American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Hardcover – Deckle Edge, January 3, 2012

On the surface, some may see Kyle's book as a great war story--it is that. But a deeper read of the book shows this to be a highly personalized account of the evolution of a man over the back-drop of war.Overlayed onto the story of Mr. Kyle's war time experiences is the story of Chris's evolution as a man, as a soldier, but most of all as a father and husband. Woven in throughout the book is story of his courtship and marriage to Taya, and to their starting a family. The book shows the not so pleasant realities of the difficulty imposed on our military families by fathers and husbands answering the call of duty. I admire Kyle's candor about his putting country (and the SEALs) ahead of his family. Some authors would not be so willing to display their personal pocks like this.I was afraid the story of his marital relationship and its difficulties would take away from the narrative, but far from doing so it enriched it especially with the commentary written by his wife which added dimension to the personal drama of Kyle's 4 deployments. One has to appreciate a man whose patriotism and sense of duty called him away from home and family so many times. Some might condemn his priorities. But without such men, who would fight our battles?As mentioned, the book shows Mr. Kyle's evolution away from a priority list of God, country and family and turning it into the more correct sequence of God, family country. At the end of 4 long, eventful deployments, Mr. Kyle clearly came to realize what's most important in life and that a man should only be asked to sacrifice so much for his nation--and that his family needed him more than the war did. You have to give Chris credit for this awakening. Not that what he did in taking 4 deployments was wrong--far from it--I believe he was doing what God intended for his life. But he did the right thing leaving the military when he did. Clearly it was time.The events he was involved in during the Iraq War are of course the main focus of the book and for me the most engrossing. Chris is a great story teller and the battles he fought are well drawn and really pull you in. The Fallujah chapters were particularly interesting. I felt like I was there in the thick of the battle with Chris and his team. The story of the 2400 yard kill he made near the end of his final deployment was truly amazing. Mr. Kyle's wicked sense of humor also shines through the narrative as well. This is anything but a dry read.Not as big a page turner as his buddy Marcus Lutrell's book "Lone Survivor," "American Sniper" nonetheless deserves its own honored place in the realms of recent war literature. While "Lone Survivor's" chapters on Seal training I felt were stronger, Kyle's book nonethless does a nice job describing this grueling process. This book is certainly more personal than Lutrell's book, and I think I came away with a better sense of who Chris Kyle is than I did from Lutrell and his book.My only quibbles with the book are I wish he had used less profanity. I know that's how soldiers talk and I don't want to rob the book of Chris's personality (which comes out abundantly in the volume). I just thought it was a bit excessive.I would have been interested too in having more dates to the events described to give us a better idea of the time line of Chris's tale. I think the book could have used a little more disciplined editing too, eliminating some of the one and two sentence paragraphs and the sections describing the guns Chris used which didn't really interest me not being much of a gun guy. But I'm sure this will be of great interest to gun enthusiasts. I just thought that aspect could have been blended into the war stories. Despite that, the book is well-paced and never bogs down at any point other than perhaps the gun section, but even then just barely. But these are minor critiques.To the left wing scolds reviewing the book on here who want to dismiss Chris as a "warmonger," stop playing so predictably to type with your tiresome self-righteousness. I have my doubts you even read the book. Chris isn't some blood thirsty fiend. He was a man who had a job to do and did it well and took justifiable pride in it--even if you don't understand that or agree with the Iraq War. He truly felt what he was doing made the world a better, safer place. Instead of simpering over people who'd gladly kill you and your family merely for being an American try thinking of the lives he saved, both American and Iraqi, by taking out the terrorist beasts who wanted to use Iraq to impose their nihilistic, oppressive and monsterous perversion of Islam on Iraq and the region. Who are those of you who never served and were never in Iraq to question Chris's motives?Overall a book that will draw you in and hold you. Well told, unafraid, candid, honest, unvarnished. Admirable traits for a war biography in such PC times as ours that discourage the idea of there being any glory to be had in war. Mr. Kyle does a competent job putting the lid on that sentiment. Thank you Mr. Kyle for all you did for me and for all you did for all of us.

