Gulf War Memories

This year's war in Iraq, which has only inspired a couple of book signings so far, seems to have inspired considerable publisher interest in the 1991 Gulf War. A new signing at Gotham by Brendan Cahill was his preempt of a book called Spare Parts by a Marine reservist, Buzz Williams, who fought in that war and offers an account of his swift transition from a college campus to the desert war in Kuwait, mirroring the experience of many at the time. Cahill bought world English rights, including first serial and audio, from agent Joe Veltre at Carlisle & Company. Meanwhile, as noted last week, Joel Turnipseed's Baghdad Express, published by a small Minnesota press, made a big paperback sale to Penguin, and Jarhead, Scribner's entry by Anthony Swofford, is still going strong.