What readers think of Soldier's Heart, plus links to write your own review.

This book gives insight into the education of cadets at West Point, as well as their feelings about war and peace. Professor Samet teaches literature and related subjects, which provide her students with intellectual and emotional insights. These, as well as her understanding and support, help many through the difficult deployments that lie ahead. Her choice of assignments is also interesting. This is a worthwhile book.

In this time of unjust war, it is heart wrenching to read the stories of men and women preparing for war. Their education is often secondary but in this book we see how their feelings may change due to their experience or how their perceptions differ from those of us that do not have to experience these horrors. Connecting classic literature to what they are going through is truly a great way to gain insight into their psyches. Elizabeth Samet is able to convey the mixed emotions she had in becoming a part of the military family as well as how she associates herself with her students and relates to them. A good read.

I did not know what to expect from this book as I do not know much about military culture. But I was curious on how literature is taught to student soldiers who may one day need to go to war. I did learn more about military culture and the hearts of these student soldiers. I am glad that the soldiers find comfort in the literature lessons learned.

I would recommend this book for those who want to understand more about the dedication of these student soldiers.

I admired the humanism in these student soldier at such a young age and knowing that the United States is developing great leaders.

Despite Elizabeth Samet's position as, essentially, a civilian English professor, she shows a keen sensitivity and thoughtful introspection into the lives of our military in Soldier's Heart. Samet is unafraid to bring difficult, but immediately relative, topics to light that are typically ignored or avoided by both members of our military as well as by those who are not directly involved or connected with such organizations. What I found most eye-opening about Soldier's Heart were Samet's discussions on the difficult, dichotomous relationships between personal philosophic reflection and a purely honorable desire to serve one's country within a soldier. I believe this is a book for anyone who appreciates not simply the members of our military, but for those of us who see value in what it means to truly understand how much they are willing to give.

Elizabeth Samet is a civilian who has spent 10 years teaching English to West Point cadets. The reader learns about traditions at West Point and the impact of women attending the traditionally all male academy. The book is sprinkled with her stories of individual cadets and the impact that her class, or the books that they read, had on their lives. She sees their English classes as teaching them to think where in most of their military and other classes, they are learning information. Samet is devoted to developing young military leaders who will be equipped to handle the situations that will come their way. She continues to correspond with former students who tell her of the books they are reading while in combat situations and how this helps them. I found it a very interesting read.

Since I have not had much exposure to military culture, this book gave me a new perspective on the impact of literature by illustrating how this field has had a longstanding tradition in the West Point curriculum. The author is a civilian instructor with impressive credentials who has been teaching English at West Point for 10 years.

She struggles with the issues surrounding the relevance of teaching an appreciation of literature at the academy, especially to young people who were likely to be deployed in a war zone after the start of the Iraq War. She makes a strong case for her subject area which gives her students the freedom to explore their own feelings. This is different from the other aspects of their West Point experience where they are expected to obey and where they face regimentation in all facets of their military training.

She also has some interesting thoughts about women in the military and her own role, which falls outside that of female cadet, officer or military spouse.

In the context of teaching literature to West Point cadets, Elizabeth Samet addresses the persistent question, “Why read?” As strongly as she believes that she is arming them with something they need, she is fully aware of the responsive question posed by many cadets: “What’s the difference, ma’am? I’ll be in Iraq within a year anyway.”

Samet’s compassionate portrayal of the lives of West Point cadets introduces the day-to-day West Point life to the civilian reader. The personal details she offers about her students help the reader to see the cadets as individuals, rather than as interchangeable second lieutenants-to-be. When I reviewed the passages I had underlined, I noticed that most of those underlined passages were quotes of Dr. Samet’s students. She cared as much about her students as she cared about literature.

Samet is most successful when she combines the personal and the literary. Her allusions to characters and lines from her obviously vast reading are memorable when linked to the experiences of her students and colleagues. In particular, I expect to recall her analogy of the Ball Turret Gunner immortalized in Randall Jarrell’s 1945 poem to a colleague destroyed by an IED whenever I read Iraq war news.

Samet recognizes and develops the conflicting views of the citizen soldier and, generally, I was glad that she did not seem driven to take a point of view or tie her thoughts up with a neat bow. I very much enjoyed reading the first half of the book. Several of the later chapters in the book, dealing with religion, courage and sacrifice, however, lapsed into a stream-of-consciousness where she seemed to drift from one thought to another. These chapters suffered from the absence of a clear point of view and were much less readable than the chapters dealing with less elevated topics.