John Crawford (17)
Autore di The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq
Per altri autori con il nome John Crawford, vedi la pagina di disambiguazione.
1 opera 513 membri 12 recensioni
Opere di John Crawford
Etichette
2006 (2)
2009 (2)
@ 956 (1)
@ DS (1)
Autobiografia (11)
Biografia (10)
biography-memoir (3)
Copertina rigida (2)
da leggere (15)
Esercito (4)
etichetta questo (1)
finishedbasementshelf (1)
firmato (2)
Guardia Nazionale (5)
Guerra (41)
Guerra d'Iraq (34)
Importato da Goodreads (1)
Iraq (48)
kindle (2)
letto (4)
Letto nel 2009 (1)
Medio Oriente (6)
Memorie (44)
Militare (27)
Military; Iraq (1)
Narrativa (2)
National Guardsman (1)
NEW05/09 (1)
non letto (2)
Penguin Literature Catalog 2008 (1)
Politica (6)
Saggistica (43)
Shelfari_import (1)
Soldat (4)
Storia (18)
storia americana (3)
Storia militare (6)
storie di guerra (2)
True Stories (2)
whiner (1)
Informazioni generali
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- USA
- Luogo di residenza
- Florida, USA
Utenti
Recensioni
The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental… di John Crawford
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.
Segnalato
Luziadovalongo | 11 altre recensioni | Jul 14, 2022 | 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 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Crawford has much to say about the outdated crappy gear his Florida National Guard unit had to work with, and how they seemed to just get forgotten in the shuffle as other units rotated in and out of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… (altro)
½Crawford 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… (altro)
Segnalato
TimBazzett | 11 altre recensioni | Nov 2, 2017 | 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 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.… (altro)
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 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.… (altro)
Segnalato
grandpahobo | 11 altre recensioni | Sep 24, 2015 | A sad story, excellently written, and a real eye opener on the Iraq war.
Segnalato
Luftwaffe_Flak | 11 altre recensioni | Feb 6, 2014 | Premi e riconoscimenti
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Autori correlati
Edmund Penney Writer
Raymond Gillespie Editor
Stella Stevens Actor
Peter Whitney Actor
L. Q. Jones Actor
R. G. Armstrong Actor
David Warner Actor
Slim Pickens Actor
Gene Evans Actor
Strother Martin Actor
William Mims Actor
Max Evans Actor
Susan O'Connell Actor
Kathleen Freeman Actor
Jason Robards Actor
James Anderson Actor
Peter Lineham Contributor
Jennifer Keene Contributor
Stephen Clarke Contributor
Terry Kinloch Contributor
Peter Dennerly Contributor
Pierre Purseigle Contributor
Graham Hucker Contributor
Ashley Gould Contributor
Ria Keenan Contributor
Monty Soutar Contributor
John E. Martin Contributor
Frank Glen Contributor
Jenny Macleod Contributor
Andrew Macdonald Contributor
James Watson Contributor
Peter Dennis Contributor
Gary Sheffield Contributor
Peter Cooke Contributor
Bronwyn Dalley Contributor
Jeffrey Grey Contributor
Glyn Harper Contributor
Gavin McLean Contributor
Megan Hutching Contributor
Vincent Orange Contributor
Ian McGibbon Editor
Graham Langton Contributor
Peter Stanley Contributor
Richard Kay Contributor
Christopher Pugsley Contributor
Allan Davidson Contributor
Melanie Nolan Contributor
Gwen Parsons Contributor
Statistiche
- Opere
- 1
- Utenti
- 513
- Popolarità
- #48,356
- Voto
- ½ 3.5
- Recensioni
- 12
- ISBN
- 67