But Morris does not fall into the trap of indulging in his own story to the exclusion of a holistic view. Like others before him, he establishes his personal journey as the vehicle for his investigation of the history, nature, and treatments of PTSD.

It’s within this essential account, found in so many books about combat trauma, that Morris first demonstrates the agility that sets The Evil Hoursapart. There’s only enough there to make the events personal and to foster the necessary intimacy between the reader, the storyteller, and his pain. Morris doesn’t dwell on gritty details or characterizations of Iraq’s urban landscape or the soldiers with which he traveled. His account of that day sets the tone for the entire book. Though he’d witnessed several other traumatic events beforehand, he refers to this as his “trigger” incident. In 2007 he was in a Humvee that struck an IED while on a patrol in Saydia, Iraq. It is likely the best book on the subject yet written.Ī former Marine officer, Morris left the Corps a few years before 9/11 and decided to work as a war correspondent. It is certainly the most relevant work for today’s combat veterans, families and clinicians struggling with the condition.

Morris’s The Evil Hours, which comes out next month, I felt an increasing sense of relief that the subject had finally found that author. From survival and recovery, to contemplation and comprehension, to research and retelling, you need to be an expert (and a little lucky) in everything. The book about PTSD we’ve been missing and sorely need is the writer’s equivalent of a gold medal in the all-round gymnastics. But for a person who’d lived with it, the experience that lent a necessary credibility and access to the subject also hobbled the ability to articulate it. A person who had never experienced it could only draw from the experience of hearing those who’d been afflicted by it, yielding only a second-hand account at best. The more I read, the more certain I became that there was an inherent, challenging paradox to write about it. Many people suggested that I write a book about it, using my own struggles as a basis to explain the landscape of people affected by PTSD today, but I never felt up to the task. Since then, I’ve written more extensively on the subject in terms of both commentary and research. The first thing I ever wrote to appear on this blog was a lengthy comment trying to explain, based on personal experience, what it’s like living with PTSD. This item originally appeared on December 3, 2014.

The Evil Hours by David J. Morris