Spoiler Alert

Learning New Stuff

Inside Ed Brubeck’s head – war journalist hero and/or family man – What the public doesn’t know about Fallujah

The character Ed Brubeck – we got into his head early on, when he and Holly were teenagers. Holly had just run away from home and was a total wreck. Ed was bicycling to his elderly uncle’s house to read to him as he did every week, and came across Holly standing there in the middle of nowhere. He was kind, caring, nurturing, sensitive. He took her to a church that he knew how to pick the lock of, and they stayed the night. (He was a perfect gentleman.) They got some food, and then they each went their own way.

I really like Ed Brubeck.

Years later we’re in his head again, and he and Holly are a couple (not married, though) and they have their beloved daughter, Aoife (pronounced Ee’-fee, I had to look it up because it was driving me crazy).

But (still in Ed’s head, 1st person) there’s a problem. Ed is now a famous journalist who reports from Fallujah. He is a self-described war junkie. He has just been given a new assignment there, and is dreading telling Holly because Holly has had it with his war thing.

Then we are in Ed’s head IN Fallujah (not sure if it’s a flashback, you can follow the timing because each chapter is dated, but I forgot to do that), and omg it’s a first-hand, you-are-totally-there, slice-of-life accounting of his harrowing events. Some of it is “procedural” because it’s fascinating how things operate over there that you don’t learn on CNN. It’s the inside stuff. It’s exciting, and I can see why he can’t stay away.

Then we are in someone else’s head right after we’re in Ed’s head, and in passing we learn that Ed was killed over there by a bomb that hit his hotel.

Why do I go into this? Because it rounds out Ed’s character, the mysterious cause-and-effect of his actions (cause and effect is huge in Bone Clocks but I’ll get into that in a later entry), and how Holly and Aoife are doing.

No need to keep going, as the plot continues its intricate maze – at this point you (meaning I) are not quite sure where the story is going. But the detailed descriptions of Ed’s life in the war zones was enlightening. I learned so much.