John Crawford (17)

John Crawford's 'sort of memoir' of his extended tour in Iraq in the early days of that war was, for me, maybe an 'okay-plus.' It's called "THE LAST TRUE STORY I'LL EVER TELL and was, I believe, a minor bestseller when it came out a dozen years ago. And Crawford does get it right in his depiction of the war as long periods of unrelieved boredom and exhaustion punctuated by violent encounters and fire fights. Unfortunately the pieces about boredom and mischief seem to predominate here, and show more there is also some redundancy from one essay to the next, as he tells us, for instance, "Mostly we were guarding gas stations and running patrols." And that's what we get, along with tales of drinking and dangerous hi-jinx, like stealing a motorcycle and side car and taking it for a joy ride through the dangerous night time streets of Baghdad.

Crawford has much to say about the outdated crappy gear his Florida National Guard unit had to work with, and how they seemed to just get forgotten in the shuffle as other units rotated in and out of Iraq while his kept getting 'attached' to other regular Army and Marine units. There is a kind of meandering feeling to his narrative, as he skips from one incident to another, steadily becoming, it seems, more disillusioned with the war, his leadership, and the lack of any real mission. And there is no happy ending here, even when he finally does return home to Florida.

I had trouble staying interested in Crawford's sketches of life in the war zone. I have read dozens of other accounts of soldiers' and Marines' individual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and this one does not compare favorably. It was one of the very early combatant accounts from Iraq, however, which is probably why it got as much attention as it did. I noticed that the NY Times reviewed it in tandem with another early war memoir by a woman veteran, Kayla Williams' LOVE MY RIFLE MORE THAN YOU. I agree with that reviewer's assessment that the Williams book was better, much better, in fact. But I will recommend Crawford's book as, if nothing more, a workmanlike early artifact of the steady flow of personal narratives which continue to emerge from the current wars.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA show less

This is both a very difficult and very compelling book.

I have had this on my shelf for a couple of years. Every now and then I would pick it up and then change my mind, deciding that I wasn't in the right mood for it. I finally decided I would never be in that kind of mood, and I just needed to start it and see what happened.

From the beginning I found it as upsetting and depressing as I expected. I also found the writing so compelling and raw that I couldn't bail out on it. I also show more consciously thought that, given what he (and the thousands of others) went through in our name, the very least I could do was to read what he had written.

John Crawford is a terrific writer, and I hope to read more of his work in the future. show less

This memoir flies by like fiction, and if you're interested in hearing more about Iraq or the stories coming out of the war, this is an easy flowing read that's well worth the time. Additionally, the writing is superb and the commentary apolitical in nearly every respect--simply, they seem just meant to be stories, however true and however thought-provoking.

I liked this one okay but it left a bit of an odd aftertaste in my mouth. I think maybe I was picking up on the author ambivalance toward his whole experience. Every man or woman's story of their military experience is valid and worth telling. It's important not just to read about the medal of honor winners but the regular soldiers too.