River City One, published by Simon and Schuster in November 2023, is a novel about a Marine who comes home from war to find himself waging a harder war for true inner peace. "River City" is Marine Corps radio lingo for a communications hold, normally in the aftermath of an unanticipated event such as an attack.

River City One is authored by a Marine Corps infantry officer veteran, John J. Waters. Waters attended the U.S. Naval Academy before serving combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In ways subtle and direct, the book's key themes will be intimately familiar to ground combat veterans . Like his author, the book's protagonist John Walker is a Marine Corps veteran of the Afghanistan war now turned civilian lawyer. On paper, his life is excellent. He has a loving wife, son, and well-paying job. His colleagues mean well. He has stability. He has a social network.

But Walker has been to war. Walker has no problems performing his work assignments, shaking hands, and being a loving father. His problem is that nothing seems to matter as much as things mattered in war. More importantly, no one seems to recognize or mind that nothing much matters. Those around Walker go about their lives without a sense that their lives might lack higher purpose. There is an exceptional moment in the book in which Waters crystallizes this tension between the fury of war and the inanity of civilian life. Walker watches as his colleagues decide where to go for lunch one day:

"They weighed over the merits of a sushi bar and a brasserie, talking over the distances and comparing expectations of how busy the place was going to be and whether they needed a reservation. They talked through all of these things, as thorough and even-handed as law school trained them, knowing deep down that none of it mattered."

It's a wonderful example of the book's many clever examinations of the distinction between military and civilian working life. In this case, of what combat officers might do before a mission and what civilians might do in planning lunch. The choice between the sushi bar and brasserie might otherwise be the choice between a patrol and a raid. The consideration of crowds and reservations might be the choice of patrol strength and the need for contingency air support. The lawyers' focused discussion of these things reflects the focused leadership style that Marine officers are taught at The Basic School. Except that discussions over how to get sushi are not the same as discussions over how to cross open ground under fire in the 2010 Helmand River valley. Walker has been teleported between different worlds.

As Walker focuses on dutifully serving out the requirements of day-to-day life, he searches for something more meaningful. In some sense, he finds it with his bemused analysis of civilian life. There is a dark humor to River City One that makes the reader uncomfortable but also amused. But there is no bitterness from Walker toward his civilian interlocutors, only a brewing confusion. Walker's closest link to the exhilaration of his former life comes via the arrival of a beautiful singer. But here, Walker learns that nuanced responsibilities of civilian life are perhaps not so easy to master as the necessarily decisive actions of war. Wartime service may be brutal, costly, and scarring. Still, it holds a unique and highly purposeful form. A form that, for Walker, serves as an impenetrable mind fortress from which he cannot ultimately escape into civilian comfort.

To his great credit, Waters does not force heartwarming resolutions to Walker's challenges. But making the reader a partner on Walker's journey, he encourages all of us to ponder what matters. And he ends with a homage to that great binding touchstone for all Americans, military and civilian alike: family.

River City One is well worth buying . If assigned to high school seniors, it might even help bridge the gap between veterans and the rest of us.