I Love a Man in Uniform: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles - Hardcover

Burana, Lily

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1602860831 ISBN 13: 9781602860834

Publisher: Weinstein Books, 2009

Synopsis

An all-American love story about a former punk-rock stripper and her unlikely marriage to an officer in the U.S. Army.

In this brave, eloquent, and often funny memoir, critically acclaimed author Lily Burana writes about love, war, and the realities of military marriage with an honesty few writers would dare.

A former exotic dancer who once had a penchant for anarchist politics and purple hair dye, Lily's rebellious past never would have suggested a marriage into the military. But then she met Mike, a Military Intelligence officer, and fell hopelessly in love, resulting in a most unorthodox romance-poignant, passionate, and utterly unpredictable.

After Lily and Mike said "I do" in a brief, pre-deployment City Hall ceremony, Mike left for Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Lily was left in a strange town to endure his absence alone, with no support system and little knowledge of the vast and confusing military world into which she had married.

Upon Mike's return from the war, the couple moved to historic West Point, where Lily found that life on base had its own challenges. As the war continued and the past intruded unexpectedly into the present, Lily and Mike found themselves plunged into the nightmare of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Struggling to cope in a community where admitting weakness is the ultimate tabooand "suck it up" is the suggested response to emotional pain, Lily suffered from depression so severe, it almost ended their marriage. With the help of a revolutionary therapeutic technique, the couple made their way out of the darkness and back to each other. Through it all, Lily wrangled with her preconceptions about the military and found her place within the uniquely supportive sisterhood of military wives.

From harrowing emotion to the dishy details of life on base, Lily Burana bares her heart and soul as a modern military spouse. I Love a Man in Uniform is a profoundly moving story of how a woman can locate, and heal, her true self as a dedicated Army wife, free spirit, and freedom-loving American.

About this title

About the Author

LILY BURANA is the author of the acclaimed memoir Strip City and the novel Try. Her writing about the domestic side of military affairs has been published in the New York Times Op-Ed pages and Slate. Other features and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Glamour, Self, The New York Observer, The Village Voice, Slate, Entertainment Weekly, Salon, and many other publications. She has been a Contributing Editor at New York Magazine and SPIN.

Review

""A humorous, moving and surprising account of married life in today's military... {Burana's] details elevate this honest and touching personal memoir into a notable historical document." (New York Times Book Review)

"A surprisingly tender -- although also mordant and sly -- memoir about the marriage between a feminist pro-sex rebel and a military officer." (The San Francisco Chronicle)

"Don't let the title fool you into thinking this might be a fluffy read. Lily
Burana's I Love a Man in Uniform is a thoughtful, poignant, and candid story about the joys and heartaches of being a military wife." (author of Love the One You're With, Baby Proof, Something Blue and Something Borrowed EMILY GIFFIN)

"Lily Burana is as American as apple pie, dazzling as a Fourth of July firecracker, and smarter than a lash from a Senate Majority whip. Equal parts Cultural Studies professor and bombshell geek, she teases words into impossibly satisfying configurations. Her sparkling prose is like brain tonic served in a coconutshell-it's packaged so whimsically we forget we're being schooled."

(DIABLO CODY, Academy Award-winning screen writer of JUNO)

"Lily Burana is a great writer, able to transform everyday experience into transcendent art. What Lily achieves in her intersection with the culture of the modern day Army is simply extraordinary. This fierce, often funny volume about being a military wife during wartime-about life going on- deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in our curious times."

(WILLIAM MONAHAN, Academy Award-winning writer of THE DEPARTED)

About this edition

• Publisher: Weinstein Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1602860831
• ISBN 13: 9781602860834
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368