Aww… this isn’t fair American news I probably don’t have access to and a book I definitely don’t have access to and I’m not even allowed to google. Is there no paraolympic I can participate in instead?

Oh, wait! It’s “Hillbilly armor” Found in New York Times, and not through google. Online journals are a wonderful invention.

Oh dear. I may have to start watching the news.

Some kind of armor for the Hum-V…I think. As for the other, um, my no know.

Good answer on #1, Flip. The soldier mentioned digging in trash dumps to find scraps of metal suitable for armor. Another source is the “glass” created when explosive devices melt things. What Sec. Rumsfeld refused to admit was how very much money was going to frivolous things, and how perfectly suitable armor was available from other than the official sources — but those sources aren’t American businesses. The soldier’s comments were taken as regarding Hummers, but actually applies to other uses, as well. I got this from early morning web news and from experience.

2 is from a source I’ve not experienced.

2 I’m thinking, All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Remarke) (had to go to Amazon for the author… the paragraph is so mind numbingly boring, it HAS to be AQOTWF.

Edit: I was mistaken about the type of “glass” they were talking about. They were using bullet-proof glass that had been hit, cracked and discarded, but still serviceable as long as you aren’t trying to see through it. Hang it on a vehicle and it will still tend to deflect bullets.

Flip: you seemed to do pretty good! 5 pts. for you.

Jason: Since you named part of it that Flip did not, I’ll give you 5 pts. too.

Ed… Good too. I’ll be generous, you get 5 pts. too.

Jon: Sorry. Good guess, but no.

OK, hint time on #2:

1.) It is a work that has been translated to English.

2.) Here’s a bit more interesting paragraph (or part of one, actually): “Or rather, he was obliged to be so. An Irishman at the service of England, a man accused of laxity and perhaps of treason, how could he fail to seize and be thankful for such a miraculous opportunity: the discovery, capture, maybe even the death of two agents of the German Reich? I went up to my room; absurdly I locked the door and threw myself on my back on the narrow iron cot. Through the window I saw the familiar roofs and the cloud-shaded six o’clock sun. It seemed incredible to me that day without premonitions or symbols should be the one of my inexorable death. In spite of my dead father, in spite of having been a child in a symmetrical garden of Hai Feng, was I—now—going to die? Then I reflected that everything happens to a man precisely, precisely now. Centuries of centuries and only in the present do things happen; countless men in the air, on the face of the earth and the sea, and all that really is happening is happening to me . . . “

Hmm… the second excerpt sounded very British at first, but since you say it’s translated to English I guess it’s not. It’s obviously written after WW2, I doubt it’s a German book. Possibly a French book, since France have had a lot of colonies, but since it mentions Hai Feng (I’m guessing it’s a Chinese place?) I’m inclined to go further west for the author instead. And you mentioned Neruda a while ago, didn’t you? Am I completely wrong if I guess that the author is South American or Cuban? I know that continent have produced many novels about the wars following the WW2, and many Germans fled to South America, which gives that connection. Argh. You have to tell us soon! The curiosity is killing me…

Second guess,

Bridge Over the River Kwai

Flip, you are getting warmer. Neruda is not far off, if you go by what has been discussed on this blog.

Jon: Good try, but I’m sorry to say that is not it.

I finally gave in and googled your site for Neruda, and Borges appeared in the same post. I have no idea whether he wrote war stories, but he sounds like a good shot. So - is it Borges?

Yes, it is Borges. What of Borges is the tricky part. If my memory serves, wasn’t Borges in Sweden for awhile?

My Borges Guess: The Aleph and Other Stories

No! I take that back. I guessed wrong. It’s from the English translation of Ficciones. Originally, it was in the non-translated The Garden of Forking Paths.

Only give me the points if it’s legal to read descriptions and comments on books at Amazon. If that’s against the rules, I will accept the public flogging for ruining the question for everyone else.

Yay, Kevin! I think using Amazon is fine. And yes — it is The Garden of the Forking Paths. I was going to give up on anyone getting that one. Congrats!