts in which he injures someone. I’m asked by doctors or case manager.if he knows he’s done wrong, if he expresses any apology or sorrow. And honestly what I observe after the outburst is a kind of grin. I might interpret it as an appeasement facial expression, but no remorse.As a woman, reading this story I wondered how his wife ever decided to put up with him all those years. Of course, that wasn’t the topic of this book. I also wondered why would his children express so much love for someone who spent so much time working and was driven to succeed, but then started looking at time possibilities and translated three 24-hour shifts into 4 days/week available all day long to be involved in their education and activities.I also read the interview of Kerstetter by The Normal School and am much heartened by his statement “If we continue turning out excellent literature of war, we have a better chance at driving a cultural dialogue that focuses on the true costs of war.” I hope he has time to do some more writing from that perspective. I see our nation as very divided, with some seeing war as proof of patriotism and denigrating any efforts for peace. I think we need, as a nation, to come to that line dividing us and reach our hads across the boundary.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The author was a doctor during war in Rwanda, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Iraq. The book is a deep exploration of the many aspects of his life: Oneida, son, father, husband, doctor, soldier, stroke survivor, student, author. I had to skip some of the chapters on his war experience, partly because it was difficult to experience, and also I was anxious to jump ahead to read about his experience with his stroke and recovery. I had heard him speak at a book festival, and was most interested in that part of his story. The account of his journey from doctor to patient, from denial to acceptance and the discovery of new meaning and purpose in life is compelling. When he shares his experience with cognitive deficiencies, you have to stop and marvel at how he has managed to become a writer. I am in awe.