Click on cover image to purchase a copy
MWSA Review
Bastard Soldier, Earnest Medic is an unvarnished, darkly funny coming-of-age-in-uniform story that tracks Joe’s unlikely evolution from a Florida screwup into a combat-tested medic and, eventually, an Army physician assistant. Michael Plotkowski writes with a blunt, observant clarity that refuses both hero-worship and self-pity, capturing the lived texture of military life—the boredom, the sudden disorder, the absurd rules, the reckless relief-valves, and the moral weight that accumulates quietly over years. The result is a fiercely human portrait of service as it’s actually experienced: messy, contradictory, profane, and, at its best, unexpectedly illuminating.
Plotkowski’s narrator meets chaos with a steady, almost reportorial restraint, letting the surreal speak for itself—whether it’s the everyday torture of unit PT (“two hundred confused soldiers… a giant human accordion of torture”) or the sudden, deadpan-captured pivots from routine to crisis. On deployments, the prose widens into vivid, adrenaline-laced set pieces that still feel grounded in a soldier’s unromantic perspective, as in a mountain drive rendered with physical immediacy: “seven hours of heart-pounding, sphincter-clenching, praise-Jesus’ing terror.” Across Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan, Joe’s world expands and contracts—by turns crude, tender, hilarious, and harrowing—as the book traces how war and medicine reshape a person not through grand revelations, but through repetition, pressure, and the stubborn need to keep moving.
For veterans, Bastard Soldier, Earnest Medic offers the rare satisfaction of recognition—an account that doesn’t sanitize the language or soften the edges of what people did to cope. For civilian readers, it’s an inside-out look at the institution’s strange machinery and the fragile camaraderie it can produce, delivered with sharp comic timing and hard-earned reflection. Plotkowski doesn’t force tidy meaning onto experience; he lets it remain jagged, sometimes appalling, sometimes absurd, and always believable—then trusts the reader to feel what lingers after the uniform comes off.
Review by Elvis Leighton
MWSA's evaluation of this book found technical problems—including some combination of misspellings, grammar, punctuation, or capitalization errors. In addition, this work includes depictions of conduct that conflict with recognized military procedures, regulations, or ethical standards. MWSA expressly disclaims any endorsement or approval of behavior that is improper, unethical, or unlawful.
Author's Synopsis
Bastard Soldier, Earnest Medic is a raw, darkly funny, and unflinchingly honest narrative that follows Joe's unlikely transformation from a wayward teenager into a soldier and army physician assistant forged in the chaos of three deployments.
What begins as a desperate courtroom gamble, spirals into a wild, unpredictable journey through the chaos and cruelty of basic training, the reckless escapades and misadventures of Fort Bliss, and the bizarre, often darkly comic theater of military life. Kosovo awakens Joe's curiosity for the world; medical training initiates him in the crude and intense; Iraq baptizes him in blood, trauma, and loss; and Afghanistan forces him to confront himself amid war's contradictions.
Through black humor, medical grit, and reckless choices, Joe stumbles toward purpose. He learns to laugh at the insanity and carry scars that don't fade. This isn't a flag-waving war story - it's a brutally human one: messy, vulgar, hilarious, and profound.
In the end, Joe doesn't find glory. He finds perspective. Bastard Soldier, Earnest Medic is the unforgettable story of a man who learns to own every absurd, appalling, and incredible piece of his past, findings unexpected purpose in the journey.
Raw, hilarious, and deeply human, Bastard Soldier, Earnest Medic will make you laugh, wince, and rethink everything you thought you knew about life in uniform.
Format(s) for review: Paper or Kindle
Review genre: Nonfiction—Creative Nonfiction
Pages/Word count: 202 / 82,000