Thank You for Your Service: Negotiating the Civilian-Military Divide in Phil Klay's Redeployment

Phil Klay's Redeployment shows how assumptions built into the ritual of thanking veterans for their service may shut down conversation between civilians and service members. Veteran narrators comment on interactions with civilian characters before a reading audience that listens in—able to hear about war but prevented from pulling focus toward their own wishes for reassurance. The stories foster an imaginative openness that includes not only American veterans but Iraqi and Afghan casualties.