Company C by Haim Watzman

Company C (First Edition Israeli Reserve Soldier Memoir)

An American-Born Reservist's Frank Account of Eighteen Years of Citizen-Soldier Service in the Israeli Army

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Company C: An American's Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel
• Author: Haim Watzman
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York
• Publication Date: 2005
• ISBN-13: 9780374226336
• ISBN-10: 0374226334
• Edition Details: First Edition, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2005.
• Binding: Publisher's hardcover with pictorial dust jacket in blue tones, wrapped in a clear library-style protective film.
• Physical Format: Octavo hardcover. No maps or plates.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Good (G)
• Exterior / Boards: The boards beneath the jacket have not been assessed. The pictorial dust jacket is covered in a clear protective film that is creased and wrinkled, with tape or label patches at the head of the front and back panels and along the spine head. The spine shows wear and creasing at the foot and near the publisher's logo. Small marks or specks are visible on the front and back.
• Interior: The text block appears clean, with no foxing or markings. The binding feels tight and the cream pages show no obvious damage.
• The Dust Jacket: Present, in a clear film cover that is wrinkled and taped. The jacket shows creasing, edge wear and tape patches, with a genre label (Memoir / Current Affairs) and barcode to the back. Protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover.

Synopsis & Historical Value

Company C: An American's Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel, published in New York by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2005, is a memoir of eighteen years of reserve infantry service in the Israeli army, from 1984 to 2002. Haim Watzman, an American-born writer who settled in Israel, gives an account of his month of duty each year, with particular attention to the men of his unit.

The book spans the first Intifada, the Oslo period and Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank. It has been described as a frank, often funny barracks-room memoir, and as a nuanced view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Throughout, Watzman weighs the moral and personal dilemmas of the citizen-soldier and the competing obligations to country, family and God.

A readable first-hand record of ordinary soldiering during a turbulent period, and a useful addition to a collection of modern military memoir and Middle East history.

Author Profile: Haim Watzman

Haim Watzman was born in 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. He graduated from Duke University and has lived in Israel since 1978, working as a freelance translator and journalist. He has been Israel correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education and for Nature.

His translations include Tom Segev's The Seventh Million and David Grossman's The Yellow Wind. His other books include A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel's Rift Valley (2007) and the story collection Necessary Stories (2017).

Haim Watzman Company C · Israeli army reserve memoir · citizen-soldier in Israel book · first edition Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2005 · first Intifada soldier memoir · American in the Israeli army