The Contractor

by Charles Holdefer

The Contractor is the first novel to address the issue of American secret prisons in the war on terrorism. George Young, its narrator is a devoted family man and Gulf War veteran, who, when a hometown... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579621732
• ISBN13: 9781579621735
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Permanent Press (NY)
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Inner life of a private interrogator

"The Contractor," while about a private contractor performing interrogations for the US government, is far from simply a novel about the current war. George Young, a veteran-turned-private-interrogator, narrates a fascinating story just as much about the inner life of a middle aged husband and father as about terrorists and secret detention facilities. Young makes great money and his family can live with him on an unidentified tropical island, but that hardly makes life easy. His job has put a strain on his marriage—and stressed his wife enough to make her at least a borderline alcoholic. And he still has to deal with all the typical worries of a father: is his young son possibly gay; how can he navigate Christmas with super-religious in-laws; how should he deal with a brother who betrayed his trust? And on top of it all, he's got a pretty emotionally draining day job. Young's first-person narration is excellent. Every thought, tangent, flashback, and chain of logic felt just right, and I was impressed by how comprehensible I found a person so superficially different from myself. I was fascinated by him and raced through the book. Those who would normally avoid fiction about current events, or violence, should not be put off by the subject matter. This is very much a novel of family life, introspection, and self-examination, and written in excellent prose, too.

Am I my Brother's Keeper?

To appreciate this book you have to ignore the misleading hype on the cover that suggests that The Contractor by Charles Holdefer exposes the secret detention and interrogation system expanded and ran by the Bush Administration outside of US and international law. It is political book but not at the level of who is doing what to whom. Instead, it goes to the heart of the western moral and ethical war aims as raised in this passage: Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" It is clear that George Young, civilian interrogator contractor and a veteran of the first Gulf war would say no. His reaction when he comes across the burnt out remains of the Revolutionary Guard convoys is to argue: ...Because that day, I learned the price. Sure, I was shaken and sickened, and it is something I'd rather not think about or dwell on, but it also taught me something, steeled me, gave me the resources necessary to understand politics in the grown up world and later to become a contractor. This is what I learned: what we take for granted, hold precious, and celebrate remains viable because of our willingness to do this...To let those men get away would've been a serious strategic mistake...Any other description is special pleading or making excuses. Or simply lying to oneself. It gives me no satisfaction to say so, but not only will innocents die-they must die. The story starts with the consequences of this when in a powerful opening scene we discover what how prisoner #4141 dies. The humanity of the Prisoners are denied, as they are merely oranges being crated when they arrive or faceless numbers. George Young is not a monster, which would let us off the hook so the story needs to show us why a good man would get to that position. It does in that we discover that economic and family pressures that lead systematically to that meaningless death. We learn about his poor business track record and happy second marriage (which is being slowly killed by his need to keep secrets). The political playing out of the theme is also examined in his personal life as his big brother is his keeper at key points in George's life. Away from the heat of the desert island and in the cold of a mid west winter on a family Christmas visit we have the amusing and poignant scenes of having to tackle the Father in Law,( think of Spencer Tracy at his most grumpy) a minister of a struggling flock and a die in the wool fundamentalist. The family idea of fun is Bible Baseball ( questions are asked with the harder they are the more runs they are and George and his son are clueless). At one level this as they are trapped by the snow falls this illustrates the horror that the prisoners have to face. Unlike them, he escapes and answers a call by his brother, which sets of a chain of events where he finally does decide that he is his brother's keeper. The story moves between George's professional and family life in

DISTURBING, PAINFUL, FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Disturbing, painful, The Contractor is a difficult book to read. It focuses on American secret prisons in the war on terrorism, which is not a pretty picture. Protagonist George Young is no more than an ordinary, run-of-the mill man. He's married and a veteran of the Gulf War. When a shared family business flounders he takes a job with the government as a civilian interrogator . He's soon sent overseas to a place known simply as Omega; it is a holding facility for suspected terrorists. While few are allowed to bring their families with them, George is granted this privilege. Thus, he's accompanied by his wife, Bethany, and their two children. Little did George know when he took the job what a toll it would take. It's not long before Bethany finds frequent enjoyment in toddies, and his beliefs are compromised while his heart and psyche are scarred. He is not allowed to talk about his work with Bethany, hence their personal relationship slides. The wages are good but at what price when the hostages or prisoners are known not as humans but as "oranges" and a group of them as a "crate"? Holdefer opens his story with the death of a terrorist (#4141)that George and his team are questioning. Fearing reprimand they hide the body. Throughout the narrative there are all too vivid descriptions of tactics used during questioning, such as dunking in a pool laced with salt. This isn't against any rules for interrogation methods in the army manual, and is quite effective. We read, "Most people have the sense to close their eyes in seawater. But most people, when they come out of the pool, open their eyes too soon, while it's still streaming over their brows. Nobody forces them to open their eyes. They do it of their own volition." After several dunkings and much stinging many become more compliant. While The Contractor is indeed a first hand look at American interrogation camps it is also an in-depth study of a man in peril, emotionally and physically. Not a pleasant story nor one for the squeamish. - Gail Cooke

Harrowing, but not in ways you'd expect...

Don't go into this book thinking you're going to get a wall-to-wall violent reenactment of what goes on in the secret detainment centers run by the U.S. "The Contractor" is much smarter and less sensationalistic than that. What "The Contractor" gives you is a portrait of a real human being who follows an indirect and unplanned path to working as a contractor for the U.S. goverment in a black ops interrogation facility in an undisclosed location. By allowing us to get to know and like the book's protagonist and his family, the author delivers a deeply unsettling read by the time the story takes its last, dark turn. I arrived at the conclusion far more shaken than I'd expected to be, and the story has continued to haunt me. Once you pick it up, "The Contractor" is not a book you're likely to forget. Eric Anderson, author Alena & the Favorite Thing