This book takes us right along side Chris Kyle as he grows from an adolescent in Texas to a Navy Seal Team Chief who fought through some of the most ferocious battles in Iraq, from toppling Saddam Hussein to the follow-on battles to clean terrorists out of their fortified strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi. Kyle takes us through every aspect of his soldier's life from the painful separation of leaving his family during his multiple combat deployments to the difficulty of transitioning to civilian life when his military career finishes.Kyle tells many colorful anecdotes about his tough Navy Seals training, such as being attacked by dolphins and sea lions that the Navy had trained to protect our harbors from being attacked by other countries' Special Forces. His undercover operations training included mock burglaries on the streets of New Orleans and hazardous night parachute jumps. He was trained to withstand waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods that would be used against him if he was captured by Al Qaeda.Of course the heart of the book is combat in Iraq. Kyle minces no words about war. The fighting he describes is as vivid as the scenes in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and BLACKHAWK DOWN. He talks about being surrounded by the enemy, being wounded, and thinking he's going to die. He talks about having to make split-second decisions on whether to shoot a perceived enemy or whether to hold off on shooting a target that could not be confirmed beyond all doubt to be a combatant. He talks about losing his best friends in combat and of coming across the dead bodies of Army and Marine comrades who were captured then murdered in cold blood.He also gives a solid account of Iraq and the enemies he fought after Saddam Hussein's removal --- the diehard remnants of the old regime, criminal gangs, and foreign Islamic terrorists who came into the country to fight their Jihad.Kyle conveys the intensity of his desire to fight for this country that drove him to volunteer to put his life on the line in four combat deployments. The larger message I took from his story was:1. Those of us in civilian life have nothing to complain about. Our struggles at home and on the job are as nothing compared to the sacrifices that our military people make to protect us. We hear that said so many times that it sounds like a cliché, but this book totally brings home the reality of what our warriors go through in training and deployment to combat.2. He explains the essence of the evil he fought against in Iraq. The insurgents not only killed American soldiers in ambushes but tortured, murdered, and raped Iraqi civilians who opposed them. They were every bit as evil as those World War II Nazis who herded peoples of conquered countries into gas chambers. After reading this book I have come to appreciate more than ever how much we rely on people like Chris Kyle to prevent this evil from ever reaching our homeland.3. He captures the essence of a warrior in combat. He and his men won by being aggressive in killing the enemy before they were killed. He conveys the depth of a warrior's feeling of duty to his/her comrades and to our country.4. He explains his view of the mission in Iraq. We can argue about whether we should have gone into Iraq in the first place, but this book makes clear that once we did commit to the intervention that it was essential to carry the effort through to victory over Saddam Hussein's regime AND the follow-on war against the insurgents who followed him. If we had pulled out of Iraq prematurely the country would have become a terrorist nest. Besides endangering the rest of the world, the terrorists would have exterminated the civilized people in Iraq who opposed them.Combat veterans are disarmingly humble about their service. They typically say, "I just did my duty. It was a privilege to serve my country." While Kyle also conveys that sense of humble obligation to duty he is courageous enough to tell the rest of the story about the war that he fought to defeat the terrorists who wanted to make a nest in Iraq.Kyle embodies the warrior spirit that defends us --- not just our free and easy-going way of life in America, but those of the civilized people everywhere else in the world. He doesn't boast about his deadly military skill in any bragging sort of way, but he does make it perfectly clear to our potential enemies that they'll be introduced to hell on earth if they ever again try a repeat of 9/11.

Es muy entretenido y si les gusta el tiro, la caza y las armas, trae muchos datos técnicos importantes

It gives me a a lot of perspective of war. And I understood How Taya felt about the war, Infulence of the service Cris did.This book will be a unforgettable fiction story in mind .

Good autobiography!

臨場感があり、読みごたえがある。英語も平易な為、上級者でなくても問題無く読める。

Buen libro, y mejor en ingles